Dr Fatima Suleman

Researcher

South Africa

My work has concentrated in the area of pharmaceutical policy, with a focus on ensuring affordability and access to medicines, both for adults and for children and across a range of disease conditions. My research has looked at the impact of implementing pricing policies within countries in terms of reducing costs as well as improving access. Collaborative research has focused on measuring affordability for medicines, and for specific measures to assess access to medicines for children. Other access to medicine projects have looked at alignment of national essential medicines lists with the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines List, as well as opening up ownership of pharmacies to non-pharmacists in an effort to increase access. My research has used both qualitative and quantitative methods, and in some instances employed a mixed-methods approach. It includes indicator development and testing, stakeholder analysis, questionnaire surveys, and semi-structured key informant interviews. This work has led to technical advice being provided on pharmaceutical policy for several countries in Africa and Asia in the last 17 years. As part of developing capacity in this area, my work has also looked at developing interprofessional research leadership relevant to local needs and what it means to decolonize global health.