Dr Thomasena O’Byrne is a behavioural and implementation scientist at the Malawi Liverpol Wellcome Programme and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She is the Associate Group Head for One Health and Health Systems within the Social Science and Health Systems theme and is an Honorary Lecturer at the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences. Her research focuses on strengthening health systems through transdisciplinary approaches and co-creation, drawing on implementation science and One Health perspectives.

Thomasena’s work centres on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), infection prevention and control (IPC), and healthcare-associated infections. Currently, she is the Malawi Principal Investigator for NIHR-funded Improving Infection Prevention and Control Practices in Acute Healthcare Facilities in Malawi (IPC-Implement) and Optimising Antibiotic Use to Mitigate AMR (OPT-AMR). She more recently took on the role of Malawi Principal Investigator for the Wellcome-funded SEDRI-LIMS programme, where she leads the global implementation work package. Her research uses qualitative and mixed methods alongside participatory approaches to understand how health systems function in practice and how complex interventions can be embedded and sustained. A key focus of her work is engaging actors across the health system and community as active contributors to improving quality of care.

She has extensive experience working with ministries of health, researchers, and communities to generate evidence that informs policy and practice, and supervises postgraduate students in social science and health systems research. Thomasena has authored and co-authored a number of peer-reviewed publications, including a book chapter in Systems Thinking for Global Health (Oxford University Press) on applying systems thinking to understand decentralisation processes in Malawi.