Blog posts

Health Policy MSc Q&A

The Health Policy MSc at Imperial College London is led by the Institute of Global Health Innovation. Laurence Woollard, a Health Policy Master’s student 2022-2024, shares his experience of the programme.

What’s your background? What did you study for your undergraduate degree?

Laurence Woollard (LW): In what now feels like another universe, I was originally pursuing a career in the music industry. I had studied Professional Musicianship at undergraduate level, finishing circa 2010. I then undertook a series of internships before landing a job offer at a music publisher in London. I reflect fondly on these times; the on-stage performance element as a gigging musician was a particularly important grounding in how to captivate and engage an audience’s attention, skills for which I have taken forward into my professional role and presentation delivery today.

Innovative children’s hospice opens in Italy with support from IGHI

“Arca sull’albero”, a new children’s hospice in Bologna, Italy, was inaugurated last week, marking a significant milestone in children’s palliative care. The hospice, funded by Fondazione Hospice Maria Teresa Chiantore Seràgnoli, is a testament to innovative, user-centred design and care. Researchers and designers from the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) and its Helix Centre played a pivotal role in its development, ensuring the incorporation of lessons from international best practices and of user-centred innovation.

Access to children’s palliative care is a human right. According to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, “children are entitled to quality health services, including prevention, promotion, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care services.’’

Impact of the cost-of-living crisis on patient preferences towards virtual consultations

Since 2021, the world has faced a cost-of-living crisis that has adversely affected population health. With rising living costs, many people have been forced to make significant cuts in their daily expenses and adjust their lifestyles accordingly. But has this crisis influenced how people prefer to access health services? In this blog, we share the results of our international cross-sectional study involving 6,391 participants from the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, and Italy.

The COVID-19 pandemic, followed by military destabilisation in Europe, has contributed to a major cost-of-living crisis characterised by significant price and tax rises, drastic cuts to social security, as well as rises in rent and energy bills.

Children’s mental health must be prioritised at the first Children’s Dialogue at the UN Climate Negotiations

This blog post is written by Dr Alessandro Massazza, United for Global Mental Health, and Dr Omnia El Omrani, Climate Cares Centre, Imperial College London.

No country is sufficiently protecting children and young people’s health, their environment and their futures. Young people under 24 make up 41% of all people alive today. Among them, 89% live in low- and middle-income countries that are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. According to Save the Children, a child born in 2020 will be exposed to seven times the number of heatwaves as their grandparents, even if the emission reduction targets set by the 2015 Paris Agreement are met.

Student Wellbeing in IGHI Postgraduate Education and Mental Health Awareness Week:

The Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) is proud to support the Mental Health Foundation this Mental Health Awareness Week – 13 to 19 May. Student Mental Health and Wellbeing (MH&W) has always been an area of focus of the Institute of Global Health Innovation’s Education department. Across its postgraduate courses, the majority of which are delivered online, the IGHI aims to train and develop future leaders in the healthcare sector. We currently host over 400 students studying on a range of post-graduate programmes within the Institute.

In early 2023, a team of Teaching Fellows within IGHI formed a working group to review and identify areas of development within our approach to supporting student mental health and wellbeing.

Making connections for climate change and mental health

Connecting Climate Minds Global Event recap

The Connecting Climate Minds (CCM) Global Event in Barbados involved 70 in-person participants and more than 600 virtual participants. Together, we celebrated the initiative’s first year of work led by seven regional communities, youth, Indigenous Nations and Peoples, and small farmers and fisher peoples.

At the Global Event:

  • The Connecting Climate Minds Hub was launched – an innovative digital platform designed as a collaborative space for researchers, policymakers, educators, and community groups to share their knowledge, resources, and experiences on the climate-mental health nexus including the CCM outputs. 
  • The global event featured keynote sessions delivered by prominent experts in climate change and mental health, along with the marketplace, regional spotlight sessions, and breakout sessions to discuss the Global Research and Action Agenda.

Inaugural IGHI Education Community event a success!

The first IGHI Education Community event took place on the evening of Thursday, 11 April 2024. Organised by the Student Wellbeing in IGHI Postgraduate Education (SWIPE) team, in collaboration with St John International, the event welcomed guests in the surrounds of the Museum of the Order of St John’s historic Chapter Hall.

IGHI students and staff, alongside guests from the Order of St John, had the privilege of hearing an engaging and eye-opening series of talks from esteemed speakers from both the International Order of St John and St John Ambulance England.

The evening began with a short presentation by Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque, Secretary-General of St John International, which provided a whistlestop tour of the history of the Order and its operations in the present day.

Julia Anderson Careers Event 2024: Inspiring sixth formers with career insights and opportunities to transform global health

In February we hosted the Julia Anderson Training Programme (JATP) Careers Event 2024 at Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI), a fantastic evening for sixth form students to learn more about our Julia Anderson programme and the IGHI, and get inspired for their future careers. 

Sixth formers from different London state-funded schools travelled to The Invention Rooms, at Imperial College London’s White City Campus, to participate in the event. They got the chance to learn more about the opportunities at IGHI, hear some of our staff members’ career journeys, as well as interact with some of the fantastic workstreams we work on to improve people’s health.

Celebrating women at IGHI for International Women’s Day

We’re featuring some of the amazing women at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, to celebrate their achievements during Women at Imperial Week 2024.

Meet some of our women at IGHI

From our teaching team…

Christa Hansen, Teaching Fellow, DHL Programmes, IGHI

I work as a Teaching Fellow on the Digital Health Leadership programmes, and across IGHI more broadly. I completed my PhD in Health Economics here at the Business School. Since graduating I have enjoyed coming over to the ‘health’ side, supporting GMPH and BSc students at the School of Public Health, and now NHS clinicians on the DHL programme.

Ukraine: Better care for children with complex long-term health needs

Our third blog post for the two-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine addresses the importance of prioritising better care for children with complex long-term health needs.

This is part of a series of blog posts sharing insights from our Ukraine Health Summit, hosted in partnership with the British Red Cross to further efforts in supporting the delivery and restoration of health services in Ukraine. This piece is written by Alexandra Shaw, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, with colleagues.

In Ukraine, many children continue to be cared for in institutions. Estimates vary widely and suggest that between 90,000-200,000 children reside in these institutions, and approximately 20,000-50,000 of them have disabilities.