Wonderful Thabiso Khumalo
MBBCh (Wits)
DPhil student
- DPhil in Musculoskeletal Sciences
- Rhodes Scholar (South Africa & Balliol, 2025)
- PhD Fellow (NIHR Global Injury Group)
Focuses on the burden, outcomes, and lived experience of gunshot injuries across countries, using mixed-methods research to inform trauma system strengthening and health policy.
An emerging academic in orthopaedic trauma with a focus on global injury research, medical education, and health systems strengthening.
My research focuses on understanding the burden, outcomes, and lived experience of gunshot injuries across multiple countries. I am conducting this work within the Global Injury Group under the supervision of Professors Simon Matthew Graham, Matt Costa, and James Masters.
This work aims to report the burden of gunshot injuries and compare findings across three participating countries. It also examines the outcomes of gunshot injuries, including health economic aspects, and uses ethnographic methods to explore the impact of these injuries on patients and healthcare workers.
By combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, this research seeks to generate insights that strengthen trauma systems and improve the care of gunshot injury patients in low- and middle-income countries.
Before joining Oxford, I completed my medical undergraduate education at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, where I developed strong leadership qualities in all things student governance and gained vast experience in leading teams - and subsequently worked at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, which is the 3rd largest hospital in the world.
In my spare time, I enjoy reading and writing poetry, exploring art and culture, watching football, and sight-seeing.