BSc (Hons); MSc; PhD; FHEA
Senior Lecturer
- About
-
- Email Address
- lucia.dambruoso@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 437127
- Office Address
Aberdeen Centre for Health Dta Science (ACHDS) Room 1:172, Polwarth Building, Foresterhill Health Campus, Institute of Applied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, UK
- School/Department
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition
Biography
I am a social scientist and health policy and systems researcher interested in service organisation and delivery, the social determinants of health, and participatory theory and method. I work mainly with relativist theories and methods to understand and draw transferable learning on: health and wellbeing as shaped by social structures and systems; health systems as complex, adaptive, human and relational; policy norms and recognition; and social and political participation.
I have worked internationally for 20 years in sub-Saharan Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda), Southeast Asia (India, Indonesia, Nepal) and Europe (Scotland, Sweden) with universities, research agencies and networks, civil society groups, social enterprises, UN organisations, and in governments at different levels. My research is supported by research councils and philanthropic organisations. I lead an 8-year Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) programme strengthening health systems in South Africa through people-centred and comprehensive primary care approaches to leverage inter-sectoral action.
I teach at postgraduate and undergraduate levels on health systems and policy, global health and development, and qualitative and participatory theory and methods. I am deputy director of the Centre for Global Development at the University of Aberdeen, Honorary Researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Global Affiliate of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Verbal Autopsy, Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, Umeå University, Sweden. I also serve on the Editorial Board of Global Health Action and the Steering Committee of the Politics of Health Group (POHG).
I welcome expressions of interest from those wishing to undertake PhD research in related areas.
Further information at: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/achds
Qualifications
- BSc (Hons) Pharamcology1997 - University of Aberdeen
- MSc Public Health and Health Services Research2003 - University of Aberdeen
- PhD Public Health2011 - University of Aberdeen
- FHEA Higher Education2017 - Higher Education Academy
- FRSPH Public Health2020 - Royal Society for Public Health
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
-
- Deputy Director and member Executive Committee, Centre for Global Development
- Member Senior Management Team, Aberdeen Centre for Health Data Science
- Steering Group Member Delivery of Care Research Group. Institute of Applied Health Sciences
- Member Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team, Institute of Applied Health Science
- External Memberships
-
External Recognition
- 2025 Fellow Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study (STIAS) https://stias.ac.za/fellows/projects/bringing-unique-data-to-wicked-problems-developing-health-system-models-for-equitable-access-to-healthcare-in-sub-saharan-africa/
- 2022-date Staff member WHO Collaborating Centre for Verbal Autopsy, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2022-24 Member National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research and Innovation for Global Health Transformation Funding Committee (Calls 5 and 6)
- 2021-22 Sub-committee member Health and Wellbeing Forum for Global Challenges, University of Birmingham 2021
- 2017-date Member Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on Improving Scotland’s Health: 2021 and Beyond
- 2015-date Trustee Naretu Girls and Women Empowerment Programme, Kenya
- 2014-19 Member Steering Committee Politics of Health Group (POHG)
- 2011-17 Editorial Board BMC International Health and Human Rights
- 2010-date Editorial Board Global Health Action
Professional Memberships
- 2021 FRSPH Fellow Royal Society for Public Health
- 2017 FHEA Fellow Higher Education Academy
Visiting Academic Appointments
- Extraordinary Senior Lecturer, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University, SOUTH AFRICA
- Honorary Analyst, Public Health/Health Protection, National Health Service (NHS) Grampian, SCOTLAND, UK
- Honorary Senior Researcher, MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Unit, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA
- Global Affiliate, Epidemiology and Global Health, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine Umeå University, SWEDEN
Latest Publications
Cost of living/cost of smoking: a demonstration study of cooperative action learning to understand and address smoking in deprived communities within the cost-of-living crisis
Social Policy & AdministrationContributions to Journals: ArticlesOpening decision spaces: A case study on the opportunities and constraints in the public health sector of Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
PloS ONE, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. e0304775Contributions to Journals: ArticlesMapping the processes and information flows of a pre-hospital emergency care system in Rwanda: a process mapping exercise
BMJ Open, vol. 14, no. 6, e085064Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA protocol for a critical realist systematic synthesis of ~interventions to~ promote pupils’ wellbeing by improving the school climate in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
PloS ONE, vol. 19, no. 5, e0286489Contributions to Journals: ArticlesUnderstanding the health system utilisation and reasons for avoidable mortality after fatal injury within a Three-Delays framework in Karonga, Northern Malawi: a retrospective analysis of verbal autopsy data
BMJ Open, vol. 14, no. 4, e081652Contributions to Journals: Articles
Prizes and Awards
- 2024 University of Aberdeen Interdisciplinary Research Award https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EouaK7g8zyE
- 2024 University of Aberdeen Outstanding Research Award - Individuals at Further Stages of Career Development (STEM) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EouaK7g8zyE
- Research
-
Research Overview
I work with two main methods: routine mortality surveillance accounting for social dimensions of unregistered deaths, and participatory methods to shift power towards those most directly affected to know, understand, act and transform. In 2015, I was awarded a development grant from the MRC, ESRC, DFID and Wellcome Trust as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) to progress these methods in a rural district in South Africa. In 2016, I was awarded a five-year programme grant from the same scheme to lead a team of academics, policy-makers, planners and fieldworkers to scale-up the method in the provincial health system. The programme aims to leverage inter-sectoral action by developing critical enquiry processes and partnerships among service users, providers and decision-makers at different levels.
