Derrick Bary Abila, BSc., MBChB, MPH

Dr. Derrick Bary Abila is a graduate of a Bachelor of Science in Cytotechnology and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree (MBChB), both from Makerere University (Uganda) and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom). He is a Research Program Manager at the Uganda Child Cancer Foundation (UCCF), Kampala, Uganda, where he engages in research to improve the outcomes of children diagnosed with cancer. Dr. Abila has over seven years of experience in clinical, public health, and global health research, and is interested in chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like cancer, women & child health, mobile health (mHealth), and the intersection between infectious diseases and cancer.

He has served on several international and multi-disciplinary committees aimed at promoting global health activities including, the Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI) of the World Health Organization (WHO), NCD Labs of the World Health Organization’s Global Coordination Mechanism on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (WHO GCM/NCD), Global Collaborator on the Global Burden of Disease Studies (GBD) of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and the Trainee Advisory Committee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH TAC).

He has been a principal investigator on research studies supported by grants from the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH), the African Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ARNTD), and the Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research (RTFCCR). His current projects are focused on :(1) improving the diagnosis & treatment monitoring for pediatric leukemia, (2) describing childhood, adolescent & adult cancer diagnosed in Uganda (3) subtyping Human Papillomavirus (HPV) among women living with HIV and those not living with HIV from community screening, and (4) defining the burden of female genital schistosomiasis in Uganda, and (5) reducing health inequalities across the continuum of cancer care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). He has co-authored over 40 publications in peer reviewed journals and presented research findings at over 15 international conferences/workshops/symposia.