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Mohammad-Mahdi Rashidi

University of Oxford, World Health Organization, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Digikala

Research areas: Medicine · Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health · Global Health and Epidemiology · Global Cancer Incidence and Screening · Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and Lipoproteins

ORCID iD 0000-0002-7460-6000
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About

Dr Mohammad-Mahdi Rashidi is a medical doctor and epidemiologist whose work focuses on noncommunicable diseases, population health, health metrics, health inequalities, evidence synthesis and guideline development. He is an Honorary Researcher with the Deep Medicine team at the Nuffield Department of Women’s & Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, a Consultant in the Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health Department at the World Health Organization Headquarters, and a Senior Researcher at the Non-Communicable Diseases Research Centre, Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

He completed his Doctor of Medicine degree at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, supported by a full scholarship. He began research during medical school at the Social Determinants of Health Research Centre, where he developed an early interest in epidemiology, public health and inequalities in health and healthcare.

Dr Rashidi joined the Non-Communicable Diseases Research Centre in 2020 and served as Head of its Epidemiology Unit from 2021 to 2023. He coordinated population-health and noncommunicable disease research, contributed to study design and analysis, supported junior researchers, and helped translate findings into policy-relevant outputs. He continues to collaborate with the centre as a Senior Researcher.

At WHO, he contributes to the development of global guidance on chronic respiratory diseases, particularly asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. His work includes developing PICO questions, contributing to GRADE Evidence-to-Decision frameworks, reviewing systematic review and methodological proposals, coordinating Guideline Development Group processes, and drafting technical and policy-oriented outputs.

He is a Senior Collaborator with the Global Burden of Disease Study at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and a collaborator with the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration at Imperial College London. Through these roles, he has contributed to large-scale analyses of disease burden, risk factors, healthcare quality, population trends and health inequalities.

His perspective is also informed by approximately two years of independent clinical practice as a primary care physician in underserved and socioeconomically disadvantaged urban communities, where he gained direct insight into patients’ priorities and the practical barriers to delivering continuous, guideline-concordant care.

Dr Rashidi has authored or co-authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications, including original research, evidence syntheses and large international collaborative studies. His work includes first-author research on the epidemiology and determinants of noncommunicable diseases, analyses of disease burden and quality of care, and contributions to studies published in journals including The Lancet, The Lancet Neurology, The Lancet Global Health, The Lancet Public Health, Nature Medicine, EClinicalMedicine, Scientific Reports and Clinical Kidney Journal.

His main research interests include:
1. Health inequalities and quality of care: examining socioeconomic, demographic and geographical variation in access to effective healthcare, treatment coverage and outcomes.
2. Noncommunicable disease epidemiology: using national surveys, routinely collected data and international datasets to study cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic conditions.
3. Health metrics and health-system performance: assessing disease burden, risk factors, quality-of-care indicators and health-system performance.
4. Routine health data and electronic health records: evaluating guideline-concordant care, identifying unwarranted variation and supporting healthcare improvement.
5. Evidence synthesis and guideline development: contributing to systematic reviews, critical appraisal, GRADE assessments and Evidence-to-Decision frameworks.

His current work at Oxford focuses increasingly on cardiovascular epidemiology, primary care quality and inequalities in healthcare delivery. He is developing research using linked electronic health records to examine whether people with major cardiovascular conditions receive recommended care equitably across socioeconomic and demographic groups.

His longer-term aim is to establish an independent programme of applied epidemiological and health-services research that combines rigorous analysis of routine health data with patient, clinical and policy perspectives. His work seeks to identify avoidable gaps in care, develop practical measures of healthcare inequality and support more equitable, transparent and evidence-based health systems.

Dr Rashidi’s academic distinctions include recognition as the Top Researcher at the National and International Festival on Research Thesis, the Khayyam Award, in 2020, a National Bronze Medal in the Iranian Chemistry Olympiad, and a top 0.04% ranking in Iran’s national university entrance examination.

Employment

  • University of Oxford Visiting researcher
    2025 - Present
  • World Health Organization Consultant
    2024 - Present
  • Digikala Occupational Health Physician / General Practitioner
    2023 - 2025
  • Independent medical practice General Practitioner
    2023 - 2025
  • Tehran University of Medical Sciences Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center Research Fellow
    2020 - 2024

Education

Projects & Funding

  • Evaluation of the Influencing Factors on the Quality of Glycemic Control Using Data of Iran Health Insurance Organization and National Survey of Stepwise Approach to Non-Communicable Risk Factors Surveillance (STEPS) 2016 Tehran University of Medical Sciences
    2021 - 2023
  • STEPwise approach to non-communicable diseases (NCD) risk factor surveillance (STEPs) 2021 National Institute of Health Researches of Iran
    2020 - 2022

Publications (178)