I am also interested in policy processes, innovation, technology and delivery, and the contexts and mechanisms of participation in health systems. I have recently secured funding from a US philanthropic organisation to examine policy norms and recognition for child and family wellbeing in high, middle and low-income countries, and I contribute to a GCRF initiative in The Gambia developing networks to strengthen emergency obstetric care with rapidly deployable, smart technologies. I also lead research in Scotland examining empowerment approaches to food poverty (including social enterprises, participatory budgeting from the local authority, and legislative shifts including the Community Empowerment Act) as part of an international research network.
My research is enabled through a wide network of collaborations, inlcuding with the MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Unit, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, a major research centre established in 1992, and the founding member of INDEPTH (the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health) a unique umbrella organisation of 53 demographic surveillance sites in 20 low and middle-income countries. I have worked with the MRC/Wits Unit since 2011 and was appointed Honorary staff in 2016. In the same year, I contributed to the INDEPTH Annual General Meeting in Kampala with a paper, presentation and grant-writing workshop entitled “Creating new multi-site, multi-sectoral research collaborations in demographic surveillance” to develop interdisciplinary collaborations connected to health care planning and management.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Applied Health Sciences.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Funding and Grants
Active
D'Ambruoso (PI), van der Merwe M (CI). Building bridges: institutionalising practical solutions for community participation in rural South Africa through primary health care policy and practice engagement Changing Policy and Practice
Medical Research Foundation
2024-25
29,960 GBP
D'Ambruoso (PI), Duffy S (CI), Watson K (CI), Littlejohn C (CI). Cost of living/cost of smoking: participatory research on smoking in deprived communities within the cost-of-living crisis
CRUK/ASH Scotland
2023
72,485 GBP
P Abbott (PI), Binagwaho A (PI), L D’Ambruoso (CI) et al. NIHR Global Health Research Group on Promoting Children’s and Adolescent’s Mental Wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa
NIHR
2022-26
2,717,954 GBP
Davies J (PI), Chu K (PI), D’Ambruoso L (CI) et al. NIHR Global Health Group on Equitable Access to Quality Health Care for Injured People in Four Low- or Middle-Income Countries: Equi-injury
NIHR
2022-26
2,955,703 GBP
Davies J (PI) D’Ambruoso L (CI) et al. Rwanda912: Use of an electronic communications platform to improve pre-hospital transport of injured people
NIHR
2022-27
3,199,931 GBP
Complete
D'Ambruoso L (PI), Byass P (Co-I), Witter S (Co-I), Kahn K (Co-I), Tollman S (Co-I), R Twine (Co-I), B Spies (Co-I), M van der Merwe (Co-I). Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action Research (VAPAR): expanding the knowledge base through partnerships for action on health equity
MRC, ESRC, Wellcome Trust, DFID
2017-23
705,647 GBP
Loewenson R (PI), D'Ambruoso L (CI). Fostering policy support for child and family wellbeing - Learning from international experience
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
2018-20
289,600 USD
D'Ambruoso L (PI), Abbott P (Deputy-PI), Douglas F (CI), Okpo E (CI), McPherson E (CI). Empowerment approaches to food poverty in Northeast Scotland In: Learning from international experience on approaches to community power and participation in health
Training and Research Support Centre
2016-18
16,000 GBP
D'Ambruoso L (PI), Byass P (CI), Hurtig AK (CI), Kahn K (CI), Tollman S (CI). Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action Research (VAPAR): Developing a people-centred health systems research methodology. Development Grant
MRC, ESRC, Wellcome Trust, DFID
2015-16
99,604 GBP
Hussein J (PI), Newlands D (CI), D’Ambruoso L (CI). Review of maternal and newborn health policies in five South Asian countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan). Policy Review
UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia
2007-08
300,000 USD
SMALL GRANTS
Complete
D’Ambruoso L (PI), van der Merwe M (CI), Nombuyiselo (CI). Expanding a Community Health Worker training intervention in rural South Africa to transfer methods and maximise uptake and impact
UKRI-GCRF/Newton
2023
9,868 GBP
D’Ambruoso L (PI), Ignatowicz A, Tshabalala K, Davies J (CI), Byiringiro JC (CI), Knowledge exchange for participation in health: participatory methods and capabilities for evidence-informed injury care in Rwanda
