Advancing Patient-Centered Access to Tuberculosis Healthcare in Low and Middle-Income Countries, with Charity Oga-Omenka

Tuberculosis (TB) treatment is not only about medical interventions but encompasses various social, economic, and psychological aspects. Patients in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) often face numerous barriers to accessing healthcare, including financial constraints, limited infrastructure, and social stigmas.

On January 17, Professor Oga-Omenka (University of Waterloo) will speak on how a patient-centered approach acknowledges these challenges, emphasizing individual needs and preferences. It prioritizes the patient’s voice and fosters a more inclusive, compassionate, and respectful healthcare environment. In settings where resources may be limited, a patient-centered approach also aims to optimize the allocation of healthcare resources, ensuring that interventions are efficient and effective, reducing unnecessary costs and enhancing the overall quality of care. In this exciting seminar, Professor Oga-Omenka will present insights and lessons from her research in several high-burden TB countries.

Speaker Profile

Dr. Charity Oga-Omenka is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health Sciences. Her research interests focus on global public health, healthcare access and services research – particularly related to infectious diseases like tuberculosis, HIV and COVID-19, social determinants of health and the intersections between health inequities – using mixed methods research. She is invested in research that focuses on transformative conceptual frameworks and methods to address the inequalities and underutilization of evidence-based approaches in global public health – particularly in resource-limited settings or with marginalized groups, one that will reflect on socioeconomic diversity in population health.

Originally from Nigeria, Charity moved to Canada in 2015 with her family, to start her PhD at the Université de Montréal, after which she did a postdoctoral fellowship at the McGill University. Charity has over 15 years of experience working in managing large scale projects in TB/HIV, as well as maternal and child health in Nigeria, Uganda, South Sudan, India, and Indonesia. She earned an MPH degree from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa and a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the Ahmadu Bello University Nigeria.

Register below and join us on Wednesday, January 17, at 1 p.m.

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Please find the recap and recording here.