Anthony McDonnell
Anthony McDonnell is a research associate at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Development (CGD). McDonnell is a senior policy analyst in CGD’s global health team, working to support national decision-making and prioritization of health care through the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) and on policy interventions to protect the supply chains for pharmaceuticals from COVID-19 induced shocks.
Previously McDonnell worked as an independent consultant and research associate at ODI. There, he carried out a review into their health portfolio; worked on a Wellcome Trust/World Health Organization project to analyze blockages to uptake of new health technology; and researched the motivations and benefits involved in moving to universal health coverage, together with how countries reach left behind groups in the process. He has also worked as a senior health economist at the University of Oxford, working on a team of mostly epidemiological modelers, where he built cost functions into predictions of the best way to control or eradicate malaria from an area.
McDonnell started working in global health as the head of economic research for the United Kingdom’s independent review into antimicrobial resistance, which was set up by the U.K. government and the Wellcome Trust, that looked at how to improve the pipeline for new antibiotics, alongside how to improve infection control, reduce environmental risks and improve the use of the antibiotics we already have in order to best protect them. Following this he co-wrote a book on the topic of antimicrobial resistance and went on to lead an internal project at the Wellcome Trust to examine how the organization could use more economics to identify and fix major problems in health care.
He has a master’s in public and economic policy from the London School of Economics, and an undergraduate degree from Trinity College Dublin.
COVID-19 Highlights the Need for Universal Health Coverage
Universal health coverage is achievable for all countries—and in the aftermath of the pandemic, it should be implemented