FOCUS ON ……
Published by mkareithi on Mon, 2015-06-01 08:35Dr Ives Cavalcante Passos
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)
Avenida Ijuí, n 100, apt 502, bairro: Petrópolis
90460-200 Brazil
1. How did you get interested in a medical career ?
I have some relatives that pursued medical career and inspired me in pursue this kind of career.
2. What are the biggest challenges that you have faced along your career path that are specific to your country?
I faced a couple of problems in my country:
1- Lack of financial support for research
2- Lack of investment on public health. There are some public hospital linked to the university that need improvements to receive medical students.
3. When were you a YPL and how did you hear about the programme ?
I was a YPL in 2016. My PhD advisor told me about the program. He is a member of the Brazilian Academy of Science.
4. What did you learn from the YPL programme ?
1- How to practice leadership in several scenarios
2- Different point of views regarding medical careers worldwide
3- That is possible to invite researchers, public health professionals, and professionals from the private sector to the same table to discuss solutions to the society as a whole.
5. How are you implementing what your learned and how has it made a difference to your professional life ?
I am using the leadership skills learned in Berlin to develop my research group. I have a position as professor at University of Rio Grande Sul. My experience in Berlin changed significantly the way I give lectures to the medical students – probably I am working in a more inspiring way. In addition, recently I was appointed as Director of teaching at Centro de Estudos Luis Guedes (CELG). It is an institution in my country that provides knowledge in psychiatry. So, I expected that I can use the skills learned last year to have a good performance.
6. What developments in your career since the programme would you like to share with us and with other YPL ?
1. I was invited to write a book about big data and personalized care in psychiatry by Springer.
2. I got a position as Director of teaching at Centro de Estudos Luis Guedes (CELG).
Dr Katte Jean Claude
Public Health Biotechnology
Biotechnology Center, University of Yaounde’ 1
Yaounde’, Cameroon
1. How did you get interested in a medical career ?
I got interested in a medical career as far back as my secondary school days. I noticed a strong interest in biological systems and the interaction between these systems. This further grew to a strong passion to alleviate suffering from those with diseases. I think I was also further inspired by two of my elder brothers who are medical doctors. After secondary school, I decided to pursue medical training to become a medical doctor.
2. What are the biggest challenges that you have faced along your career path that are specific to your country?
Medical training is long and very hectic amounting to 7 years in Cameroon. Long hours of work and call rosters due to the insufficient number of qualified medical practitioners in the country.
3. When were you a YPL and how did you hear about the programme ?
YPL 2016 and was informed about the programme by a YPL Alumnus from Cameroon.
4. What did you learn from the YPL programme ?
I learnt team building and management techniques, communication techniques and also how to network effectively.
5. How are you implementing what your learned and how has it made a difference to your professional life ?
YPL Leadership Training course 2016 came just in time to help me manage a team of other medical doctors I was working with in the implementation of a diabetes study. The lessons learned from the training gave me the insight to understand team dynamics and the resolution of conflicts. These two made the whole difference since they were immediately useful for me.
6. What developments in your career since the programme would you like to share with us and with other YPL ?
The JC Mbanya Fellowship Award for capacity building in diabetes research in Africa. Awarded during the Africa Diabetes Congress, 19th -22nd April, 2017 in Yaounde, Cameroon.
Cameroon Academy of Sciences Workshop on The Problems of Urbanisation in Cameroon: strategies for solutions held on the 8 – 9th May 2017. Topic: Urbanisation and Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Cameroon.
- Promoted to Associate Professor in 2016
- Selected as a Next Einstein Forum Fellow in 2016
- Elected co-Chair of Global Young Academy in 2017
Dr Ibraheem Olayemi Awowole M.B.Ch.B with Honours, FWACS, FMCOG.
Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Perinatology,
Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex,
Ile-Ife,Osun State, Nigeria.
How did you get interested in a medical career ?
My interest in the Medical profession developed before I even knew what the profession entails. My passion for health care service delivery culminated in my appointment as the Health Coordinator in both First Grade and High Schools. My resolve grew even stronger as I began to comprehend the enormous health challenges in my Community. I remember being particularly concerned about the well-being of pregnant women as a teenager. There was no looking back since then.
What are the biggest challenges that you have faced along your career path that are specific to your country?
Nigeria alone contributed 19% of the global burden of maternal deaths in 2015; the last year of the MDG intervention. Worse still, for every maternal death, about 20 other women experience varying degrees of morbidity.The country was therefore classified as having made “No Progress” at the end of the MDG era. As an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in Nigeria, this bothersome statistics is translated into real life experience. It could be disheartening certifying so many women dead in pregnancy and puerperium, especially from preventable causes. It is my hope that the renewed drive of the Federal Government and the Federal Ministry of Health will translate into improvement in the health indices soon. Certainly, the Sustainable Development Goals are achievable, even in my Country.
