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. She is the Lead Investigator for COPE-BP (Community Pharmacies Managing Hypertension: Intervention Development and Evaluation in Bangladesh and Pakistan), a major five-year NIHR-funded programme aimed at strengthening health systems by engaging informal health-providing entities—such as community pharmacies—within the formal healthcare system to improve hypertension care in South Asia.
She also leads the Valuing Voices project (Global Equity in Research: A Gender-Inclusive Approach), which promotes inclusive research leadership and supports female researchers in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
At York, Saima co-leads the Population Health and Diabetes Intervention Adaptation groups within the Centre for IMPACT. She leads the POTENTIAL project (Proving Optimised TB and Diabetes Integrated Care) across Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), alongside other major studies including DiaDeM (Diabetes and Depression Multimorbidity) and TB multimorbidity. Her earlier contributions include work on global studies such as LOLIPOP study, iHealth-T2D study, and IMPACT-CCD.
Saima’s research focuses on improving physical and mental health, addressing multimorbidity, and strengthening integrated and collaborative care pathways—particularly for migrant South Asian populations and communities in LMICs—with the overarching aim of 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 centre 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
- Global Equity in Research: A Gender-Inclusive Approach (Valuing Voices
- COPE-BP – Community Pharmacies Managing Hypertension: Intervention Development and Evaluation in Bangladesh and Pakistan
- 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, implementation science, and strengthening health systems.
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
