EUGHS NEWS

“Under the supervision of the team lead of GISRS (Global Influenza Surveillance and Response Systems) and the overall guidance of the head of the Global Influenza Programme, the intern will support activities that directly relate to the finalization of the RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) surveillance strategy.” A somewhat daunting instruction to read following my elation at having secured an internship at the World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarters for the summer before starting my final year of medicine at the University of Edinburgh. However, what started as an overwhelming amount of paperwork, developed into an unforgettable 6 weeks in Geneva.

Professors Harry Campbell and Igor Rudan are Joint Directors of the Centre for Global Health Research at the Usher Institute, the University of Edinburgh; Joint Directors of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Centre in Edinburgh; and Joint Editors-in-Chief, "Journal of Global Health". With their narrow team of collaborators in global health epidemiology -Drs Harish Nair, Evropi Theodoratou, Lina Zgaga, Davies Adeloye and Kit Yee Chan -they mentored a larger number of undergraduate students towards research projects such as SSC2, SSC4 and BMedSci. These projects were focused on global health themes and they typically involved a systematic review of the literature on a clinical or public health topic in maternal or child health that filled an existing gap in knowledge. There was usually some choice in the topic to suit the interest of the student. The topic was selected at the start of the SSC2, SSC4 or BMedSci to ensure it was topical and sufficiently novel. The work usually involved some interaction with international collaborators, eg, developing country physicians, international health experts or technical officers from the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The project usually contributed to ongoing international research projects of the group and lead to a paper submitted for publication, in which the students were typically lead authors.

EUGHS news
cific components). In 38 of these publications (ie, twothirds), the contribution of the students was substantial enough to justify lead authorship.
Based on these research results, our students took part in 12 international conferences in global health, where they made 34 oral presentations. These meetings were typically organized by the World Health Organization, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or other leading global health institutions. Having a publication and/or a presentation at an international conference has been helping our students to be successful in their applications for placements and jobs across the UK following their graduation.
Finally, from 2014 we started arranging internships for EUGHS students at the World Health Organization's Headquarters with our collaborators, which we support through Journal of Global Health. Six students took part in these internships to date. A complete lists of activities and students is presented in the following sections.    I had been involved with the University of Edinburgh Global Health Society since commencing university, and it was through the society and the university staff involved that the internship was organised -for which I will always be so grateful! For me, the opportunity of an internship at the World Health Organisation, an organisation so central to so many current and historical medical global affairs which were so prominent in discussion was an opportunity too good to surpass. Indeed, even despite the big ex-In the summer of 2014, I was delighted to have the opportunity to undertake an internship at the World Health Organisation Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in the Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health. I was a medical student having just finished my third year of study at Edinburgh University, graduating with an intercalated degree in Infectious Disease and before returning to the third year medical curriculum. Up until that time, I had taken advantage of the many opportunities offered within the university to build my knowledge and understanding of global public health, developing an interest in world current affairs and learning how I may be

EUGHS news
pectations of a passionate young medical student, my time in Geneva still exceeded expectations. The opportunities to meet the people who worked with and in collaboration with the organisation, to ask questions and hear differing views and advice, to get to know how they journeyed into the world of public health, and to get a glimpse into the workings of this huge organisation was invaluable to me. Being able to contribute to this work, although in a small way, was of course an extremely exciting prospect. a great opportunity to learn the global progress on the enhancement of population health. Therefore, I submitted my application to the WHO website, indicating my great interest in certain projects. Thankfully, I heard from the WHO after a few months of application, and was successfully offered an internship opportunity after a phone interview.
Having the background as a registered Chinese medicine practitioner in Hong Kong, I was assigned to the Team of Traditional and Complementary Medicine at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. There, I spent an unforgettable experience of five months.
WHO is the United Nation' s leading authority on international public health. Working closely with public health experts around the world and tackling different important health issues was a very challenging and exciting task. It also gave me great motivation to go to work knowing that it would exert great influence to many populations which could directly enhance their health. My main task in the internship was to work with traditional medicine experts on data verification and analysis on the WHO global surveys. Thanks to the epidemiology and statistics training that I received at the University of Edinburgh, I was wellprepared to manage and analyze the survey data obtained from the 193 member states of the WHO. During my internship I was also involved in working on the unprecedented development of the International Classification of Traditional Medicine which would be included in the coming ICD-11. This achievement will make significant contribution to the standardization of the clinical language used by traditional medicine to facilitate information exchange and the integration of complementary medicine into the health care system. All the work I conducted there was evaluated by my supervisors at WHO, whom eventually offered me an exceptional extension of the 3-month internship contract on top of the first contract.
On the other hand, as an intern I got to participate in many training sessions and discussion seminars which helped expand and develop my public health knowledge. I had attended seminars on mental health, palliative care and neglected tropical disease. I also had the privilege of being present at the World Peace Talk of the United Nations to learn the issues regarding world peace and human right. Coincidently, it was the Ebola outbreak period during the internship, hence, I experienced firsthand the outbreak response, leadership, roadmap development, division of labour, press conferences, and even the sharing from experts who were deployed in the field in West Africa. Attending the Ebola meeting with the Director-General of the WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr Ban Ki-moon, on the discussion of Ebola vaccine and treatment was very impressive. I also joined the communication team to contact Ebola experts worldwide to investigate the possible treatments for Ebola.
Another memorable experience was the duty travel to Macao SAR, China, for a WHO training workshop. Working as WHO secretariat, I learned the administration and logistics in organizing an international event. In the training workshop, I got the opportunity to meet with a lot of government officials from the ministries of health of different countries. I had gained great insight from the country leaders on policy-making and international cooperation in consumer protection. Together we had built beautiful memories and friendships.
Apart from the tasks that I performed, I met so many amazing and interesting people from all over the world. I enjoyed very much the working environment at the WHO headquarters in which I worked closely with colleagues with multi-cultural and multi-disciplined backgrounds, which can lead to many brilliant ideas. I had also joined the WHO intern board as a interns coordinator, where I made friends with many amazing interns who will possibly become the public health leaders in the future. During our coffee time and excursions, we discussed a lot on the infec-Photo: EUGHS member Katy Wong (right) with the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Margaret Chan (left).