Biennial Research Day 2025

The private sector, politicians and commercial entities play significant roles in shaping public health outcomes. Their influence can be seen at many levels of society, from workplace organisation, occupational policies and healthcare delivery, to marketing products that impact health behaviours and influencing public health research agendas. The private sector can drive advancements in medical technologies and pharmaceuticals and enable resource sharing and innovation. However, it also poses challenges and concerns regarding conflicts of interest, prioritisation of profit over public health, and promotion of unhealthy commodities.

Researchers and students are invited to submit to this subtheme abstracts presenting research that:

• Uncovers the influence of private, political and commercial sector interests on health, health systems, programs and/or policies.
• Contributes to understanding environments (work and home) that are impacted by commercial activities (e.g. pollution) as determinants of health.
• Analyses the interplay of public (political) and private (commercial) interests in shaping health policies and programmes that influence public health.
• Reveals policy and practice interventions that might mitigate the inequitable aspects of the private sector and commercial influences on public health.
• Highlights how commercial activities influence individual behaviour in inequitable ways.
  
  

For queries, contact: Co-leads Kgomotso Lebelo at kgomotso.lebelo@wits.ac.za and Olukemi Babalola at olukemi.babalola1@wits.ac.za 

South Africa, like other low-and-middle-income-countries, continues to experience stark health inequities. One of the reasons for this is power imbalances between the global north and south, which have systematically marginalised African people and places, and excluded community voices in co-developing policies and programmes that affect their health.

Social, structural and other “determinants” of health are the conditions in which people work and live, but which individuals and communities have limited power to change. These determinants profoundly shape health and health inequities. They include economics, education, employment, housing, environmental conditions and exposures, food security, social inclusion, and policies and systems governing health facilities and programmes.

Researchers and students are invited to submit to this subtheme abstracts presenting research that:

• Amplifies community voices, especially those of vulnerable and marginalised groups.
• Reveals health inequalities, such as those related to environmental and occupational exposures, access to preventive and curative health services, and socio-economic factors (e.g. gender, poverty, race).
• Highlights inequities in the distribution of resources and opportunities to support health, and how these influence health outcomes and equity.
• Examines the role of foreign aid, the commercial sector, and other entities in health financing, and strategies for improving health equity.
• Explores how public health can promote equity and rights, and overcome neoliberal ideology and other barriers to universal health coverage and equitable health outcomes.
• Shows how evidence-based policies, tailored to African needs and expertise, might improve health equity and rights.
  
  

For queries, contact: Co-leads Trust Gangaidzo at trust.gangaidzo@wits.ac.za, Nicola Christofides at nicola.christofides@wits.ac.za, and Denny Mabetha at denny.mabetha@wits.ac.za 

Despite advances in the provision of preventive and curative healthcare services, disparities in access, quality, and outcomes still prevail within sub-Saharan Africa. Strengthening health systems and the policies that guide them, is crucial for achieving equitable and inclusive healthcare and closing the gaps in health service access. Presentations within this subtheme are intended to critically examine structural, systemic and policy-driven approaches to advancing equity in health systems, as well as intervention research and implementation science to overcome key barriers to care.

We welcome submission of abstracts presenting research results about:

• Access to healthcare services, and/or novel approaches to overcoming barriers to health service access, including through enhancing the health workforce and their working conditions.
• Health system financing and resource allocation, including the allocation of human resources for health, for equity.
• The role of governance, leadership, health workforce, and accountability in equitable health policies and systems.
• Intersectional approaches to health policy and service delivery, including those in private and public sector workplaces.

We encourage submissions that provide evidence-based solutions, policy recommendations, and frameworks to support more just and inclusive health systems.

For queries, contact: Co-leads Bianca Moffet at bianca.moffet@wits.ac.za, Caitlin Johnstone, and Kutlwano Sifora at kutlwano.sifora@wits.ac.za 

As public health evolves to meet increasingly complex challenges, there is a growing need for innovative approaches to research and programming, as well as to teaching the next generation of public health professionals. This subtheme is intended to showcase innovations in public health research, teaching and programming methods developed or used within Wits SPH. We are especially interested in approaches that strengthen both the science and teaching of public health, while driving meaningful improvements in health outcomes and equity. These include, but are not limited to, responses to recent advances in artificial intelligence technologies, and changes to global health financing institutions and systems.

We welcome abstract submissions to this subtheme that:

• Apply established research methods in novel ways that address health inequity, reveal new insights, improve relevance in local contexts, or enhance impact, in the context of changing global contexts and technologies.
• Adapt research or teaching tools to meet diverse public health questions, challenges and/or opportunities.
• Present innovative approaches to engaging community or other stakeholders in research, and/or community participatory research methods.
• Showcase original research methods and tools, or teaching and learning strategies, and their applications to public health.
• Use data in creative or community-responsive ways to inform policy and/or practice for translating research findings into equitable policy, practice and/or public engagement impact.

Abstracts that demonstrate creative thinking, even within familiar frameworks, are encouraged.

For queries, contact: Co-leads Okechinyere Achilonu at okechinyere.achilonu@wits.ac.za, Tanya Ruder at tanya.ruder@wits.ac.za, and Silindile Mjado at silindile.mjado@wits.ac.za