Stephen Hodgins, MD, MSc, DrPH

Contact

Associate Professor, School of Public Health

Email: shodgins@ualberta.ca
Phone: (780) 492-6814
Address: 3-305 Edmonton Clinic Health Academy
11405 87 Ave NW

Edmonton AB

T6G 1C9

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

global health

About

I am a family physician by training, with an MSc in epipdemiology and biostatistics and a DrPH in health behaviour and public health leadership; I received board certification in the U.S. in preventive medicine.

I was first launched on a career trajectory focused on community health in low-income settings as a volunteer in India, in the early 1980s. Over the interval since then, I spent a period of six years involved in such work with First Nations and Inuit communities in Quebec. But most of my work has focused on South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past 25 years, I have been working in global health, focusing especially on maternal-child health, nutrition and primary health care. This has included extended periods living in Zambia and Nepal (where I've had a continuing engagement since 2003). I have worked at local, national and global levels, including a period of 8 years based in Washington, DC. I have been practice-based but with a consistent substantive involvement in applied research.

I believe that effective public health practice requires being grounded in the complex, real-world settings where our efforts are meant to achieve impact. Such practice requires critical thinking and genuine commitment. Too often, our practice lacks rigor and our research lacks real-world relevance. Sounder work and more rapid progress on improving population health require putting the two together. That’s the passion of my professional life. One of my continuing activities is serving as Editor-in-chief for the journal Global Health: Science & Practice; this offers an ideal platform for bringing together rigor and relevance.

Degrees

DrPH (Health Behaviour and Public Health Leadership), The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000

MSc (Epidemiology & Biostatistics), McGill University, 1991

MD, McGill University, 1989

Keywords

community health workers

primary health care

improved service delivery in low income countries

maternal-newborn-child health

effective scale up

systems thinking

Research

To date, in my research activities there have consistently been tight evidence-practice linkages. In almost all such work I’ve been involved with, the research was done directly in response to a need identified on the program side. More recent efforts have focused on broader synthesis across multiple related program efforts. This has included:

A set of country program case-studies on Community Health Worker programs, which gave rise to a book-length guidance document
Multi-country analysis using survey data on antenatal services and sick-child care
Ongoing work on unacknowledged, ineffective scale-up efforts in global health (“empty scale-up”). See technical report.
A multi-country review of large-scale postnatal home visitation programs (an effort I have led, in collaboration with colleagues from World Health Organization, UNICEF, United States Agency for International Development and others)

Link for publications indexed in medline

Teaching

My teaching draws heavily on my background of 30+ years of public health practice, which has always included a strong emphasis on critical inquiry and learning / adaptation.

I seek substantial convergence between the focus of my teaching and my research involvement with—on both sides—an emphasis on: real-world grounding, bringing rigorous inquiry to high priority program challenges; and, thinking critically and creatively about public health practice and implementation. I bring my personal experience in global health program work to my interactions with students, helping them better understand the role they can play.

Announcements

Supervision

I am particularly interested in taking on mid-career graduate supervisees who expect to continue working in their agency settings for their dissertation/ thesis.

I am NOT currently accepting MSc and PhD students.

Scholarly Activities

Research - publications

Featured Publications

Postnatal Care with a Focus on Home Visitation: A Design Decision-Aid for Policymakers and Program Managers

Hodgins S, McPherson R, Kerber K

2017 January;

Simple Interventions Delivered During Pregnancy Feasible for Neglected Populations:A Narrative Review

Hodgins S, Tielsch J, Rankin K, Robinson A, Kearns A, Caglia J

PLoS One. 2016 January; 11 (8)

Developing and Strengthening Community Health Worker Programs at Scale: A Reference Guide and Case Studies for Program Managers and Policymakers

Perry H, Crigler L, Hodgins S, et al

2014 January;