Dr Uchenna Gwacham-Anisiobi is a medical doctor and population health researcher whose work spans maternal, newborn, child, and reproductive health and broader health systems strengthening. She completed her DPhil in Population Health at the University of Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar. Before joining LSHTM, she served as Deputy Director for the MSc in Global Women’s Health at Oxford, contributing to programme leadership and curriculum development.
Her work bridges research, policy, and programme implementation across diverse global health contexts. She has led and supported large-scale implementation and health systems projects that have contributed to reductions in maternal, neonatal, and perinatal mortality in Nigeria, strengthened surveillance and response systems, improved emergency transport and referral pathways, and advanced the adoption of evidence-informed public health and clinical practices. Dr Gwacham-Anisiobi has also worked on multicountry collaborations addressing emergency obstetric care, pandemic-related health system disruptions, and digital innovations to improve geographical access to essential health services.
Affiliations
Research
Dr Gwacham-Anisiobi’s research is grounded in understanding the multilevel determinants of maternal, newborn and child health outcomes, with a particular emphasis on spatial inequities and community pathways to care in sub-Saharan Africa. She uses geospatial analysis, epidemiological methods, and qualitative inquiry to examine variations in risk, identify service gaps, and inform context-specific strategies for prevention.
Her core interests include:
- Stillbirth prevention, focusing on community-level drivers, integrated interventions, and geospatial patterns of risk in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Maternal health systems strengthening, including quality improvement, service optimisation, workforce development, and enhancing the patient experience.
- Equitable access to emergency obstetric and newborn care, with emphasis on mapping barriers, evaluating referral systems, and informing evidence-based planning.
- Implementation research and policy translation, targeting scalable, evidence-informed interventions to improve maternal, newborn, and child health outcomes and health system resilience.
- Broader global health priorities, including diabetes, non-communicable disease prevention, and malaria programmes, with attention to surveillance, service uptake, and structural determinants of health.
Selected Publications
