Justine's work focuses on improving equitable access to care for people in low- and middle-income countries, particularly for those with emergency conditions. She provides the systems-thinking and evidence policy makers and planners need to build sustainable care solutions — asking how emergency and trauma care systems can be made faster, fairer, and better at keeping people alive. She trained as a medical doctor, practising as a medical cardiologist, and has over 25 year’s experience of delivering high quality research of relevance for policy and planning. She has over 200 publications, and also has vast experience in ensuring that results have relevance, via dissemination to policy makers or lay people, and inputting into development of healthcare policy. She worked for The Lancet Medical Journal, including as Editor in Chief of The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, for 10 years, and has published numerous articles for lay people as well as worked for the BBC.
Director, WHO Collaborating Centre on Emergency, Critical, and Operative Care Professor of Global Health Research, University of Birmingham, UK Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Quality improvement in emergency units in low resource settings: a qualitative assessment for understanding challenges and delivering solutions
Indrakantha Welgama, D. Lange, Gerard O’Reilly, Aurore Nishimwe, Agnieszka Ignatowicz, Justine Davies · BMJ Open Quality · Aug 1, 2026
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the barriers and facilitators for quality improvement (QI) in emergency units (EUs) in low- or middle-income countries (LMICs) and to understand the prioritisation of care quality domains to inform the development of EU-specific guidance for QI across all World Health Organisation (WHO quality domains for LMICs. METHODS: We conducted in-depth interviews (IDIs) with specialist emergency physicians from LMICs and convened a workshop with global technical experts in emergency care. A structured topic guide was used for the IDIs. Interviews were conducted vi...
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2026-004186
Improving Trauma Data Quality in Rwanda: A Prospective Assessment of Registry Completeness and Accuracy
Jean Nepomuscene Ntezimana, Indrakantha Welgama, Assuman Nuhu, Irene Bagahirwa, Venantie Umuhoza, Fabrice Iradukunda, Leila Ghalichi, Ephrem Daniel Sheferaw, et al. · Journal of Clinical Medicine · Jul 18, 2026
Background: High-quality trauma data are essential for data-informed decision-making. However, completeness and accuracy of trauma registries remain challenging in low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to assess trauma registry data quality in Rwanda and describe a coordinated implementation package used to support improvements in registry completeness and accuracy. Methods: We conducted a prospective, longitudinal quasi-experimental quality-improvement study with repeated monthly measurements across eight hospitals in Rwanda from October 2023 to September 2025. Trauma registry da...
https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm15145640
A systems approach to understanding injury care in LMICs using causal loop diagrams
Justine Davies, Kathryn Chu, Lucia D’Ambruoso, Laura Bojke, Rene English, Heike Geduld, Sa’Ad Lahri, Hassan Mahomed, et al. · BMJ Global Health · Jun 1, 2026
BACKGROUND: Around 40% of mortality after injuries is avoidable with access to quality care. Investments in interventions which maximise the number of injured persons who access and receive quality care are paramount, especially in low-resourced settings. Selecting such interventions within complex adaptive health systems is challenging due to the multiple interactions within these systems. METHODS: We created a conceptual map, or causal loop diagram (CLD), representing the health system for injury care, focused on challenges to improving patient outcomes in low- or middle-income countries (LM...
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2025-023069
Glucose-lowering medication use for diabetes: national evidence from 62 low- and middle-income countries
Felix Teufel, Pia Roddewig, Maja E. Marcus, Michaela Theilmann, H.HPACC Collaborators, Pascal Geldsetzer, Albertino Damasceno, Justine Davies, et al. · Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice · Dec 1, 2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diabres.2025.112781
Access to quality trauma care after injury in Pakistan: a systematic review and narrative synthesis
Huba Atiq, Komal Abdul Rahim, Sijal Akhtar Shiekh, Badar Afzal, Zabin Wajidali, Zaheer Babar Chand, Asad Latif, Agnieszka Ignatowicz, et al. · BMJ Open · Dec 1, 2025
OBJECTIVES: To conduct a systematic review and narrative synthesis to identify barriers, facilitators and pre-existing interventions and describe the current status of initiatives/interventions aimed at improving access to quality trauma healthcare after injury in Pakistan. DESIGN: Systematic review and narrative synthesis DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics), Cochrane (Wiley), Scopus and ProQuest, as well as grey literature. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Full-text peer-reviewed publications, including cross-sectional studies, cohort studies, case-control s...
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2025-101071
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