UKRI-GCRF/Newton
2023
9,786 GBP
D’Ambruoso L, van der Merwe M, Goosen G, Sigudla J, Ballantyne L, Littlejohn C, Duffy S. “Covid and the community”: International collaborative exchange developing whole systems community engagement as preventative interventions for COVID-19
Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund
2022
17,765 GBP
D’Ambruoso L, Loewenson R, Okpo E, Shivaji T, Littlejohn C, Bell J, Paranjothy S, Black C. Developing learning health systems: building alliances and piloting processes to inform and support local decision-making for COVID-19
GCRF Institutional Pump Priming Fund
2020
19,994 GBP
D’Ambruoso L, Witter S. Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action Research (VAPAR): expanding the knowledge base through partnerships for action on health equity (COVID-19 Response)
Scottish Funding Council GCRF Covid-19 Response
2021
42,048 GBP
D’Ambruoso L, Witter S, Twine R, Kahn K, Tollman S. Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action Research (VAPAR): expanding the knowledge base through partnerships for action on health equity (COVID-19 Response)
UKRI Covid-19 Extension Allocation Fund
2020-21
22,955 GBP
Anderson l, Camanda J, Chocolate FAM, Buco R, D’Ambruoso L, Lohfeld L. Evaluating opportunities and barriers to establishing an autonomous and functional sickle cell anaemia (SCA) unit in Cabinda, Angola
GCRF Institutional Pump Priming Fund
2020
55,570 GBP
Abbott P (PI), D’Ambruoso L (CI) Strengthening health care systems in Rwanda and Ethiopia to provide care in the community
GCRF Institutional Pump Priming Fund
2020
7,010 GBP
D’Ambruoso L (PI), Black C (CI); Van Der Merwe M (Co-I); Mdluli D (Co-I) Schneider H (Co-I); Witter S (Co-I). Developing learning health systems in South Africa: building interdisciplinary capacity for evidence- based decision-making and health systems strengthening to improve care and outcomes
GCRF Institutional Pump Priming Fund
2019-20
9,990 GBP
D'Ambruoso L (PI), Byass P (CI). Extending verbal autopsy: developing routine field surveillance methods to measure and understand burden of disease in low- and middle-income countries
REF2021 Impact Support Award
2018-19
9,944 GBP
N’Dow J (PI), D'Ambruoso L (CI). Women’s Health Outcomes Improvement for West Africa Initiative
Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) Scottish Funding Council
2018
9,940 GBP
Martin K (PI), Macfarlane G (Co-I), D’Ambruoso L (Co-I). Maintaining Exercise Long Term: Determining Influences on Chronic widespread pain
NHS Endowment Fund
2014-15
9,709 GBP
D'Ambruoso L (PI). Supporting Work Based Placements with Health and Development Sector Organisations in Uganda, South Africa and Scotland
Making the Most of the Masters Scottish Funding Council (SFC)
2014-15
1,500 GBP
D'Ambruoso L. Developing a reader on participatory action research, Stockholm Writers Meeting. And Disseminating at the Third Global Symposium on Health Systems Research: Cape Town 2014
International Development Research Centre, Canada (IDRC) Conference Award
2013-14
3,016 GBP
- Teaching
-
Teaching Responsibilities
Course coordinator:
- BU5594: Health Policy and Systems Research
I also teach on:
- PU5033: Introduction to Global Health
- PU5505: Global Health
- PU5521: Work-Based Placements with Health and Development Sector Organisations
- PU5906: Global Health Research Project
- PU5027: Fundamentals of Research Design (Online course)
- ME33GH: Global Health and Humanities (Year 3 MBChB Medical Humanities SSC Option)
- SX1012: Sustainable International Development (6th Century Course)
- Africa: Sustainable Development for All? (Massive online open access course, MOOC) https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/africa-sustainable-development
- Publications
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Cost of living/cost of smoking: a demonstration study of cooperative action learning to understand and address smoking in deprived communities within the cost-of-living crisis
Social Policy & AdministrationContributions to Journals: ArticlesOpening decision spaces: A case study on the opportunities and constraints in the public health sector of Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
PloS ONE, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. e0304775Contributions to Journals: ArticlesMapping the processes and information flows of a pre-hospital emergency care system in Rwanda: a process mapping exercise
BMJ Open, vol. 14, no. 6, e085064Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA protocol for a critical realist systematic synthesis of ~interventions to~ promote pupils’ wellbeing by improving the school climate in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
