Forum’s Queen Elizabeth Scholars in Strengthening Health Systems

The McMaster Health Forum is pleased to announce the latest recipients of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarships in Strengthening Health Systems: Abirami Kirubarajan, Yung Lee, Matthew Yau, Shawn Khan, and Malcolm Hartman.

Outgoing Interns: Abirami Kirubarajan and Yung Lee
Both Abirami and Yung will be traveling to the United Kingdom to begin their internships at the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and NHS RightCare/NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups respectively.

The Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust works closely to improve community health outcomes, and Abirami is looking forward to developing a stronger understanding of how social determinants of health may be incorporated into health systems.

Yung hopes to deepen his knowledge of health systems management and commissioning, and through his work with NHS RightCare/NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups, he will be involved in business and project planning to address solutions to long-term health conditions.

Outgoing Interns: Matthew Yau, Shawn Khan, and Malcolm Hartman 
Both Malcolm and Matthew will be traveling to South Africa, but Matthew will also spend half of his internship in England. Shawn will be traveling to Kenya to begin his internship with Legal Action Worldwide (LAW).

Malcolm will be interning in Johannesburg at the Africa Centre for Evidence – a leader in the production and application of research evidence to reduce poverty and inequality in the region. He is hoping to further his understanding of how research evidence can be translated to policy decisions.

Matthew will be based jointly with the British Medical Journal in London, England and the Knowledge Translation Unit at the University of Cape Town. He will be working on the Practical Approach to Care Kit (PACK), a clinical decision-making tool that allows local health practitioners to provide care based on WHO evidence. He hopes to gain insight into the impact of health innovation on health systems.

Shawn will join LAW in Kenya to research best practice standards of documenting human rights violations. LAW is an international NGO that provides legal assistance to fragile states. Shawn hopes to gain an appreciation for the frameworks in which policies can be used to respond to human right injustices.   

Through the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship program, McMaster University will participate in activating a dynamic community of young global leaders across the Commonwealth to create lasting impacts on health systems both at home and abroad through cross-cultural exchanges encompassing international education, discovery and inquiry, and professional experiences.

The Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships (QES) is managed through a unique partnership of Universities Canada, the Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF), Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) and Canadian universities. This program is made possible with financial support from the Government of Canada, provincial governments and the private sector.

To stay connected with our QEScholars, follow @MacHealthForum on Twitter.

QE Scholars 2017 group