Zenewton Gama

Zenewton Gama

Visiting Scholar, BetterBirth

Zenewton Gama, PhD, MSc, PT, is an associate professor of Collective Health at The Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN (Brazil), and a visiting scholar at Ariadne Labs. He is analyzing models of care, health systems strategic interventions, and contextual factors related to the improvement of quality of care and patient safety in childbirth.

He currently coordinates two research projects funded by The Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development – ​​CNPq and is analysing data together with the Ariadne Labs’ BetterBirth team. His projects are about the (1) design and implementation of a multifaceted strategy based on the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist to improve quality of healthcare in Brazilian public maternity hospitals, and about (2) analysing the regulatory impact mechanisms on safe practices in health services of the Brazil’s Unified Health System – SUS. The second project is related to his participation as a full member of the National Health Surveillance Commission on Patient Safety in Health Services – COVISS by The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency – Anvisa/Ministry of Health.

In recent years, Dr. Gama coordinated the Master in Quality Management in Health Services – Mestrado QualiSaúde at UFRN, which is a pioneer program about quality of care in Brazil, offered in partnership with the University of Murcia (Spain) and The National Institute of Public Health (México). He also coordinated and participated in several research studies and services, which resulted in 65 published peer-review articles, books, softwares, as well as research productivity grants from CNPq.

Dr. Gama is interested in supporting health systems to improve their services in an integrated way, from health policy to healthcare, in all dimensions of quality of care, all levels of healthcare, and from clinical to public health services. He has an undergraduate degree in physiotherapy at UFRN and graduate studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Murcia in Spain, where he completed an MSc in Quality Management in Health Services, and a PhD in Health Sciences.