Dr. Viola Pavoncello is a researcher with a PhD in Microbiology from the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Passionate about Global Health, she has dedicated herself to promoting equitable access to quality healthcare. In 2023-2024, she had the opportunity to further deepen her interest in this field by completing our Master in Global Health.
Her work on COVID-19 vaccination strategies, conducted in Madagascar with Dr. Daniela Fusco and the team of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), led to the recent publication in Implementation Science of “Optimizing vaccine uptake in sub-Saharan Africa: a collaborative COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Madagascar using an adaptive approach“. This research informed her Master’s thesis, which aimed to enhance understanding of how to effectively deliver affordable, life-saving interventions in low-resource environments and within diverse health systems by leveraging implementation science frameworks and models.
The study highlights the importance of a collaborative and adaptive approach, integrating feedback from local stakeholders and addressing specific contextual challenges. Using the Dynamic Sustainability Framework, she and the BNITM team regularly monitored and adapted the vaccination campaign to address challenges such as cold chain logistics, vaccine transport, and technological gaps. Their findings confirm that theory-based adaptive approaches can significantly increase vaccination coverage in resource-limited contexts. Moreover, the lessons learned have important implications for adult vaccination programs beyond COVID-19.
This work exemplifies how combining theoretical frameworks with practical field interventions can lead to impactful and sustainable health solutions, contributing meaningfully to addressing global health challenges.