Dr Motunrayo Ajisola

Institute of Applied Health Research
Project Manager – Global Health Research

Contact details

Email: m.m.ajisola@bham.ac.uk

Address: Murray Learning Centre
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Motunrayo Ajisola is an experienced project manager with a strong background in academic research. She has a proven track record of success in planning, management, and delivery of multidisciplinary and multi-country collaborative research projects in the United Kingdom (UK) and in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

Motunrayo is passionate about doing research, and her research interest focuses on improving access to/quality of care in low resource settings. As a researcher and fieldwork expert with almost a decade’s involvement with global health issues, Motunrayo has firsthand experience of living and conducting research in low-income settings. This has exposed her to global and public health issues in LMICs, which are useful in making significant contributions to improving population health.

Motunrayo possesses expertise in administrative and academic components of research and can work independently and in a team.

ORCiD: 0000-0002-1704-0944

ResearchGate profile

Qualifications

MSc in Project Management, University of Northampton, United Kingdom, 2024
PhD in (Medical) Sociology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 2018
MSc in Sociology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 2012
BSc (Hons) in Sociology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, 2008

Biography

Dr Motunrayo Ajisola holds a PhD in Sociology, from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Her postgraduate training in Sociology was in the sub-specialisation of Medical Sociology. Nonetheless, her research activities within the last six years have been in Public Health with emphatic interest in access to healthcare, digital health/remote consultation, quality of care, and mental health in low-resource settings. Motunrayo also recently completed a master’s degree in project management at the university of Northampton, United Kingdom. Her MSc dissertation explored management of foreign-funded research projects in a federal university in Nigeria. The MSc enabled her to gain key conceptual and methodological training relevant in her career field and to build networks for future research collaboration.

Currently, Motunrayo works as a project manager on the National Institute of Health and Care funded RIGHT Call project, titled, “Rwanda912: Use of an innovative electronic communications platform to improve pre-hospital transport of injured people in Rwanda”. The aim of the study is to develop and test the effectiveness of a novel electronic communications platform, Rwanda912 to reduce time to transport injured patient to hospital and improve clinical care outcomes such as death and length of stay in hospital in two large areas of Rwanda (urban and rural). Motunrayo is responsible for the delivery of high-quality finance, and research management. She is also in-charge of monitoring progress and reporting quarterly to the funder.

Before joining the University of Birmingham, Motunrayo worked as a Research Fellow and Trial/Project Manager on several NIHR, MRC and GRP-ID/GCRF funded research projects at the University of Ibadan, the Nigeria’s Premier University. She also collaborated with the TRANSFORM Team of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan Nigeria, in the community engagement and qualitative data collection phases of the Transforming Access to Care for Serious Mental Disorders in Slums - The TRANSFORM project (NIHR Project). Throughout her career as a research fellow and project manager, Motunrayo took responsibility for planning and coordinating the delivery of various research activities and engaged with stakeholders of different hierarchies in Africa and the United Kingdom.

Apart from her project management experience, Motunrayo is highly proficient in hospital and community-based participatory research, qualitative and mixed methods of inquiry, clinical trial study, data management and qualitative data analysis. As a doctoral candidate, Motunrayo served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (Academic Advisor) at the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre and taught various introductory and methodology modules in Sociology.

Motunrayo has co-authored several articles in the field of global health. She aims to build on her existing networks with research collaborators in global health and multi-disciplinary research.

Research

Research interests

Dr Motunrayo Ajisola is interested in health research to improve access/quality of care in low-resource settings.

Specialty areas of interest are in slum health, digital health/remote consultation, mental health.

Current projects

NIHR funded RIGHT Call project – Rwanda912: Use of an innovative electronic communications platform to improve pre-hospital transport of injured people in Rwanda.

Publications

Udo S, Ogbu Sunday P, Tsaku P, Oladejo I, Meka A, Ugwu L, Ajisola M, (2024), Raw, Unadulterated African Honey for Ulcer Healing in Leprosy: Protocol for the Honey Experiment on Leprosy Ulcer (HELP) Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIRx Med 5:e50970. doi: 10.2196/50970: https://xmed.jmir.org/2024/1/e50970

Sturt J, Griffiths F, Ajisola M, Akinyemi JO, Chipwaza B, Fayehun O, Harris B, Owoaje E, Rogers R, Pemba S, Watson SI, Omigbodun A; REaCH collaborative group (2023), Safety and upscaling of remote consulting for long-term conditions in primary health care in Nigeria and Tanzania (REaCH trials): stepped-wedge trials of training, mobile data allowance, and implementation. Lancet Glob Health. 11(11):e1753-e1764. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(23)00411-4. PMID: 37858586.