When were you a YPL and how did you hear about the programme ?
I was among the 2014 YPL. I was nominated by Professor Akinyinka Omigbodun, a Member in the Nigerian Academy of Science, who interestingly had never met me as at the time he nominated me. The nomination was purely driven by merit.
What did you learn from the YPL programme ?
The programme was of immense benefit to me. Specifically, I learnt to multi-task by delegating duties to colleagues and subordinates rather that expending all my time and energy trying to do everything alone. In addition, I learnt to “stand on the balcony” and observe issues from a panoramic perspective before giving my opinion. This has helped me enormously.
How are you implementing what your learned and how has it made a difference to your professional life ?
I have become more efficient at implementing necessary official tasks by being a better team player. I also command more attention and respect now because I have learnt not to bare my mind until I had given all issues due considerations by “standing on the Balcony”.
What developments in your career since the programme would you like to share with us and with other YPL ?
Since the YPL in 2014, I have been appointed as Lecturer/Honorary Consultant to the Obafemi Awolowo University and the affiliated Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. I have also completed a second Fellowship in the Faculty of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria.
Consultant Primary Care Physician,
How did you get interested in a medical career ?Dr. Kaniz Fatema
Assistant Professor in Dept of Critical Care Medicine,
BIRDEM General Hospital.
Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
How did you get interested in a medical career ?
My dream was to be a Journalist & write about the needy & poor people. But my parents wanted me to be a doctor. So, I decided to fulfl their dreams. And I am glad that I did so. Coz I like to treat the sick people & I am very much happy with my works.
Dr. Biljana Gjoneska
Research Assistant
Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Medical Doctor, Junior Researcher,
PhD Candidate in Psychology and Social Neuroscience
How did you get interested in a medical career?
A road tracing the origins of one’s vital interest usually ends where all else starts: the childhood. Simply put, an essential interest is always rooted in the essential years for personal formation. It seems very convenient to mention childhood in the context of leadership since most children are natural-born leaders. When asked about the future aspirations, rarely would a child give an answer different than: country’s president, world champion, space astronaut or a leading surgeon. Yet, amidst the abundance of straightforward and somewhat expected answers, there are some which are vague and quite exceptional. Those exceptions rise from children that are raised to hold future as a promise and treat life as mystery to discover. They delve into life as if diving into treasure-hunt guided always by their intuition. I was such child.
Very early on, I was certain that I like connecting and communicating with people. However, I lacked the understanding on how this translates into “a grownup profession”. There are plenty of professions using communication to connect with people: a writer, a lawyer, a journalist. But the call of a medical doctor and a neuroscientist above all, relies on a bidirectional relation: connecting through communication (e.g. explaining health issues to patients), and communicating the connections (e.g. explaining neural networks to the wider audience) with the help of personal connections (e.g. using own neural synapses and expanding overall intelligence).
What are the biggest challenges that you have faced along your career path that are specific to your country?
Addressing the challenges of the national health system bears resemblance to addressing health issues of individual patients. Namely, both can be handled symptomatically or etiologically. In both cases the symptomatic solutions bring temporary relief but often mask the real problem. On the other hand, solutions that address the root of the problems and improve the future prospects, are much needed in the current field of medicine, be it on a macro (national) or micro (individual) level.
The personal struggle for sound, solid and long-lasting carrier solutions can be reached through conciliar meeting with medical colleagues (when considering health problems), or international meetings with peers (when considering the general health issues). Only through collaboration and calibration with fellow medical experts from across the globe one can move from the zone of experimental to the zone of experience-based solutions, and approach toward evidence-based hands-on problem solving.
When were you a YPL and how did you hear about the programme ?
I was Macedonian Representative at the initial YPL Meeting in Berlin, 2011. In the forthcoming years I witnessed how “the seeds of knowledge” planted by our nurturing mentors, grew roots transforming the initial happening into a traditional meeting, blossoming yearly into ever-expanding network of leading medical professionals.My nomination was executed through the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts and was considered as a success story, since it was the case in which a highest research institution served also as a national science coordinator.
What did you learn from the YPL programme?
YPL programme offers a two-tiered system of learning from present and future leaders.The experienced leaders of today and “founding fathers” of YPL Initiative, taught me that the supreme leadership often means following the footsteps within one’s fellowship. The leaders are both, strong-willed and soft-hearted, hard-working and easy-going, firm in their actions but light in their touch, always humble and grounded but aspiring for heights. In summary, their leadership skills rely upon successful binding of opposing polarities in their personalities. I will never forget motherly instinct of Dr. Jo Ivey Boufford to bring together “the young ones” for the first time (upon organizing the first YPL Meeting), the spontaneity in communication with Prof. Detlev Ganten (upon consultations regarding the publication of the Lancet article), and the fatherly advices of the Italian mentor, Prof. Mario Stefanini.
