ALERT – Action Leveraging Evidence to reduce perinatal Mortality and morbidity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Helle Mølsted Alvesson, PhD, medical anthropologist. I am a qualitative researcher specialized in qualitative global public health research with a focus to scale health interventions in low- and middle-income countries. I have 20 years of experience in understanding community mobilization and health system development within international organizations and academia. Translating anthropological formative data into a format useful in multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary collaborations is a methodologically challenging exercise which implies some level of unity in epistemological aspects of global health science. Creating interdisciplinary space for the questions on ‘how to’ improve global health is what drives me at Karolinska Institutet. To strengthen the intersection between education and research is another passion in my work. As the departmental director of basic and advanced education at the Department of Global Public Health, I am promoting high quality education among a truly global student body and faculty. Learning the diverse and complex concepts, theories and methods in global public health is strengthened through an increasing awareness of the importance of intercultural aspects when learning. I am contributing to these changes through routine quality improvements processes and through targeted qualitative studies on student and faculty experiences.

Selected Publications:
1. Caulfield A, Nartey Y, Plymoth A, Alvesson HM. The 6-star doctor? Physicians’ communication of poor prognosis to patients and their families in Cape Coast, Ghana. Accepted in BMJ Global Health May 4, 2020.
2. Winters M, Nordenstedt H, Alvesson HM. Reporting in a health emergency: the roles of Sierra Leonean journalists during the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak. Accepted in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases will be published on May 21, 2020 @ 11:00.
3. Saulnier D, Hom H, Thol D, Ir P, Hanson C, von Schreeb J, Alvesson HM. Staying afloat: A qualitative study of community perspectives on health system resilience explored through the management of pregnancy and childbirth care during floods in Cambodia. BMJ Global Health, 23 April 2020, Vol.5(4).

Links: https://staff.ki.se/people/helmol

Keywords: qualitative methods, cultural change, maternal & child health, community perspectives