Marzia joined LSHTM in 2022. She is a paediatrician and epidemiologist by background, with clinical and research experience in maternal, newborn child health in over 30 countries, particularly in Africa, Central and South East Asia, and Latin America.
She has been collaborating closely with WHO since 1996, and has been directing a WHO Collaborating Centre for Maternal and Child Health, based in Trieste Italy, since 2012. She is currently a member of several WHO/UNICEF official boards - in particular related to maternal, newborn, child and adolescent quality of care and metrics.
She is author of about 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications, academic editor of scientific journals, invited external referee for several scientific journals and funding bodies including the Wellcome Trust and the EU Commission.
For WHO she has contributed so far to over 40 products - including WHO Standards for improving quality of care, WHO tools to assess and improve the quality of care, WHO manuals, WHO training packages, and WHO guidelines -.
She has been collaborating closely with WHO since 1996, and has been directing a WHO Collaborating Centre for Maternal and Child Health, based in Trieste Italy, since 2012. She is currently a member of several WHO/UNICEF official boards - in particular related to maternal, newborn, child and adolescent quality of care and metrics.
She is author of about 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications, academic editor of scientific journals, invited external referee for several scientific journals and funding bodies including the Wellcome Trust and the EU Commission.
For WHO she has contributed so far to over 40 products - including WHO Standards for improving quality of care, WHO tools to assess and improve the quality of care, WHO manuals, WHO training packages, and WHO guidelines -.
Affiliations
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and International Health
Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health
Research
Marzia’s current main area of interest include quality of maternal newborn and child care and health system approaches to improve it. In the field of quality of care, she has been leading several multi-country research projects with different study design - including randomised controlled trials, cross-sectional studies, qualitative research, and implementation research - in different settings, and in collaboration with a broad range of partners, such as UN agencies, Academia, Ministries of Health, NGOs and other development partners.
For LSHTM, where she works part time since 2022, she is the PI for ”Improving Quality and Use of Newborn Indicators (IMPULSE)”, a two-phase project to describe and improve the quality and use of facility-level newborn indicators in 4 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. At the WHO Collaborating Center MCH Italy, that she has been directing since 2012, she is the PI of 7 large multicenter studies, all related to quality of MNCA health care.
In the past she has been working as clinical paediatrician in several different settings, and has been involved in clinical research, with a particular interest in malnutrition. She is a Cochrane author since 2004, and acted as methodologist for the development of over 20 WHO Guidelines, in particular in the field of maternal, newborn and child nutrition.
Marzia is interested in improving Quality of Care in both low-, middle-, and high-income settings. So far, she had direct field experience in the following regions and countries:
• Europe and Central Asia: Croatia, Georgia, Kosovo Region, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Norway, Republic of Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, UK, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
• Africa: Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda.
• South East Asia and Latin America: Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, Sri Lanka.
For LSHTM, where she works part time since 2022, she is the PI for ”Improving Quality and Use of Newborn Indicators (IMPULSE)”, a two-phase project to describe and improve the quality and use of facility-level newborn indicators in 4 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. At the WHO Collaborating Center MCH Italy, that she has been directing since 2012, she is the PI of 7 large multicenter studies, all related to quality of MNCA health care.
In the past she has been working as clinical paediatrician in several different settings, and has been involved in clinical research, with a particular interest in malnutrition. She is a Cochrane author since 2004, and acted as methodologist for the development of over 20 WHO Guidelines, in particular in the field of maternal, newborn and child nutrition.
Marzia is interested in improving Quality of Care in both low-, middle-, and high-income settings. So far, she had direct field experience in the following regions and countries:
• Europe and Central Asia: Croatia, Georgia, Kosovo Region, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Norway, Republic of Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, UK, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
• Africa: Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda.
• South East Asia and Latin America: Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, Sri Lanka.
Research Area
Child health
Maternal health
Health systems
Quality improvement
Neonatal health
Region
Sub-Saharan Africa (all income levels)
Europe & Central Asia (all income levels)
Latin America & Caribbean (all income levels)
East Asia & Pacific (all income levels)
Selected Publications
Harmonizing Data Visualizations on Child Health and Well-Being to Strengthen Advocacy and Monitoring Efforts.
2023
Global health, science and practice
Advocacy for Better Integration and Use of Child Health Indicators for Global Monitoring.
2023
Global health, science and practice
Online care helped to maintain breastfeeding support during the COVID-19 pandemic in an Italian Baby Friendly Community.
2023
Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992)
Can a Nurse-led Counseling Clinic Improve the Success of Vaginal Birth after Cesarean Section? A Pilot Project Conducted at a Tertiary Care Center in Sri Lanka
2023
Journal of South Asian Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Factors associated with exclusive breastfeeding in Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic: a subset of the IMAgiNE EURO cross-sectional study.
2023
International breastfeeding journal
Vulnerable newborn types: analysis of subnational, population‐based birth cohorts for 541 285 live births in 23 countries, 2000–2021
2023
BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Vulnerable newborn types: analysis of subnational, population-based birth cohorts for 541 285 live births in 23 countries, 2000-2021.
2023
BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
