Dr. Christabel Cheung Awarded Salzburg Global Network Fund for Equity-Focused International Health Systems Research.
Dr. Christabel Cheung, Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, has been awarded funding through the Salzburg Global Transforming Information Pathways for Health, Well-Being, and Equity Network Fund to support the bilingual English and Portuguese project, “Learning Wellness Systems for Equity.”
Building on Dr. Cheung’s ongoing work with Salzburg Global, this research examines how learning health systems can move beyond models that treat communities as passive data sources to instead center lived experience, accountability, and equitable benefit distribution.
Dr. Cheung leads as Co-Principal Investigator alongside Dr. Zoheb Khan at the Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP), Brazil, and the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. The project brings together an interdisciplinary, international team with collaborators from NHS England (U.K.), York University (Canada), New York University (U.S.), Te Kahui Raraunga (New Zealand), the Michigan Public Health Institute (U.S.), Soul City Institute (South Africa), the School of Dr Idz (U.K.), CEBRAP, Brazil, the University of Johannesburg (South Africa), Baltimore’s Promise (U.S.), and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (U.S.).
Selected through a competitive international process, the project was recognized for its innovative, data-driven framework and its commitment to advancing equity by positioning communities as active authorities in how health data are governed, interpreted, and applied. The study will identify and characterize “Learning Wellness Systems”—data-enabled learning cycles that prioritize collective well-being and community-defined outcomes—to inform a typology of systems that operationalize embodied leadership, community decision-making, accountability, and equitable benefit distribution, advancing more just and effective global health information pathways.