IUHC Project Staff / Contacts

NAVRONGO HDSS, Ghana

James Akazili (PhD in Health Economics) is a senior health researcher at the Navrongo Health Research Centre in Ghana. He was awarded his PhD in health economics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Since the 1990s, Dr. Akazili has worked on a number of large-scale and sometimes multi-country research projects including the Ghana vitamin A supplementation trial, the community health and family study and most recently the SHIELD (strategies for health insurance for equity in less developed countries) project. He has also carried out research work on the national health insurance scheme. His research interests include health care financing (health insurance), equity and efficiency issues, economic evaluation of health programmes and systems, and health sector reforms and their impact on populations. 

Paul Welaga (MSc Statistics and Epidemiology). Paul Welaga has been working at the Navrongo Health Research Centre for over 10 years. He has managed large scale data sets including the HDSS data. He will be data manager for this project. His roles will include managing the survey data as well as designing the data entry screens. He will be working closely with Filabavi and INDEPTH. He will also supervise the data entry clerks as well as extract relevant HDSS that will be needed by the PI. Paul Welaga will be in charge of the overall storage of the data.

Daniel Azongo (MSc. Bio statistics and Epidemiology). Mr. Azongo will be the project coordinator, working full time on the project, supervising the day to day activities of the project. He will support in logistics arrangement for fieldwork and solving problems where possible or bringing them to the attention of the centre PI if he cannot solve. 

Philip Adalinzong (MPH-Health economics). Philip has worked with the Kintampo Health Research Centre on a number of multi-centre projects. He will be support in coordinating the project. He will work closely with the PI to recruit, train and deploy fieldworkers to the field. He will also assist in the data analysis and report writing.

FILABAVI HDSS, Vietnam

Prof. Nguyen Thi Kim Chuc (PhD Public Health, PhD in Pharmacy) who has 25 years of research experience in the area of public health and health economics. One of her key areas of focus has been household interaction with the health system (including the costs of illness, health seeking behaviour, and willingness to pay for health insurance). Chuc is Filabavi HDSS leader and will be the Co-PI for the study as well as centre PI. In this regards, she will oversee the study at the HDSS with as key role ensuring coherent conceptualisation of the study at the HDSS/country level, methods, analysis and write up; supervision of research team. 

Prof. Ho Dang Phuc (PhD on Statistics), who has been with Filabavi from the onset, has co­authored some papers on health economics, equity and antibiotic resistance using Filabavi data. Phuc will be data manager for this study. His roles will include managing the panel survey data as well as designing the data entry screen (working closely with Navrongo and INDEPTH); supervision of data entry clerks; extracting data related from to HDSS for the centre PI; and overall storage of data.

Nguyen Ngoc Linh, (BA in Informatics-Mathematics) will be the project manager, working full time on the project, supervising the daily activities of the project and solving problems where possible (or bringing them to the attention of the centre PI).

Dang Thi Tuyen (BA in Financing) will take care of accounting and financial issues to make sure all expenditures are in line with the budget and consistent with Vietnam Government regulation. She will answer all questions during auditing.

INDEPTH Network, Accra, Ghana

INDEPTH will ensure the overall co-ordination of this study, convening the two pilot centres and ensure timely implementation.

Osman Sankoh (D.Sc. Biostatistics/Spatial Planning): As the Executive Director will be the overall co-ordinator of the project. He will be the main link between the implementing centres and the Foundation. He will therefore oversee the implementation of the project and ensure the dissemination of results as well the eventual scale up to other HDSSs. 

Martin Bangha (PhD Demography) will assist the Executive Director in the coordination of project. In particular, facilitating the cross-centre activities, review of tool, and capacity building of the centres. He will also support the dissemination and publication efforts. 

Sixtus Apaliyah (Chartered Accountant) will take care of accounting and financial issues. He will ensure the timely transfer of funds to the implementing centres and thereafter ensure that all expenditures are in line with the budget. He will answer all questions during auditing.

Center for Health Policy, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa

Dr Jane Gouge, (PhD Economics) will be expert advisor for the project. Dr. Gouge has been working in the field of health financing for the past 10 years. She will review the tool and subsequently, lead the cross-centre analysis and results synthesis.