Catherine Kyobutungi

In October 2017, Kyobutungi was made the Director of Research at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC).^[13][14] In this capacity she evaluated maternal health and well being challenges in African cities.^[12][15] Kyobutungi looked to strengthen governance in local health services, as well as providing training, infrastructure and equipment.^[16] Whilst African researchers in these local health centers can generate large amounts of useful health data, they often do no have the capacities to analyse it.^[17] Kyobutungi has described unused African research data as being like a hippo, "at the moment we can only see and access a very small amount – like the ears of a hippo in water – but we know there is a huge potential lying just below the surface".^[17]

She was made of Executive Director of the APHRC in 2017.^[18] Here her work has considered the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, prevalence of diabetes in poor urban communities and ways to prevent cardiovascular diseases in Nairobi slums.^[13][19] She was the inaugural Chair of the Kenya Epidemiological Association. Kyobutungi has made efforts to improve girls' access to education, including the development of community resources and trained mentors.^[20]

In 2019 Kyobutungi was announced as the Joep Lange Chair, a position in which she investigates non-communicable diseases in African countries.^[8] Non-communicable diseases are rising in African countries, and current healthcare systems are not equipped to treat populations affected by them.^[8] The focus of foreign money and training to date has been on HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, which means that simple medical tests such as measuring blood pressure often get overlooked.^[8] Kyobutungi supported health workers to visit local communities with blood pressure cuffs to monitor for hypertension.^[21] She found that to encourage patient and doctor participation she had to include an economic incentive, offering 100 schillings for every screened patient who visits the clinic.^[21] Alongside establishing a research program investigating the management of chronic diseases and ways to strengthen healthcare systems, Kyobutungi is exploring the role of digital technology in connecting patients with their healthcare systems.^[8] She has studied the influence of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on tobacco legislation in Sub-Saharan Africa.^[22]

Kyobutungi serves on the council of the United States International University Africa.^[23] She also serves as director of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), an organisation which looks to rebuild and strengthen the capacity of African universities.^[24][25] She was elected to the African Academy of Sciences in 2018.^[9][26]

Since 2019, Kyobutungi has been a member of the Lancet–SIGHT Commission on Peaceful Societies Through Health and Gender Equality, chaired by Tarja Halonen.^[27]

Kyotobungi is a founding Editor-in-Chief of PLOS Global Public Health, an open-access journal that addresses deeply entrenched inequities and makes impactful research visible and accessible to health professionals, policy-makers, and local communities without barriers.^[28] She continues to serve in that role.

• Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), Member of the Board^[29]