Rupal Shah-Rohlfs
Research Associate
Rupal has a diverse academic background in Pharmacology, Clinical Pharmacy, and Global Public Health. Since she started at the Institute of Global Health at the University of Heidelberg in 2021, she has been involved in research to practice, and evaluation and implementation research.
Her aspiration is to become a practitioner-scholar in design and implementation research, using a social and behavioral approach to bridge research and practice for transformative global public health solutions. Through the application of both quantitative and qualitative methods and a social justice lens, she aims to improve health among underserved populations.
Rupal regularly engages in non-research activities such as teaching, serving as a thesis co-supervisor, and serving as co-investigator of grants, and facilitating workshops with diverse postgraduate students. Her work has been characterised by working through equitable partnerships with global south researchers and research capacity building for groups traditionally under-represented in academia. She has worked on research capacity building programs since 2020 including the Health Systems Strengthening and Epidemic Prevention (HSSEP) supporting Tubman University in Liberia 2021-2023.
Since, 2023, she is currently leading a work package in an EU-funded higher education capacity grant called CAPSTONE that looks to address the urgent need to educate and develop a health workforce that can respond to non-communicable diseases in West Africa. Additionally, she is actively engaged in health policy research related to antimicrobial resistance and microplastic pollution within the multifaceted EU Horizon funded TULIP project.
Rupal completed her pharmacy / pharmacology training at the University of Bath before receiving her Master of Public Health from the James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Bangladesh. Uniquely, she is one of few high-income country graduates from a Global South institution, offering her an 'insider-outsider' perspective that bridges European academia with first-hand experience of low-income health challenges.
Education
Contributions
Projects & Grants
- European Commission, Community-based engagement and intervenTions to stem the spread of antimicrobial resistance in the aqUatic environments catalysed by cLImate change and Plastic pollution interactions (TULIP), 1st January 2024 – 30th June 2028. https://tulip.iwr.uni-heidelberg.de/
- European Commission, CAPacity Strengthening of Transdisciplinary education for nON-communicable disease care in WEst Africa (CAPSTONE), January 2024 - 2027. https://capstonewestafrica.org/
- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Implementation Research to Evaluate the Ghana Heart Initiative, March 2022 – October 2023. https://www.ghanaheartinitiative.com/
- The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), January 2020 – December 2022.
- German Alliance for Global Health Research. MeasureGender: Review of existing definitions and measurement methods and development of a gender discrimination measurement tool. 2021-2022
Other scientific projects and initiatives
Consultant / Facilitator on Capacity Development Initiatives
05 / 2024 – 12 / 2024, Emergency Preparedness and Response Trainings for Workforce Capacity Building, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
09 / 2024, DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Alumni Workshop: How to Mitigate Negative Anthropocene Effects on Health and Environment
05 / 2022, Capacity Development Workshop, Lusaka, Zambia, DAAD PAGEL – Partnerships for the Health Sector in Developing Countries & CHRESO Ministries | Role: Facilitator
Publications
- Cham, D., Barrow, A., Shah-Rohlfs, R. Claire J. Standley. Can global health security frameworks measure One Health implementation in West Africa? A mixed-methods study. BMC Public Health 24, 2113 (2024). DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-19617-0
- Singh K*, Otchi E*, Shah-Rohlfs R*, et al. Evaluation of the Ghana Heart Initiative - Design and Rationale of a Pragmatic Mixed-Methods Study from Diverse Perspectives: A Study Protocol. DOI: 10.11588/heidok.00034480
- Petitfour L, Srivastava S, Shah-Rohlfs R, et al Protocol for a scoping review of measures and definitions of gender-based discrimination linked to health outcomes in low and middle-income countries. BMJ Open 2022;12:e061533. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061533.
- Volodina, A., Shah‐Rohlfs, R. and Jahn, A., 2022. Does the EU and US Paediatric legislation improve authorisation availability of medicines for children in other countries? British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. DOI: 10.1111/bcp.15553.
- Wilson JB, Deckert A, Shah R, Kyei N, Dahn LC, Doe-Rogers R, Hinneh AB, Johnson LW, Natt GD, Verdier JA, Vosper A. COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes and practices: a mixed-mode cross-sectional survey in Liberia. BMJ Open. 2021 Jul 1;11(7):e049494. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-049494.
- Shah R, Nahar Q, Gurley ES. One in five maternal deaths in Bangladesh associated with acute jaundice: results from a National Maternal Mortality Survey. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2016 Mar 2;94(3):695. DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.15-0662.
Scientific Reports:
Implementation Research to Evaluate the Ghana Heart Initiative. Link to report: https://www.klinikum.uni-heidelberg.de/fileadmin/inst_hygiene/tropenhygiene/Health_Economics_and_Health_Financing/IREGHI-Evaluation_Report-Full-Draft-Final-for_GIZ-To_Upload-05.2024.pdf
Science Communication:
Writer for Healthy DEvelopments – a joint initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and the KfW Development Bank showcasing Germany’s commitment to health and social protection.
- Twelve African and German University Hospitals partner to tackle Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). August, 2022
- Why antimicrobial resistance (AMR) calls for a multisectoral One Health approach – NOW. August, 2022
- How adaptive social protection can help mitigate the spread of hunger caused by the war in Ukraine. May, 2022