Jessica Price

Dr. Jessica Price serves as a Research Fellow at the MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, conducting critical public health research in rural South Africa.

Educational Background

• PhD, University of Oxford
• MPH (Institution unspecified)
• MB BCh (Institution unspecified)

Her research program addresses fundamental challenges in global health transitions, with particular focus on maternal and child health systems, verbal autopsy methodology for cause-of-death validation, and healthcare resilience during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance Site's 30-year longitudinal dataset, she employs mixed-methods approaches including interrupted time series analysis, social autopsy studies, and health systems modeling to generate actionable insights for resource-limited settings.

Recent publication trends reveal increasing methodological sophistication in mortality surveillance (2023-2025) and pandemic health systems research (2021-2022), with strong international collaboration networks spanning 12 countries. Her work consistently bridges epidemiological research and policy implementation, directly contributing to national health frameworks in South Africa.

Key Scientific Contributions

• Development of COMCAT verbal autopsy model for public health decision-making
• National validation of verbal autopsy methods for South Africa's cause-of-death system
• Documentation of pandemic-induced disruptions to essential health services
• Analysis of care pathways for under-five mortality in rural settings

Dr. Price actively contributes to grant-funded research as a co-investigator on 3 major projects totaling ZAR 8.2 million, focusing on health transition dynamics and mortality surveillance. She mentors early-career researchers through the unit's structured supervision framework while collaborating closely with provincial health authorities to ensure research relevance.

The MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit provides her primary research infrastructure, operating as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Population Health with field sites across Mpumalanga Province and connections to the INDEPTH Network's 50+ health and demographic surveillance sites globally.