Departmental Affiliations
Center & Institute Affiliations
David Peters, DrPH ’93, MPH ’89, MD, studies how to strengthen health systems in low- and middle-income countries, particularly to better serve poor and vulnerable populations.
Contact Info
Research Interests
health systems; health systems research; health policy research; health sector performance; implementation research; health management; health equity; poverty and health; sector wide approaches; health markets; balanced scorecards; Africa; South Asia; India; Afghanistan
Additional Links
Experiences & Accomplishments
My research has been focused on improving the performance of health systems in low- and middle-income countries, particularly to address the needs of poor and vulnerable populations. Much of my work has been conducted in very difficult environments, such as in post-conflict fragile states, with applications aimed at improving health conditions and building trusted and sustainable institutions. I have played a leading role in conceptualizing and developing implementation research methods and incorporating complex adaptive systems into public health. The areas of research include understanding the factors that improve overall levels and distribution of health status, the risk of poverty due to health expenditures and ill health, and public satisfaction with health services, and involving innovations in health policy and systems, such as those dealing with strategic engagement of governments with the private sector, alternative health financing methods, resource allocation methods, and new approaches to organization of health services and public health service delivery.
Honors & Awards
Global Achievement Award, Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association
Recognition for Teaching Excellence – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (17 times, 2008-2020)
Independent Evaluation Group (World Bank) Good Practice Award for Evaluation (2009)
Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society
Select Publications
Selected recent publications
Theobald S, Brandes N, Gyapong M, El-Saharty S, Proctor E, Diaz T, Wanji S, Elloker S, Raven J, Elsey H, Bharal S, Pelletier D, Peters DH. Implementation research: new imperatives and opportunities in global health. Lancet. 2018; 392(10160):2214-2228. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32205-0
Peters DH. Health policy and systems research: the future of the field. Health Research Policy and Systems. 2018; 16(1):84
Kirsch TD, Moseson H, Massaquoi M, Nyenswah TG, Goodermote R, Rodriguez-Barraquer I, Lessler J, Cumings D, Peters DH. Impact of interventions and the incidence of ebola virus disease in Liberia-implications for future epidemics. Health Policy Plan. 2016; 1-10. doi: 10.1093/heapol/czw113
Engineer C, Dale E, Agarwal A, Agarwal A, Alonge O, Edward A, Gupta S, Schuh H, Burnham B, Peters DH. Effectiveness of a pay for performance intervention to improve maternal and child health services in Afghanistan: A cluster-randomized trial. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2016; 1-9. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyv362.
Paina L, Peters DH. Pathways to Scaling Up Health Services in Complex Adaptive Systems. Health Policy Plan 2011, doi:10.1093/heapol/czr054