Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty Member

Diego G. Bassani M.Sc., Ph.D. (Epidemiology)

Research Interests

• Epidemiological methods
• Complex systems in epidemiology
• Network science in epidemiology
• Child Health and Development
• Program Evaluation
• Global Health
• Large-scale Epidemiological Studies
• Maternal and Child Health
• Health Policy Research

Research Interests

Diego Bassani is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto. He is a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute at The Hospital for Sick Children, and the Director of the International Program Evaluation Unit at the Centre for Global Child Health. His research focuses on large-scale studies in the area of maternal and child health, including multi-country analyses of national surveys. Dr. Bassani has conducted important research on child growth and development, the causes and distribution of child deaths, coverage of health interventions, identification of risk factors for child mortality, program evaluation, and large-scale field trials in maternal and child health in multiple countries.

After gathering extensive experience in collecting and analyzing population health data in low- and middle-income countries, Dr. Bassani has decided to revisit the focus of his research program, to address major barriers in population health measurement, namely the timeliness and accuracy of data.

To achieve this, he plans to take an interdisciplinary approach that integrates knowledge and methods from network science and epidemiology, paving the way to a novel transdisciplinary network-based population health research program. Dr. Bassani is currently working with network scientists toward the development of novel methodological approaches to survey design, sampling, and data collection. These novel methods use a large set of multi-country standardized national surveys to expose the underlying complex network structure of populations, traditionally treated as unstructured collections of individuals in epidemiological studies.

By reconstructing unobserved networks of populations, Dr. Bassani aims to re-examine a broad range of health dynamics. He is particularly interested in using influential network nodes identified through these reconstructions to develop novel network-based sampling designs and inferential methods for large-scale surveys. These methods would allow for more frequent data collection, early detection of emerging diseases and risks, and timely response to changes in disease patterns, all critical to evidence-based decision-making.

Fields of Study

Large-scale epidemiological studies, Epidemiological methods, Global Health, Maternal and Child Health, Population Health, Network science and complex systems applied to population health research and practice

Other Affiliations

(Primary) Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Paediatrics, Division of Paediatric Medicine

Senior Scientist, Centre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children

Affiliated Researcher, ISI Foundation (https://www.isi.it/about/)

Primary Teaching Responsibilities

• Research Practicum Supervision – MPH
• Thesis Supervision – PhD
• Course lead – CHL7001H S8 (Large Scale Impact Evaluation) 

Professional Summary & Appointments

Current Appointments

Director – International Program Evaluation Unit – Centre for Global Child Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada

Senior Scientist – Child Health and Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada

Affiliated Researcher – ISI Foundation, Turin, Italy

Current Research Projects

Allometric scaling of health status with population settlement size; Granting Agency: New Frontiers in Research Fund – Exploration (Principal Investigator)

Canadian Network for Modelling Infectious Disease; Granting Agency: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Co-Investigator)

An application of Super-Imposition by Translation and Rotation (SITAR) modelling    to population-level child height trajectories of children aged 0-5 years using data from 145 Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) from 64 countries between 2000 and 2018; Granting Agency: Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) (Nominated Principal Investigator)

Probiotics and infant outcomes in Dhaka, Bangladesh; Granting Agency: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Co-Investigator)

THRIVE: Improving SRHR in Mali, Niger and Sierra Leone (Save the Children Canada); Granting Agency: Global Affairs Canada (Sub-grantee)

COVID-19: A Nutrition Response for Pregnant Women and Children (Nutrition International); Granting Agency: Global Affairs Canada (Sub-grantee)

Representative Publications

PubMed Link Complete List of Publications

Semantic Scholar Publications

Policy Profile

Sage Policy Profile