The enthusiastic leaders of tomorrow and peers within YPL Network, taught me that a promising leadership often means endurance in all hardships. The leaders are resistant to failure (stubbornly confronting all odds), and persistent in striving for success (confronting their modesty and humility in order to stand out). In summary, their leadership skills rely upon successful confronting of opposing polarities in their personalities. I will never forget the incredible stories of Dr. Raul Destura about overcoming family traditions and becoming a medical doctor instead of a priest, or Dr. Tanvira Sultana’s of going against national currents in the fight for female rights and emancipation. Yet, aforementioned examples are but a few of the countless fights that a leader must win in order to be able to lead.
How are you implementing what your learned and how has it made a difference to your professional life?
Being a PhD candidate outside of homeland, I was compelled to continue acquiring knowledge before starting to implement it into my profile as a leader. At La Sapienza University and through the numerous visits to Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei of Rome, once again, I had the chance to reconfirm the lessons learnt at YPL that the Leader should also be a Follower, a Predecessor and Successor, a Public Speaker as well as Messenger.
What developments in your career since the programme would you like to share with us and with other YPL?
The three-folded nature of the recent developments in my carrier is directly related to the YPL programme so I would like to mention them as follows:The scientific advances e.g. possibility to improve the scientific reasoning through the collaboration with diverse profiles of peers from various countries in joint writing and co-authoring of scientific publications.The academic advances e.g. possibility to establish communication with professors from the welcoming institution for my doctoral studies and to receive moral support as well as advices regarding the future career.The social advances e.g. possibility to establish connection with wide array of fellow colleagues within the international community.
Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka
Saliyapura, Anuradhapura 50008
Sri Lanka
How did you get interested in a medical career?IAMP YPL 2013
How did you get interested in a medical career?
As a child, I was interested in a science career. My mom always liked to tell her friends that I had declared I was going to be a “scientist.” This led to me going to a national science high school, followed by a biology major in college. It was at this time that I met my future father-in-law, who is a national scientist, but first and foremost, a doctor. I then realized that a medical career and a career in science were not only compatible, they could be complementary. And at that point I decided I was going to pursue medicine, and ended up being a physician and a scientist.
What are the biggest challenges that you have faced along your career path that are specific to your country?
Since I had trained in the United States for specialty and subspecialty training, the decision to return home was fraught with uncertainty. There was no guarantee of adequate income, support or acceptance from colleagues. When I first arrived, I spent the first six months staring at the wall in clinic, and writing proposals for funding that were promptly rejected or considerably delayed. Getting used to local practice patterns was likewise challenging, and it took a lot of patience, not to mention a lot of help from friends and co-workers before I finally hit my stride. It also helped that I was filling a niche that was beginning to become a significant health care problem – a burgeoning HIV epidemic, with very few local physicians having the training or willing to take care of these patients, more so very little research was going on.
When were you a YPL and how did you hear about the programme ?
I was a YPL in 2013. I heard about the program and was nominated by a member of the Philippine National Academy for Science and Technology, Dr. Carmencita Padilla, now chancellor of our university.
What did you learn from the YPL programme ?
I learned strong leadership skills that have helped me as I have taken on more and more administrative responsibilities. I have learned to lead by example, to nurture your staff and listen to their input, and to be decisive especially in dealing with important matters. I also came away with a strong network of like-minded colleagues who are more than willing to share their own expertise, and who commiserate with the challenges we have faced and will face.
How are you implementing what your learned and how has it made a difference to your professional life ?
As the new director of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, the YPL program has helped me anticipate the challenges of leading an institute, and to avoid common pitfalls that can lead to significant work disruption. It has helped me to systematically analyze and deal with new situations that arise on a daily basis, and to better learn from resolving these issues. As I build on these experiences, I find that I am becoming a more confident leader who is able to inspire the same confidence in my staff and colleagues, resulting in a stronger institution and increased productivity and innovation.
What developments in your career since the programme would you like to share with us and with other YPL ?
Aside from becoming director of a national institute, I have been recently elected a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, one of only a handful of IDSA fellows in the Philippines and the youngest one. I have continued to be productive in research, with over 20 newinternational abstracts, book chapters and research publications since becoming a YPL in 2013. I have also organized two international conferences for infectious diseases and medicine, and I have maintained a strong media presence in support of my HIV advocacy.
(S. Africa)
(Click on the photo to link to YPL Directory page)
