Key details
Dr Muhammad Osman
Associate Professor in Public Health and Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Associate Professor in Public Health and Infectious Disease Epidemiology since 2024.
Muhammad Osman trained as a clinician in South Africa and rendered clinical services in primary health care with a focus on Tuberculosis and HIV medicine for 9 years. Muhammad transitioned to Health Management and took responsibility for Primary Health Care and Environmental Health services for a designated area in the metropolitan City of Cape Town, South Africa for 3 years. He completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Health Management at the University of Cape Town, MSc in Epidemiology at Columbia University in New York as a Fogarty Fellow and PhD at Stellenbosch University as a recipient of the Bongani Mayosi National Health Scholars Programme scholarship.
Muhammad has substantive experience teaching quantitative methods, epidemiology, and health management. Muhammad currently oversees the Master’s research projects and dissertations, coordinating the supervision of students in both Global Public Health and Global Health management.
Posts held previously
- 2023-2024 Academic Portfolio Lead: Public Health
- 2021 - 2022 Senior Researcher and Clinical Epidemiologist at Stellenbosch University
- 2017 - 2021 Bongani Mayosi National Health Scholars Programme Scholarship as PhD Student
- 2017 - 2021 Clinical Epidemiologist and Researcher at Stellenbosch University
- 2014 - 2015 Fogarty Fellow at Columbia University as a Masters Student
- 2013 - 2017 Health Manager at the City of Cape Town
- 2008 - 2013 Senior Medical Officer at the City of Cape Town
Responsibilities within the university
As an Academic Portfolio Lead: Public Health, Muhammad is responsible for the day-to-day management of staff in the Public Health portfolio, focusing on building team identity, delivering appraisal outcomes and objective-setting, and developing and mentoring established and early career staff. As a member of the School Management team, he sets standards of excellence in teaching, learning and research across the portfolio.
Awards
- 2020 Winner of the 2020 SA MRC Early Career Scientist Convention Best Abstract Award
- 2019 HD Breede Award for Postgraduate Research in Infectious Disease: Clinical Research Category
- 2018 Stellenbosch University: Scientific Travel Fund Award
- 2017 - 2018 Emerging Researcher Fund Award, South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (SACEMA), Stellenbosch University
- 2017 Scholarship, Bongani Mayosi National Health Scholars Programme, South African MRC
- 2013 Fellowship, Columbia University-Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program
- 2011 Global Travel Health Award, Keystone Symposia.
Recognition
- Examiner and External Examiner MPH: Stellenbosch University and University of KwaZulu Natal
- Member of South African TB Think Tank (Including TB treatment outcomes and Epidemiology & Modelling sub groups)
- Academic Editor: PLOS ONE and BMC Health Services Research
- Peer Reviewer: BMC Infectious Diseases; BMC Public Health; Emerging Infectious Diseases; International Journal of Infectious Diseases; International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease; Pediatrics; PLOS ONE; Public Health Action; Scientific Reports; South African Medical Journal
- Director: Islamic Relief South Africa
- Trustee: Islamic Relief Worldwide.
Research / Scholarly interests
Tuberculosis, Epidemiology, Public Health, Health Management; Health Systems.
Key funded projects
- 2024 South African TB Think Tank. DART-TB: Data access, quality, and usage: Assessment of a new Electronic Medical Register TB Module. Co-Investigator
- 2021 - 2023 South African MRC. Epidemiological impact and intersection of the COVID-19 and tuberculosis pandemics in Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa. Co-Principal Investigator (ZAR 5m)
- 2021 - 2023 South African TB Think Tank. An assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and nationwide lockdown on public tuberculosis healthcare service provision and epidemiology in South Africa. Co-Principal Investigator (ZAR 290,000)
- 2021 - 2022 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Co-Investigator Assessment of the value proposition of new TB diagnostic tools – Epidemiological Modelling for South Africa. Co-Investigator (USD 75,000)
- 2018 - 2023 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Strategic Innovation Demonstration Studies: LINKEDin (reducing initial loss to follow-up). Co-Principal Investigator (USD 2m)
- 2019 - 2022 South African TB Think Tank. A review of key stakeholders’ perceptions of the impediments and facilitators of the implementation of Tuberculosis Preventive Therapy (TPT) in South Africa. Co-Investigator (ZAR 350,000)
- 2019 - 2021 South African TB Think Tank. A review of patient-centred care initiatives for tuberculosis care in South Africa and beyond. Co-Investigator (ZAR 390,000)
- 2018 - 2019 South African TB Think Tank. A systematic review of risk factors for mortality among drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB patients in South Africa (2010 – 2018). Principal Investigator (ZAR 175,000)
- 2017 - 2023, Unfunded, Principal Investigator Evaluating 10 years of TB Control in South Africa.