PloS ONE, vol. 19, no. 5, e0286489Contributions to Journals: ArticlesUnderstanding the health system utilisation and reasons for avoidable mortality after fatal injury within a Three-Delays framework in Karonga, Northern Malawi: a retrospective analysis of verbal autopsy data
BMJ Open, vol. 14, no. 4, e081652Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEquitable access to quality injury care; Equi-Injury project protocol for prioritizing interventions in four low- or middle-income countries: a mixed method study
BMC Health Services Research, vol. 24, no. 1, 429Contributions to Journals: ArticlesProtective and risk factors of mental health of working age adults with adventitious total bilateral blindness and low vision: a scoping review protocol
PloS ONE, vol. 19, no. 1, e0296659Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA protocol for a critical realist synthesis of school mindfulness interventions designed to promote pupils' mental wellbeing
Frontiers in public health, vol. 11, 1309649Contributions to Journals: ArticlesExpanding Community Health Worker decision space: learning from a Participatory Action Research training intervention in a rural South African district
Human Resources for Health, vol. 21, no. 1, 66Contributions to Journals: ArticlesParticipatory action research to address lack of safe water: a community-nominated health priority in rural South Africa
PloS ONE, vol. 18, no. 7, e0288524Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA review of scientific theories used to justify the delivery of school-based mindfulness programmes . A protocol for a scoping review
Working Papers: Preprint PapersDataset: A consolidated and harmonised Verbal Autopsy dataset from Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites in South Africa [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]
F1000 Research, vol. 12, no. 520, pp. 1-5Contributions to Journals: ArticlesRealising radical potential: building community power in primary health care through Participatory Action Research
International Journal for Equity in Health, vol. 22, 94Contributions to Journals: ArticlesStudy protocol for a Critical Realist pilot cluster-randomised controlled trial of a whole-school-based mindfulness intervention (SBMI) promoting child and adolescent mental wellbeing in Rwanda and Ethiopia
Working Papers: Preprint PapersInfection and Social Dislocation: Wellbeing Impacts of COVID-19 on Children and Young People - Perspectives of Rwandan Leaders
Working Papers: Preprint Papers- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202303.0474.v1
We Asked the Experts: Community Participation in Global Surgery Research
World Journal of Surgery, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 578-580Contributions to Journals: EditorialsVoice needs teeth to have bite’! Expanding community-led multisectoral action-learning to address alcohol and drug abuse in rural South Africa
PLOS Global Public Health, vol. 2, no. 10, e0000323Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPrioritising and Mapping Barriers to Achieve Equitable Surgical Care in South Africa: A Multi-disciplinary Stakeholder Workshop
Global Health Action, vol. 15, no. 1, 2067395Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCommunity dialogue can show the way to meeting water needs: a South African case
Contributions to Specialist PublicationsRefining Circumstances of Mortality Categories (COMCAT): a verbal autopsy model connecting circumstances of deaths with outcomes for public health decision-making
Global Health Action, vol. 14, 2000091Contributions to Journals: ArticlesLessons from community participation in primary health care and water resource governance in South Africa: a narrative review
Global Health Action, vol. 15, no. 1, 2004730Contributions to Journals: ArticlesGlobal health research funding applications: brain drain under another name?
Lancet Global Health, vol. 10, no. 1, e22-e23Contributions to Journals: ArticlesBurden of Mortality Linked to Community-nominated Priorities in Rural South Africa
Global Health Action, vol. 15, no. 1, 2013599Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCollective reflections on the first cycle of a collaborative learning platform to strengthen rural primary health care in Mpumalanga, South Africa
Health Research Policy and Systems, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 66Contributions to Journals: ArticlesDeveloping stakeholder participation to address lack of safe water as a community health concern in a rural province in South Africa
Global Health Action, vol. 14, no. 1, 1973715Contributions to Journals: Articles