The Centre for Implementation Science at King’s College London and NIHR ARC South London are organising a new seminar series exploring implementation science.

We are delighted to welcome Dr Michelle White, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London to deliver this first seminar in the series.

Dr White is a consultant anaesthetist and has just completed a PhD in implementation science applied in the context of several sub-Saharan African countries.

Implementation science in a global health context: seminar abstract

Two-thirds of the world’s population lack access to safe, affordable surgical care. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) the quality of surgical care is poor and surgical outcomes are worse when compared to high-income countries (HICs). While numerous affordable, life-saving quality improvement (QI) interventions do exist, hardly any of them are widely utilised in LMICs. Furthermore, evidence of how to successfully implement these advances at the national level is lacking both in HICs and LMICs. Implementation science, therefore, has a crucial role to play in improving the scale up of QI interventions globally and thereby improving the quality and safety of surgical care, especially in LMICs. This webinar discusses the Dr Michelle White's experience of using various implementation science approaches to implementing a QI intervention (the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist) at the national level in three sub-Saharan African countries and suggests future directions for implementation science in the global surgical context.

About Dr Michelle White

Dr White is a paediatric cardiac anaesthetist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. She has a PhD in implementation science and global surgery and her research interests include implementing quality improvement interventions at scale in low resource settings, specifically the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist.

From 2012 – 2017, she spent five years working full time in various African countries with the international charity Mercy Ships, providing surgical services and training.

Read about her experience with Mercy Ships.

Who is this seminar for?

This seminar is for researchers, health and care professionals, policymakers, service users and members of the public interested in both the science and practice of using implementation science in a global health context.