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Thesis

Research Summary

My PhD research is a critical analysis of the potential for innovation in health system design, implementation and normalization in rural South Africa, including appropriate use of information and medical technology.

Situated within the field of Health Policy and Systems Research, with a focus on low and middle income countries, this project will draw on multiple theories and perspectives in relation to health care systems and a range of methodologies including ethnography, interviews, documentary analysis and secondary analysis of health related census data.

Research vehicle: 43 year old rusty old green Land Rover called 'Lucy'. She gets me to the clinics and back.

Land Rover


Location of Fieldwork

The location of my fieldwork will be in situated in North-eastern South Africa, in the rural subdistrict of Bushbukridge, in the province of Mpumalanga "the place where the sun rises" (in Zulu).

place of the rising sun

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Please click on the link below to find out more about the fieldwork site:

Agincourt Demographic and Health Surveillance Site

The premise for choosing the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance site is because it is situated in a rural district in one of South Africa’s poorest provinces. This setting therefore will allow for research to be undertaken where issues of rurality play a determining factor in in the state of the healthcare service delivery. This isolate geographic context and scarcity of doctors therefore has implications for what digital and networked technologies can be implemented in the future. The Bushbukridge area is poorly serviced in terms of infrastructure (transport, electricity, broadband internet).


Supervisor:

Prof. Frances Griffiths

Warwick Medical School

f dot e dot griffiths( at )warwick dot ac dot uk


Co-supervisors:

Dr Jane Goudge

Health Policy, The University of the Witwatersrand

Dr. F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé

Agincourt HDSS, The University of the Witwatersrand