Josephine Agyeman-Duah

I am an international health professional with extensive work experience in Africa and Europe. Prior to my DPhil studies, I worked in Switzerland as a consultant for HIV program quality and efficiency at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and also with the Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research to promote sexual and reproductive health. In Ghana, I led the regional implementation of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored project to reduce children under 5 mortality and improve maternal health in the country.

I obtained Masters in International Health from the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg, Germany as a KAAD scholar, and BSc. Biochemistry from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. I have gained a fellowship in health care quality and patient safety from the International Society for Quality in Health Care, Ireland.

My DPhil research is on neurodevelopmental assessment at age 2 for all children born preterm. Currently, due to resource implications, there is a missed opportunity for children born moderate to late preterm to be routinely followed for their neurodevelopment.  My study aims to address this gap by offering an alternative, validated, resource light and scalable screening tool, the INTERGROWTH-21^st tool (INTER-NDA) to identify all children born preterm, who are highly at risk of neurodevelopmental disabilities, and to define a care pathway for their follow up.  The study will further deploy a qualitative methodology to seek for insights into parents' experiences and expectations for a universal neurodevelopmental assessment for children born preterm. 

I am working under the tutelage of Prof. Stephen Kennedy and Dr. Frances O’Brien with technical support from Dr. Michelle Fernandes.