Training in Public Health (TiPH)

In this episode we sat down with Chikwe and Vivianne Ihekweazu to talk about their public health careers and the experiences shared in their new book called 'An Imperfect Storm: A memoir of a pandemic and the coming of age of a Nigerian institution."

Vivianne Ihekweazu is currently the Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch. A health communication and advocacy organisation based in Nigeria that advocates for improved health and access to health care. Vivianne has over 20 years experience in health communication and has built her skillset over a range of leading communications and research agencies across Europe and Africa in the development, media and real estate sectors. 

She has an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, an MSc in Development economic and is currently an African Public Health Leaders Fellow at Chatham House. Vivianne’s work has ranged across a number of key areas in global health including maternal, newborn and child health as well as immunisation and health security. She played a leading role in the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria - supporting the Nigeria centre for Disease Control in public health communication and developing guidelines.

Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu is the Assistant Director-General for the Division of Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems in the WHO Emergencies Programme. He leads the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence - a global collaboration that aims to address future pandemics with better access to data, better analytical capacities and better tools for decision making.

Chikwe has over 25 years experience in epidemiology and public health and served as the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control between 2016 and 2021. He has developed skills across a number of senior public health and leadership positions including at the South African Institute for Communicable Diseases, the UK’s former Health Protection Agency and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute. He has also completed the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training as well as the UK public health speciality training programme in 2008.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Teaser and introductions

03:08 The story of the book

07:29 Early years at the Nigeria CDC

11:28 Motivating staff during challenging times

21:00 Inspirational stories of staff

23:18 Public health communication during uncertainty

28:40 Public trust and infodemic management

31:56 Politics and public health

35:43 Personal toll

42:23 A love letter to Nigeria

46:45 Brain drain and global equity

49:30 Parachute research from high-income countries

52:10 Career tips

Episode 4 of our special series in partnership with the Faculty of Public Health where we explore one key question - What is Public Health?

Between 2013 and 2019 she was appointed Director of Public Health for London and was the Statutory Health Advisor to two London Mayors. In 2016 she was awarded a CB for her contribution to improving public health. 

In 2019 she was appointed as the medical director and Director of Health Protection for Public Health England and played a pivotal role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022 she was appointed as the first NHS medical director for public health. And in April last year she partially retired but has maintained an active role in public health across the system. 

00:00 Teaser and introduction

03:41 Yvonne's career

06:25 What is Public Health?

08:03 Local-regional-national public health leadership

10:27 The importance of DPHs in the public health system

12:53 Developing public health leadership skills

14:34 Values driving leadership

17:11 Integrity in public health leadership

19:05 Leading during chaos

22:54 Communication skills in public health

28:13 Social-media and public health

30:42 Public health challenges ahead

34:30 System integration in public health

37:18 Public health system design

41:42 Advocating for better systems integration in public health

42:52 One career tip and end

A very special live episode we recorded at the Faculty of Public Health conference in London in September 2023.

We welcomed a guest host - Fatai Ogunlayi, a consultant in public health and former chair of the FPH Specialty Registrar Committee.

In this episode we explored:

Dr. Amina Aitsi-Selmi

Amina’s first career was in Academic Public Health and she was a Consultant in International Public Health at the then Public Health Engand. Since 2016, Amina has worked independently as an Executive and Career Coach to doctors and global leaders. She holds a MRCP, MSc in Public Health from LSHTM, and a PhD that was supervised by Professor Sir Michael Marmot. Amina is also  an Honorary Lecturer at UCL teaching on the Social Determinants of Global Health and wrote an award winning book called The Success Trap: Why Good People Stay in Jobs They Don't Like and How to Break Free.

Dr Amina.com

The Success Trap: Why Good People Stay in Jobs They Don’t Like and How to Break Free eBook : Aitsi-Selmi, Amina: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Dr. Ahmed Razavi

Ahmed is a consultant in global health and the regional lead for South East Asia for the UK Health Security Agency on the International Health Regulations Strengthening project. Ahmed is a medical doctor by background and has previously worked across Africa, Europe, South East Asia and the Caribbean - working on global health issues ranging from mental health to infectious disease, with organisations such as the WHO, Chatham House, University of Cambridge, Public Health England, UK Faculty of Public Health, and Imperial College London

Dr. Naveed Syed

Naveed is a consultant in communicable disease control at the UKHSA with over 25 years experience in public health, medical education and health protection.  He has worked as a training programme director in the West Midlands and is CPD director for the Faculty of Public Health.

Naveed has worked as the first secretary for health at the British High commission in Islamabad, supporting the development of integrated disease surveillance and response systems. He is also an accredited healthcare mentor and honorary senior lecturer at Birmingham University.

This episode we sat down with Patrick Keating, an epidemiologist at MSF with over ten years experience in global health. He honed his skills across a number of experiences and roles including with the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team, research roles at LSHTM and a range of NGOs.

We talked about the life of a field epidemiologist at MSF, his thoughts on the skills needed in emergency outbreak settings and his thoughts on global health careers.

If you enjoyed the episode please leave us a review and follow us on Twitter @TiPH_Podcast for news and updates on future episodes.

This episode we take a deep dive into a lesser known area of public health. Field Epidemiology. We are joined by Dr. Obaghe Edeghere, deputy director at the UK Health Security Agency and head of the UK Field service. He explains what field epidemiology is and why it's so important in the bigger picture of improving public health.

We are also joined by Dr. Louise Coole, the head of the UK Field Epidemiology Training Programme. She explains what the key skills of a field epidemiologist are and the core components of the FETP and it's role in the public health workforce.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review and follow us on Twitter @TiPH_Podcast for news and update on future episodes.

CHAPTERS

(00:00) Introduction

(01:50) Obaghe Edeghere - What is Field Epidemiology

(04:10) Leadership attributes for Field Epidemiology

(06:52) What is the UKHSA Field Service

(11:31) The global field epidemiology workforce in pandemic preparedness

(14:40) Reflection on Field Epidemiology

(15:13) Louise Coole - Director of UK FETP

(15:40) What is the UK Field Epidemiology Training Programme

(17:57) FETP networks and outbreak response

(20:35) FETP deployments overseas

(22:13) The role of FETP programmes in pandemic preparedness

(25:57) The attributes of an FETP fellow

(27:28) Where FETP fellows go after graduating

(29:01) One career tip for aspiring Field Epidemiologists