Vira Ameli

I'm a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford’s Health Systems Collaborative, working at the intersection of social and medical sciences to understand how technologies are adopted within health systems, and how global structures shape dependency or enable self-sufficiency in technology integration.

Within the AFRHiCARE project, I examine how digital tools influence care delivery by redesigning clinical roles in Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa. I also study how healthcare financing structures affect the integration of technologies, including when and why costs are shifted to patients.

Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Sharif University of Technology, where I analysed the impact of sanctions on out-of-pocket health costs. I contributed a chapter to the Routledge Handbook on the Political Economy of Sanctions, exploring how economic sanctions reverse development. This political economy perspective increasingly informs my work on the structural conditions that shape healthcare.

I completed my DPhil in Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at Oxford, where I applied a sociotechnical perspective to study how digital care alters the social context and individual experience of living with HIV in Iran. My research combines qualitative, quantitative, realist, and theory-driven approaches to generate explanatory evidence that can inform policy and practice. As part of the Health Service Improvement and Evaluation (HSIE) Master’s programme, I co-lead teaching on research design and methods, with a focus on how context-sensitive forms of evidence can support decision-making in complex systems.

I am also a Research Associate at Pembroke College, Oxford. If you are working on related topics, I would be glad to connect.