Kaajal Patel
Research Physician
Kaajal is a research paediatrician and has worked at the Cambodia Oxford Medical Research Unit (COMRU) since June 2019. Prior to this she was based at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) since September 2018, conducting fieldwork with COMRU. She is a Paediatric Specialty Registrar in London.
Her research interests include health systems strengthening, and evaluation of programmes designed to improve child health in resource-constrained settings. She is particularly drawn to finding ways to tackle the complex global health challenge of reducing neonatal mortality, using proven, cost-effective and ethical methodology.
In 2018 she was awarded a Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Global Development Grant as seed funding to work within Angkor Hospital for Children’s (AHC) flagship Saving Babies Lives’ (SBL) Programme. Kaajal leads the research for SBL, a five-year step-wedge cluster randomised control trial aiming to sustainably decrease neonatal mortality in a rural Cambodian province by one-third. Her research focus is on developing evaluation methodologies for the implementation and impact of the comprehensive neonatal healthcare programme, which includes interventions at each level of the health system. A particular interest is evaluating the role of mentorship, as a potentially sustainable and cost-effective way to improve quality of neonatal care.
Recent publications
-
Use of the International Classification of Diseases to Perinatal Mortality (ICD-PM) with verbal autopsy to determine the causes of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in rural Cambodia: a population-based, prospective, cohort study.
Journal article
Patel K. et al, (2025), The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific, 60
-
Deliver in the right place and get there in time! Healthcare-seeking behaviour for delivery in cases of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in rural Cambodia: a prospective cohort social autopsy study
Preprint
Patel K. et al, (2025)
-
Use of the International Classification of Diseases to Perinatal Mortality (ICD-PM) with verbal autopsy to determine the causes of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in rural Cambodia: a population-based, prospective, cohort study
Preprint
Patel K. et al, (2025)
-
A Prognostic Model for Critically Ill Children in Locations With Emerging Critical Care Capacity*
Journal article
Chandna A. et al, (2024), Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 25, 189 - 200
-
Saving babies' lives (SBL) - a programme to reduce neonatal mortality in rural Cambodia: study protocol for a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial.
Journal article
Patel K. et al, (2021), BMC pediatrics, 21