Prof. Dr. Dr. Till Bärnighausen

MD, ScD, MSc, MSc
Medical Specialist in Family Medicine

Alexander von Humboldt University Professor
Director, Heidelberg Institute of Global Health

Till Bärnighausen is a population health researcher who focuses on three areas of research: (i) establishing the causal impacts of large-scale global health interventions – such as HIV treatment, HIV prevention, and childhood vaccination – on health, economic and social outcomes; (ii) identifying and testing innovations to improve the delivery of global health interventions through public-sector health systems, and (iii) developing new methods for applied population-based health research.

Till has been the principal investigator on grants from a range large science funders, such as the US National Institutes of Health (including five R01 grants), the European Union, the European Commission, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), Elton John AIDS Foundation, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative.  He has also received research funding from Harvard, Rush Foundation, William F. Milton Fund, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, International Development Research Centre Canada, USAID, WHO, UNAIDS and World Bank.

Till is Adjunct Professor of Global Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the US and a Senior Faculty at the Wellcome Trust’s Africa Health Research Institute (ARHI) in South Africa.

He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, including in Science, PNAS, Lancet, and PLOS Medicine. His work has been cited more than 17,000 times; his h-index is 63 and his i10-index is 205.

Education

2008    Doctor of Science (ScD) in Population and International Health,
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, USA

2006    Master of Science (MSc) in Financial Economics, SOAS, University of London, UK

2002    Medical Specialist Board Certification in Family Medicine
(Germany, Physician Chamber Baden-Wuerttemberg)

2001    Master of Science (MSc) in Health Systems Management,
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London, UK

1998    Medical Doctor (MD) in History of Medicine, Institute for History of Medicine,
University of Heidelberg, Germany

1997    Medical Approbation, Medical School, University of Heidelberg, Germany

Publications

20 publications (out of 220)

Manne-Goehler J, Rifat A, Stokes A, Goehler A, Houinato D, Houehanou C, Hambou M, Mbenza B, Sobngwi E, Balde N, Mwangi J, Gathecha G, Ngugi P, Wesseh C, Damesceno A, Lunet N, Bovet P, Labadarios D, Zuma K, Mayige M, Kagaruki G, Ramaiya K, Agoudavi K, Guwatudde D, Bahendeka S, Mutungi G, Geldsetzer P, Levitt N, Salomon J, Yudkin J, Vollmer S, Bärnighausen T (2016). Unmet need for diabetes care in sub-Saharan Africa: individual pooled analysis in 12 countries. Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology; 4(11):903-912

McGovern M, Herbst K, Tanser F, Mutevedzi T, Canning D, Gareta D, Pillay D, Bärnighausen T (2016). Do gifts increase consent to home-based HIV testing? A difference-in-differences study in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. International Journal of Epidemiology [Epub ahead of print].

Geldsetzer P, Fink G, Vaikath M, Bärnighausen T (2016). Sampling for patient exit interviews: assessment of methods using mathematical derivation and computer simulations. Health Services Research [Epub ahead of print]

Rosenberg M, Gomez-Olive  X, Rohr J, houle B, Kabudula C, Wagner R, Salomon J, Kahn K, Berkman L,.Tollman S, Bärnighausen T (2016). Sexual behaviors and HIV status: a population-based study among older adults in rural South Africa. JAIDS; 74(1):e9-e17

Chimbindi N, Bor J, Newell M, Tanser F, Baltusen R, Hontelez J, de Vlas S, Lurie M, Pillay D, Bärnighausen T (2015). Time and money: the true costs of health care utilization for patients receiving ‘free’ HIV/TB care and treatment in rural KwaZulu-Natal. JAIDS; 70(2): e52-60.

Moscoe E, Bor J, Bärnighausen T (2015). Regression discontinuity designs in medicine, epidemiology, and public health: a review of current and best practice. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology; 68(2): 122-133.

Elkies N, Fink G, Bärnighausen T (2015).‘‘Scrambling’’ geo-referenced data to protect privacy induces bias in distance estimation. Population and Environment; 37(1): 83–98.

Bor J, Rosen S, Chimbindi N, Haber N, Herbst K, Mutevedzi T, Tanser F, Pillay D, Bärnighausen T (2015). Mass HIV treatment and sex disparities in life expectancy: demographic surveillance in rural South Africa. PLOS Medicine; 12(11): e1001905.

Bor J, Moscoe E, Mutevedzi P, Newell M, Bärnighausen T (2014). Regression discontinuity designs in epidemiology: causal inference without randomized trials. Epidemiology; 25(5): 729-737.

Harling G, Newell M, Tanser F, Kawachi I, Subramanian S, Bärnighausen T (2014). Do age-disparate relationships drive HIV incidence in young women? Evidence from a population cohort in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. JAIDS; 66(4): 443-451.

Bor J, Herbst K, Newell M, Bärnighausen T (2013). Increases in adult life expectancy in rural South Africa: valuing the scale-up of ART. Science; 339: 961-965.

Tanser F, Bärnighausen T, Grapsa E, Zaidi J, and Newell M (2013). High coverage of ART associated with decline in risk of HIV acquisition in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Science; 339: 966-971.

Zaidi J, Grapsa E, Tanser F, Newell ML, Bärnighausen T (2013) Dramatic increases in HIV prevalence after scale-up of antiretroviral treatment. AIDS; 27(14): 2301-2305.

Bor J, Tanser F, Newell ML, Bärnighausen T (2012). In a study of a population cohort in South Africa, HIV patients on antiretrovirals had nearly full recovery of employment. Health Affairs; 31(7): 1459-1469.

Bärnighausen T, Bloom DE, Humair S (2012). Economics of antiretroviral treatment vs. circumcision for. HIV prevention. Proceedings of the National Academy of  Science; 109(52): 21271-21276.

Bärnighausen T, Bor J, Wandira-Kazibwe S, Canning D (2011). Correcting HIV prevalence estimates for survey non-participation using Heckman-type selection

Bärnighausen T, McWalter T, Rosner Z, Newell ML, Welte A (2010). Use of the BED capture enzyme immunoassay to estimate HIV incidence: systematic review and sensitivity analysis. Epidemiology; 21(5): 685-697.

Anand S, Bärnighausen T (2007). Health workers and vaccination coverage in developing countries. Lancet; 369: 1277-1285.

Anand S, Bärnighausen T (2004). Human resources and health outcomes: cross-country econometric study. Lancet; 364: 1603-1609.

Bärnighausen T, Sauerborn R (2002). One hundred and eighteen years of the German health care system – are there any lessons learnt for low and middle income countries? Social Science & Medicine; 54: 1559-1587.