Dr. Patience Afulani is an Associate Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, in the departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences. Her primary research focuses on the social and health system factors underlying inequities in reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health. She also has a special interest in person-centered care and health workforce wellbeing and motivation. Dr. Afulani is the Principal Investigator of the Person-Centered Equity Lab at UCSF where leads several projects, including the “Caring for Provider’s to Improve Patient Experience” cluster-randomized control trial in Ghana and Kenya. Her research in Ghana, Kenya, and the United States has included examining sources of disparities in the use and quality of maternal health services; designing tools to measure person-centered maternal and reproductive health care; examining health workforce wellbeing; and designing and evaluating interventions to improve maternal and neonatal health. Dr. Afulani led the development of the person-centered maternity care scale that is now used across the globe. She co-leads the quality of care workgroup to revise the Global Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care framework and the patient-centered care task team of WHO Life Course Quality of Care Metrics working group; serves as an external expert on the WHO Mother and Newborn Information for Tracking Outcomes and Results technical advisory group; and is a member of the Merck for Mothers Global Advisory Board. She obtained her medical degree (MBChB) from the University of Ghana and postgraduate degrees (MPH and PhD) in Public Health from University of California, Los Angeles.
