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Zahidul Quayyum

Professor (Health Economics), Chair of the Institutional Review Board and Co-director, Center of Excellence for Urban Equity and Health, BRAC JPGSPH

Centre of Excellence for Urban Equity and Health (CUEH)

Short Biography

Dr Zahidul Quayyum is a Professor and Chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (BRAC JPGSPH) at BRAC University. He is also the Co-Director of the Centre of Excellence for Urban Equity and Health and served as the Director Research at the school for several years. He is a health economist and a public health researcher with more than 27 years of experience conducting health economics and health systems research. He has worked as a Health Economist in many national and international projects and has been involved in working on economic evaluation of interventions and economic analysis of policy changes for improving maternal and child health. He has also been involved in conducting systematic reviews of economic evaluation, decision modelling and health technology assessment for the NIHR (UK) and EU-funded projects. He is currently leading five (one funded by FCDO and one by Wellcome Trust) research projects as Principal Investigator and three as Co-Investigator at BRAC JPGSPH and has been involved in evaluating health care interventions on displaced population, assessing the impact of environment, housing and neighbourhood and co-producing interventions for urban health. He obtained his PhD in Health Economics from the University of Aberdeen, M. Sc. in Health Policy Planning and Financing from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, MA in Economics from Thammasat University, Thailand, MSS and BSS in Economics from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has authored more than 40 pee-reviewed publications.

Module(s) taught (in MPH)

  • MPH 531: Health Economics & Health Care Financing

Current Projects

1. Project: Community-Led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems (CHORUS)
Donor: FCDO, University of Leeds, UK
Role: PI 

2. Design and evaluate appropriate strategic purchasing models and strengthening capacity  of the purchasers in Urban Bangladesh: A mixed method study
Donor: FCDO, University of Leeds, UK
Role: PI

3. Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities
Donor: Wellcome Trust, Imperial College, UK
Role: PI

4. Our Planet, Our Health award: Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities (Public Engagement 
 around waste-induced waterlogging)
Donor: Wellcome Trust
Role: PI

5. Accountability and Responsiveness in Informal Settlements for Equity (ARISE)
Donor: GCRF – UKRI, University of Liverpool, UK
Role: Technical Advisor and Health Economist

6. A novel approach to engaging with poor urban  communities to talk about health: a scoping study to understand the perceptions of the key stakeholders in Bangladesh
Donor: Crucible 2021 Grant, University of Leeds
Role: PI 

7. Level of Small Area Poverty and Urban Health: Estimation, Validation, and Visualization
with Ground Level Data 
Donor: FCDO, University of Leeds, UK
Role: Primary Mentor

8. Endline Study to Assess Primary School Dropout Issues in Selected Districts of Bangladesh Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
Donor: BRAC Education Program (BEP)
Role: Co-PI

Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications

Barua, P., Kibuchi, E., Aktar, B., Chowdhury, S. F., Mithu, I. H., Quayyum, Z., ... & Gray, L. (2023). The effects of social determinants on children’s health outcomes in Bangladesh slums through an intersectionality lens: An application of multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA). PLOS Global Public Health, 3(3), e0001588. https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0001588 

de Siqueira Filha, N. T., Li, J., Phillips-Howard, P. A., Quayyum, Z., Kibuchi, E., Mithu, M. I. H., ... & Elsey, H. (2022). The economics of healthcare access: a scoping review on the economic impact of healthcare access for vulnerable urban populations in low-and middle-income countries. International journal for equity in health, 21(1), 191. https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12939-022-01804-3 

Wallace, L. J., Agyepong, I., Baral, S., Barua, D., Das, M., Huque, R., Joshi, D., Mbachu, C. O., Naznin, B., Nonvignon, J., Ofosu, A., Onwujekwe, O.E., Sharma, S., Quayyum, Z., Ensor, T., & Elsey, H. (2022). The role of the private sector in the COVID-19 pandemic: experiences from four health systems. Frontiers in Public Health, 1527. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.878225/full 

