Dr Christopher Smith
MRCP MRCGP MSc PhD DTM&H
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Tropical Medicine & Global Health
Nagasaki University
Japan
I have been working at LSHTM since 2014. My position is split between the Department of Clinical Research at LSHTM and the graduate school of Tropical Medicine and Global Health (TMGH) at Nagasaki University. My main research interests are: (1) infectious diseases (2) digital health interventions (3) family planning / contraception
I obtained my medical degree from Cardiff University and an MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries (PHDC) from LSHTM in 2011.
I completed my PhD titled 'Increasing contraception use with mobile phone-based interventions' at LSHTM in 2017 which included a systemic review of mHealth interventions for contraception and the MObile Technology for Improved Family Planning (MOTIF) trial in partnership with Marie Stopes International in Cambodia.
I held a Medical Research Council (MRC) Population Scientist Fellowship at LSHTM from 2014 to 2018 and a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) In-Practice Fellowship based at Imperial College London during 2010-12.
I work as a primary care medical doctor (GP) in London and have worked on an NHS project with Maddox Jolie-Pitt foundation in Cambodia and with Medecins Sans Frontieres in Uganda.
Affiliations
Centres
Teaching
Most of my teaching is at the School of Tropical Medicine and Global Health (TMGH) in Nagasaki where I organise the new Professional Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) which runs from April-June, the Tropical Medicine 1 module and some ad-hoc teaching on epidemiology and reproductive health modules. There is more information about the courses at TMGH here.
I used to co-organise the Family Planning programmes module (2401) at LSHTM.
I supervise master's students on various topics (currently contraception in Ghana, leptospirosis in DRC, measles in the Philippines, hospital infection surveillance in the Philippines, point-of-care ultrasound in the Philippines)
Research
Family planning / digital health
I am PI on a project to develop an intervention to support reproductive health in Cambodia together with collaborators at SOAS, Kings College London and Marie Stopes International, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
With a different team, we are hoping to publish an update of our Cochrane review on Mobile phone-based interventions for improving contraception use in 2020.
I am collaborating on a project with Oxford University on contraceptive side-effects in Ethiopia.
Infectious diseases
With colleagues in Nagasaki, I am Co-PI of the Community-Acquired Bacteraemia (CAB) study in an infectious diseases hospital in Manila, the Philippines. The objective of this study is to determine the cause of community-acquired bacterial infections among children and adults admitted to the hospital.
COVID-19 - more recently we have shifted the focus of our work in the Philippines towards supporting the COVID-19 response at San Lazaro Hospital in Manila. This includes the establishment of Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI)/COVID-19 prospective and retrospective studies, supporting additional testing of healthcare workers and patients. We are seeking additional funding for this work
There are opportunities for collaboration with these studies (or on other diseases such as leptospirosis, dengue, meningococcal disease, rabies and diphtheria). Please contact me to discuss more.
I am co-supervising a PhD student (Deji Oloko) on the Nagasaki University WISE programme on rabies post-exposure prophylaxis in the Philippines.
JSPS fellowships
A range of Japan Society for the promotion of science (JSPS) fellowships are available for researchers to come to Japan and conduct joint research activities at Japanese universities and research institutes. Michelle van Velthoven (Oxford University) completed a JSPS post-doctoral fellowship at Nagasaki University in 2019 and has kindly prepared a useful document on the application process that I would be happy to share with interested candidates.
Selected Publications
