Dr Saima Afaq
Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) Global Public Health
Profile
Biography
Saima currently serves as a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Global Public Health at the Department of Health Sciences, University of York, UK. Within this role, she leads the Population Health and Diabetes intervention adaptation groups for the Centre of IMPACT. At the forefront of her responsibilities is leading the Proving Optimised TB and Diabetes Integrated Care (POTENTIAL) project in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Additionally, Saima spearheads projects such as DiaDeM (Diabetes and Depression Multimorbidity) and TB multimorbidity. She has also been actively involved in the LOLIPOP study, iHealth T2Dstudy, and IMPACT-CCD initiative.
Saima's research endeavours center on enhancing physical and mental health and addressing multimorbidity, with a particular focus on migrant South Asians and LMICs, all aimed at advancing universal health coverage.
Qualifications
- Fellowship of Faculty of Public Health (FFPH) UK (Jun’2022)
- PhD in Public Health (Clinical medicine/Epidemiology and Biostatistics) from Imperial College London (Mar’ 2018).
- MBBS (NUST, Pakistan Dec’2010)
Departmental roles
- Member of the Culture Club Dept. of Health Sciences
- Member of the Global Public Health Group
- Faculty at the Public Health Society
- Leadership learning set, Centre for IMPACT
Research
Overview
Saima's research endeavours center on enhancing physical and mental health and addressing multimorbidity, with a particular focus on migrant South Asians and LMICs, all aimed at advancing universal health coverage.
Projects
- Integrating evidence-based care for common mental disorders in TB services in Pakistan
- Centre for IMPACT - Improving mental and physical health together
- Providing Optimised Tuberculosis and diabetes integrated care in LMICs (POTENTIAL)
- Addressing multimorbidity in people with tuberculosis (TBMM): A multicentre and multi-country study funded by MRC UK
- Developing and evaluating an adapted intervention for people with depression and diabetes in South Asia (DiaDeM)
- Integrated depression care pathway in tuberculosis services in Pakistan: Improving Mental and Physical Health together (IMPACT - CCD substudy)
Research group(s)
Supervision
Saima welcomes Interest from PhD candidates in physical and mental health, NCDs, integrated and collaborative care and multimorbidity in low and middle income countries.
Teaching
Postgraduate
Epidemiology/Global Public Health
External activities
Memberships
- Lead TB multimorbidity working group THE UNION
- Member of the Cochrane Collaboration
- Executive Member of health care in danger (HCiD) working group of International Red Cross and Red Crescent Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan - Member of the Data and Safety Management Board of the NIHR UK funded CONTROL program