Forum’s Queen Elizabeth Scholars in Strengthening Health Systems: Fall 2017

The McMaster Health Forum is pleased to announce its latest recipients of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarships in Strengthening Health Systems. These scholars, whose experiences and placements represent a diverse range of opportunities, include: Jessica Jacob and Abeera Shahid who will be based in Australia, Mobeen Mubasher who will be based in South Africa, and Tahmina Shamsheri who will be based in the United Kingdom.

Outgoing Interns: Jessica Jacob and Abeera Shahid
Jessica will be travelling to Melbourne, Australia to work with The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre (TAPPC). As an intern she will be assisting TAPPC with a project examining the chronic disease management systems in various local communities, understanding its components, and ways in which it can be improved through a systems thinking perspective. She hopes to learn more about health systems research and how it can effectively be utilized to strengthen and improve upon existing frameworks. 

Abeera will be based at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney in Australia. She will be doing qualitative research on how the Population Health Information Management System (PHIMS) has supported large-scale delivery of health promotion interventions. Through the experience, Abeera hopes to learn more about policy-level decision making and creating resilient health systems through the implementation of health promotion programs. 

Outgoing Intern: Mobeen Mubasher
Mobeen will be travelling to Cape Town, South Africa to complete an internship with the Cape Health Department. His research will be used to inform ways of providing city-wide recommendations for provision of eye-care services within the current financial envelope. Mobeen hopes to further investigate the interplay required between researchers, policymakers and various healthcare providers to inform healthcare decisions.

Outgoing Intern: Tahmina Shamsheri
Tahmina will be based at the Innovation and Research Unit at the National Health Service (NHS) in London, United Kingdom where she will be working on several projects around strengthening the innovation ecosystem there. In particular she will be part of a project addressing the lack of consistent evidence requirements for digital health technologies. During her internship, Tahmina hopes to develop a nuanced understanding of the NHS and the role of innovation in producing better value for a health system. 

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 @McMasterForum on Twitter and visit the #QEScholar tagboard page. 

Read more about the QES Scholarship in Strengthening Health Systems offered by the Forum.