Haris ud Din – a Health Inspection Offer from the Khyber region of Pakistan. Commonwealth Scholar.
My professional background:
I belong to a remote town in Pakistan and working in Healthcare Regulatory Commission as Inspection Officer. I am district head of department and as middle manager; I keep close coordination with local District Health office and local government for improved health service delivery. My work is primarily focused on private health sector. It is highly heterogenous and dynamic sector where thousands of health practitioners from small traditional healers -both authorized and unauthorised- to large corporate sector, provide healthcare services to various strata of society (Mackintosh 2016). Therefore, regulation of such a mixed health system comprising of complex private and inadequate public sector is important as Pakistan is moving towards Universal Health Coverage (UHS) (Hussain and Arif 2021).
My experience of MSc Global Health by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM):
With background in Biological Sciences, I was looking for course in Public Health that could not only provide skills necessary for my workplace but should also give me a global perspective on health. MSc in Global Health at LSTM proved to be the right mix as soon as I started this course. It is a 2-year part-time online course with all the essentials to become a successful global health leader. It not only provides ampleness of flexibility to balance your professional and academic schedules but also provide challenging tasks week in week out to increase your competence. Brightspace is online platform where you can find all the course materials, learning contents with extra resources for enhanced learning It is very interactive as you can discuss topics with your international peers having various backgrounds which helps shape your global perspective in various aspects of public health. Course instructors are always there to guide you with their feedbacks and regular online meetings are arranged at TEAMS to discuss all the study matters.
You will learn how to conduct qualitative and quantitative research which is helpful in developing critical analysis of global health. MSc in Global Health has helped me understand the evidence-based practices in social sciences through its Qualitative research module which discovered a new horizon with regards to my previous education and research. The modules offered in the MSc program has taught me teamwork skills through its peer group projects, helped me understanding and reflecting on my role in international teams and has improved critical thinking through its formative and summative assignments. People who want to lead local or global health projects or have desire to formulate health policies for their countries, MSc in Global Health would be an ideal start to achieve big in health sector.
The module Leadership in Health systems management has expanded my knowledge in quality improvement in health systems which directly supported me in my job as a regulator. It helped me find solutions to problems even when the resources are limited. For instance, I have helped mobilize resources in private health sector to meet with emerging demands of healthcare in ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, where hospitalisations in public hospital exceeded their capacity. As COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of leadership role in governance, I believe that countries having committed leaders have fared better than countries where governments were in denial and inactive in aspects of communication, influencing, and engagement. I never have had this perspective on health before starting my MSc in Global Health at LSTM.
MSc Global Health is completely online which would help you get use to the online communication infrastructure, thereby equipping you with added advantage of staying ahead of the curve specially where face to face learning has become limited due to COVID-19 pandemic. Either you blame globalisation for COVID-19 spread or not, but this pandemic has emphasized that no-one is safe until everyone is. In such unprecedented times where the future looks uncertain about the next killer microbe, one thing is for sure is that the world would require more global health leaders to lead the fight. Therefore, I would highly recommend this MSc course to all who are passionate about solving global health problems and have desire to get necessary competencies to achieve workplace success.
Find out more about our online MSc Global Health programme.