Naznin, B., Quayyum, Z., Tajree, J., Golder, S., Ebenso, B., Barua, D., …. & Elsey, H. (2022). Assessment of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Models in Health Systems in Least Developed, Low Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries and Territories: A Protocol for a Systematic Review. Health Care: Current Reviews. https://www.walshmedicalmedia.com/open-access/assessment-of-publicprivate-partnership-ppp-models-in-health-systems-in-least-developed-low-income-and-lowermiddleincome.pdf

Jerin, D. T., Sara, H. H., Radia, M. A., Hema, P. S., Hasan, S., Urme, S. A., ... & Quayyum, Z. (2022). An overview of progress towards implementation of solid waste management policies in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Heliyon, e08918. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844022002067

Baumgartner, J., Rodriguez, J., Berkhout, F., Doyle, Y., Ezzati, M., Owuso, G., ... & Robinson, B. E. (2023). Synthesizing the links between secure housing tenure and health for more equitable cities. Wellcome Open Research, 7(18), 18. https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.17244.1

Robles-Zurita, J. A., Briggs, A., Rana, D., Quayyum, Z., Oldroyd, K. G., Zeymer, U., ... & Thiele, H. (2020). Economic evaluation of culprit lesion only PCI vs. immediate multivessel PCI in acute myocardial infarction complicated by cardiogenic shock: the CULPRIT-SHOCK trial. The European Journal of Health Economics, 21, 1197-1209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-020-01235-3

Elsey, H., Agyepong, I., Huque, R., Quayyem, Z., Baral, S., Ebenso, B., ... & Mirzoev, T. (2019). Rethinking health systems in the context of urbanisation: challenges from four rapidly urbanising low-income and middle-income countries. BMJ global health, 4(3), e001501. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6577312/ 

Audia, C., Berkhout, F., Owusu, G., Quayyum, Z., & Agyei-Mensah, S. (2021). Loops and building blocks: A knowledge co-production framework for equitable urban health. Journal of Urban Health, 98, 394-403..  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-021-00531-4 

Patel, A., Berdunov, V., Quayyum, Z., King, D., Knapp, M., & Wittenberg, R. (2020). Estimated societal costs of stroke in the UK based on a discrete event simulation. Age and ageing, 49(2), 270-276. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31846500/ 

Other Publications

1.	Bangladesh Health System’s Response to COVID-19 during first nine weeks: A Rapid Study on the Key Building Blocks (2021). Quayyum, Z., Shaon, F.T.U., Ahmed, A., Naznin, B., Hema, P. S., & Rahman, M. (2021). BRAC JPGSPH.  https://covid-bracjpgsph.org/front/covid/assets/files/research/brief/Health_System.pdf 

2.	Why cities need to preserve green space: A case study of Dhaka city (2022). Khadiza Tul Kobra Nahin, Hasna Hena Sara, Zahidul Quayyum. Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities. https://equitablehealthycities.org/blog/why-cities-need-to-preserve-green-space-a-case-study-of-dhaka-city/ 

3.	Taking the bus as a girl in Dhaka: A view of Dhaka city's broken commuting system 2022). Sabrina Mustabin Jaigirdar, Zahidul Quayyum. Dhaka Tribune. https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/06/07/taking-the-bus-as-a-girl-in-dhaka 

4.	A Knowledge Coproduction Workshop for an Equitable Healthy Dhaka City (2022). Sabrina Mustabin Jaigirdar, Zahidul Quayyum. BRAC University. https://www.bracu.ac.bd/news/knowledge-coproduction-workshop-equitable-healthy-dhaka-city 

5.	The complexities of the urban development: An insight into the policy dimensions (2022). Sabrina Mustabin Jaigirdar, Zahidul Quayyum. Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities. https://equitablehealthycities.org/blog/the-complexities-of-the-urban-development-and-urban-health-systems-an-insight-into-the-policy-dimensions/ 

Research Interests


Health systems research Economic Evaluation Decision modelling Health technology assessment Systematic reviews Climate change and environment Housing and neighborhood Maternal and child health Social determinants of health Sexual and reproductive health Climate and health Health of the displaced and marginalized population

Education


  • PhD in Health Economics (University of Aberdeen_ UK)
  • MSc in Health Policy Planning and Financing (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine_ UK)
  • MA in Economics (Thammasat University_ Thailand)
  • MSS in Economics (University of Dhaka)
  • BSS in Economics (University of Dhaka)