Fayehun, O., Madan, J., Oladejo, A., Oni, O., Owoaje, E., Ajisola, M., Lilford, R., Omigbodun, A., & Improving Health in Slums Collaborative (2023), What influences slum residents' choices of healthcare providers for common illnesses? Findings of a Discrete Choice Experiment in Ibadan, Nigeria. PLOS global public health, 3(3), e0001664. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001664

Ayobola, M. M. and Nwokocha, E. E. (2022), Factors Constituting Barriers to Seeking Healthcare for Postnatal Depression among Mothers in Ibadan, Nigeria. The Nigerian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, Vol 20(1), 46-60. DOI: 10.36108/NJSA/2202.02.0140 The Nigerian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology (nasajournal.com.ng)

Park, J., Kibe, P., Yeboah, G., Oyebode, O., Harris, B., Ajisola, M. et al., The Improving Health in Slums Collaborative. (2022), Factors associated with accessing and utilisation of healthcare and provision of health services for residents of slums in low and middle-income countries: a scoping review of recent literature. BMJ Open, 12, e055415. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055415 Factors associated with accessing and utilisation of healthcare and provision of health services for residents of slums in low and middle-income countries: a scoping review of recent literature | BMJ Open

Fayehun, O., Ajisola, M., Uthman, O., Oyebode, O., Oladejo, A., Owoaje, E., Taiwo, O., Odubanjo, O., Harris, B., Lilford, R., Omigbodun, A., & Improving Health in Slums Collaborative (2022), A contextual exploration of healthcare service use in urban slums in Nigeria. PloS One, 17(2), e0264725. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. .0264725

Improving Health in Slums Collaborative. (2022), Primary care doctor and nurse consultations among people who live in slums: a retrospective, cross-sectional survey in four countries. BMJ Open, 12, e054142. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054142

Improving Health in Slums Collaborative. (2021), Inequity of healthcare access and use and catastrophic health spending in slum communities: a retrospective, cross-sectional survey in four countries. BMJ Global Health, 6, e007265. (PDF) Inequity of healthcare access and use and catastrophic health spending in slum communities: a retrospective, cross-sectional survey in four countries (researchgate.net)

Improving Health in Slums Collaborative. (2021), Pharmacies in informal settlements: a retrospective, cross-sectional household and health facility survey in four countries. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 945. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06937-9 Pharmacies in informal settlements: a retrospective, cross-sectional household and health facility survey in four countries | BMC Health Services Research | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)

Harris, B., Ajisola, M., Alam, R. M., et al. (2021), Mobile consulting as an option for delivering healthcare services in low-resource settings in low- and middle-income countries: A mixed-methods study. Digital Health, 7, 1-24. doi:10.1177/20552076211033425 Mobile consulting (mConsulting) and its potential for providing access to quality healthcare for populations living in low-resource settings of low- and middle-income countries (sagepub.com)

Aujla, N., Ilori, T., Irabor, A., Obimakinde, A., Owoaje, E., Fayehun, O., Ajisola. M., et al. (2021), Development of a video-observation method for examining doctors’ clinical and interpersonal skills in a hospital outpatient clinic in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. BMC Health Service Research, 21, 488. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06491-4 Development of a video-observation method for examining doctors’ clinical and interpersonal skills in a hospital outpatient clinic in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria | BMC Health Services Research | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)

Yeboah, G., Porto de Albuquerque, J., Troilo, R., Tregonning, G., Perera, S., Ahmed, S.A.K.S., Ajisola, M., et al. (2021), Analysis of OpenStreetMap Data Quality at Different Stages of a Participatory Mapping Process: Evidence from Slums in Africa and Asia. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf, 10, 265. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10040265 Analysis of OpenStreetMap Data Quality at Different Stages of a Participatory Mapping Process: Evidence from Slums in Africa and Asia (ncl.ac.uk)

Ahmed, S., Ajisola, M., Azeem, K. et al. Improving Health in Slums, C. (2020), Impact of the societal response to COVID-19 on access to healthcare for non-COVID-19 health issues in slum communities of Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan: results of pre-COVID and COVID-19 lockdown stakeholder engagements. BMJ Glob Health, 5(8), e003042. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003042 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32819917

Griffiths, F., Watkins, J. A., Huxley, C., Harris, B., Cave, J., Pemba, S., Chipwaza, B., Lilford, R., Ajisola, M., et al. (2020), Mobile consulting (mConsulting) and its potential for providing access to quality healthcare for populations living in low-resource settings of low- and middle-income countries. Digital Health, 6, 1-7. doi.org/10.1177/2055207620919594 Mobile consulting (mConsulting) and its potential for providing access to quality healthcare for populations living in low-resource settings of low- and middle-income countries (sagepub.com)

Improving Health in Slums Collaborative. (2019), A protocol for a multi-site, spatially-referenced household survey in slum settings: methods for access, sampling frame construction, sampling, and field data collection. BMC Med Res Methodol, 19, 109. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-019-0732-x

Abdulmalik, J., Nwefoh, E., Obindo, J., Dakwak, S., Ayobola, M., Umaru, J., Samuel, E., Ogoshi, C., and Eaton, J. (2018),Emotional Difficulties and Experiences of Stigma among Persons with Lymphatic Filariasis in Plateau State, Nigeria. Health and Human Rights 20(1), 27-40. Emotional Difficulties and Experiences of Stigma among Persons with Lymphatic Filariasis in Plateau State, Nigeria - PMC (nih.gov)

Ayobola, M. M. and Nwokocha, E. E. (2014), Social Context of Healthcare Utilization among People with Mental Illness in Southwestern, Nigeria. The Nigeria Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 12(2), 16-30. DOI: 10.36108/NJSA/4102/12(0220) https://doi.org/10.36108/NJSA/4102/12(0220)