Linda Akuamoah-Boateng

Linda is a 2020 Summer in the Field Fellow at the Global Development Policy Center. She is a doctor of public health (DrPH) candidate at the Boston University School of Public Health.

Ms. Akuamoah-Boateng is a healthcare professional with administrative and clinical experience from the US, the Netherlands and Ghana. She is a licensed Dutch physical therapist, a certified professional in healthcare quality (CPHQ) and a Lean Green Belt. Her areas of expertise include quality improvement, patient safety, program implementation, evaluation, health analytics and cross-cultural facilitation.

Linda has worked with healthcare leaders from Kenya, China, Bermuda, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, the US and other countries to develop quality improvement strategies. She has also worked with several world renowned institutions including the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) where she provided leadership for various analytics and process improvement initiatives. Ms. Akuamoah-Boateng also served as the manager for quality improvement for the Center of Excellence for Pediatric Quality Measurement at the Boston Children’s Hospital funded by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Additionally, she recently worked as a quality measurement improvement consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO). Her work with the WHO focused on developing a set of quality of care indicators for use in developing countries.

Ms. Akuamoah-Boateng holds a bachelor of physical therapy from the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and a Master of Healthcare Administration from Suffolk University (Boston, US). Her areas of interest include global health quality improvement, health systems strengthening, capacity building and access to care for vulnerable populations.

For her doctoral dissertation, Ms. Akuamoah-Boateng, is working with the Ghana Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service to evaluate of the implementation of the Ghana Healthcare Quality and Policy Strategy (NQPS). This study seeks to understand the mechanisms of effective national health quality policy implementation in developing countries including the barriers and facilitators to implementation.

Linda’s dissertation study addresses a significant gap in knowledge on the mechanisms of healthcare quality policy implementation knowledge in Low and Middle Income (LMICs). The study will generate critical guidance on the implementation of national health quality policies aimed at improving population health in LMICs. Findings will support the implementation of such policies globally.

Without the well-being of citizens, nations cannot attain financial stability and environmental sustainability. “The first wealth is health,”- Ralph Waldo Emerson