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Dr Sharif Ismail

MBBS MPH MFPH PhD

Research Fellow

LSHTM
15-17 Tavistock Place
London
WC1H 9SH
United Kingdom

I am a Clinical Research Fellow at the School, and a Specialist Registrar in public health medicine in London. I divide my time between service public health work in the NHS, and academic and teaching commitments at the School. Previously, I worked as a Health Adviser at the then UK Department for International Development (DFID) from 2018-19, and with the National Infection Service at Public Health England (PHE) on the UK COVID-19 response in 2020-21.

Before qualifying in medicine, I worked in policy analysis for RAND Europe, the Institute for Government, and the Nuffield Trust.

Affiliations

Faculty of Public Health and Policy
Department of Global Health and Development

Centres

Vaccine Centre
Health in Humanitarian Crises Centre

Teaching

I help to deliver the Issues in Public Health and Principles and Practice of Public Health modules as part of the MSc in Public Health at the School, and also contribute to the distance learning MSc modules, Control of Infectious Diseases (IDM104) and Health Systems (GHM201).

Research

My work spans communicable disease epidemiology, health services research, and health policy and systems research. I use mixed-methods approaches drawing mainly on systems thinking.

Currently I have two main areas of research interest:

1. Improving understanding of health system resilience and responses to shocks (humanitarian, conflict-related, climatic etc) - including how we think about these concepts, ways in which resilience can be assessed and/or measured, and approaches to strengthening it; and

2. Systems approaches to optimising the delivery, and uptake of, vaccination across populations.

My PhD, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust, looked at health system resilience to compound shocks in Lebanon, through an analysis of childhood vaccination delivery using System Dynamics Modelling (SDM). Most of my work is focused on the Middle East (specifically Lebanon, Syria and Egypt), although I have recently been involved in projects on various aspects of SARS-CoV-2 prevention and control in the UK.

Research Area
Complex interventions
Conflict
Health care policy
Health policy
Health systems
Public health
Vaccines
Capacity strengthening
Global Health
Immunisation
Mixed methods
Discipline
Development studies
Epidemiology
Operational research
Policy analysis
Country
Egypt
United Kingdom
Lebanon
Syria
Yemen
Region
Arab World
Middle East & North Africa (all income levels)
Middle East & North Africa (developing only)

Selected Publications

Conceptualising and assessing health system resilience to shocks: a cross-disciplinary view
Ismail SA; Bell S; Chalabi Z; Fouad FM; Mechler R; Tomoaia-Cotisel A; Blanchet K; Borghi J
2022
Wellcome open research
Addressing challenges for clinical research responses to emerging epidemics and pandemics: a scoping review.
Sigfrid L; Maskell K; Bannister PG; Ismail SA; Collinson S; Regmi S; Blackmore C; Harriss E; Longuere K-S; Gobat N
2020
BMC Medicine
Informal healthcare provision in Lebanon: an adaptive mechanism among displaced Syrian health professionals in a protracted crisis.
Honein-AbouHaidar G; Noubani A; El Arnaout N; Ismail S; Nimer H; Menassa M; Coutts AP; Rayes D; Jomaa L; Saleh S
2019
Conflict and Health
Refugees, healthcare and crises: informal Syrian health workers in Lebanon
Ismail S; Coutts AP; Rayes D; Roborgh S; Abbara A; Orcutt M; Fouad FM; Honein G; El Arnout N; Noubani A
2018
Communicable disease surveillance and control in the context of conflict and mass displacement in Syria.
Ismail SA; Abbara A; Collin SM; Orcutt M; Coutts AP; Maziak W; Sahloul Z; Dar O; Corrah T; Fouad FM
2016
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
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