My first impressions of Geneva and the WHO Headquarters

Geneva is a very welcoming city, arriving to the airport you are offered a free train ticket to reach the main Station: Cornavin. From there, you can discover all the exciting Geneva districts.

The WHO Headquarters is a prestigious building, administered by a rather complex system set up to make daily life easier for staff and offering modern conveniences.

Geneva is a very welcoming city, arriving at the airport you are offered a free train ticket to reach the main Station: Cornavin. From there, you can discover all the exciting Geneva districts.

The WHO Headquarters is a prestigious building, administered by a rather complex system set up to make daily life easier for staff and offering modern conveniences.

Something that surprised me

Geneva is a modern city offering a comfortable and stress-free lifestyle. It’s designed in harmony and respect for nature.  I was strongly impacted by the Genevois’ respect for their cultural and national sovereignty.

What I have learned in my first month

During this month I was made aware of the WHO organisational structure, and the of the Service Delivery and Safety (SDS) Department specificities. In fact, I am assigned to the Quality Systems and Resilience (QSR) Unit Belonging to SDS. I also discovered the scope of activity of each colleague in order to set up a work plan. I got a clear understanding of the healthcare services and health system Resilience.

HQ interns meeting with the WHO DG

On November 5th 2018, I attended the WHO HQ Intern Induction Day. It gave me a whole vision of the functions and objectives of the WHO. The topics discussed were:

  • WHO and Youth Engagement
  • Using Social Media as a WHO Intern
  • The WHO Governing Bodies
  • The Global Programme Of Work– GPW 13 (2019-2023)
  • The services of The Office of the Ombudsman(OMB) and Internal Oversight Services (IOS)
  • WCOs and WHO’s role and responsibilities within the larger UN System
  • WHO History & Health Diplomacy

Within the QSR unit, I developed the Term of Reference (TOR) related to an international project as well as the conception notice of the project inception day. I gave a presentation about the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) tool. Currently, I am involved in preparing, elaborating and holding a taskforce dealing with WHO guidance approach to implementing quality of care. I am also participating in the organization of a workshop hosted by QSR unit entitled: The lifeblood of leadership.

As a volunteer with the Office of Deputy Directors-General for Programmes & Corporate Operations (DDG), I supported the team in preparing the 3 _level review of the 2020-2021 Global Public Health Goods submissions and actively participated in the restitution held on the 15th and 16th of November 2018.

Open seminars are held almost daily by various WHO departments. Here are some I attended:

  • Methodological challenges to developing public health guidelines.
  • Improving knowledge about who dies of what, and why it matters: The Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative.
  • Project ECHO: An approach for democratizing Knowledge, improving healthcare, and reducing disparities.
  • Healthy Life Course, Linking Global, Regional and Country Efforts.

My favourite moment

QSR Unit Weekly Huddle

I had a great first day -Monday 29th October 2018 – at WHO Headquarters, because every Monday QSR Unit holds the weekly huddle, and it was an opportunity to meet this strong and welcoming team. After this, I had a formal meeting with my supervisor Dr Shams Syed, an exceptional Leader. I will never forget what he said. “Go straight to your goals and take advantage of every minute of your internship, the lost time cannot be caught.”

I was lucky, because five days after starting my internship, I attended the HQ interns meeting with the WHO DG, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. When greeting him, he thanked me in my mother tongue language and I was deeply touched.

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Nourhan Kawtharani

Nourhan, a quality and safety coordinator with eight years of experience in ambulatory healthcare in Lebanon, aims to deepen her understanding of the systemic and holistic approach to healthcare through this fellowship.

She aims to identify gaps and develop tailored interventions that address specific contexts rather than applying general solutions. Engaging with diverse professionals and perspectives during this educational journey will expand the application of these concepts across different cultural settings.

Nourhan emphasizes the importance of promoting a culture of continuous learning and improvement within healthcare institutions, considering it a vital leadership responsibility to integrate quality and safety initiatives into the organizational culture.

Nourhan's commitment to patient safety and quality management includes sourcing practical resources and transforming insights into actionable knowledge to drive continued progress in healthcare practices and outcomes.

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Elom Otchi

Elom is passionate about improving quality of care and patient safety outcomes.

In view of this, he has had the opportunity to work in various capacities with various organisations including AfIHQSA, WHO, UNICEF and others undertaking research, supporting the development of national quality policies and strategies, facilitating the establishment of quality governance systems across all the levels of the health sector and building capacity of national and sub-national quality leads/teams to institutionalize the practice of quality and patient safety across the continent.

He has also worked extensively across all levels of care in the health sector of Ghana, including leading the Quality & Patient Safety program in its largest teaching hospital.

I would like to use this Fellowship as a learning platform and an opportunity to acquire the requisite knowledge, skills and competencies to complement ongoing efforts by like-minded individuals and organizations to continuously advance improve the quality and patient safety in Ghana and the continent.

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Stephen Taiye Balogun

Stephen is a Senior Programme Officer at the Institute of Human Virology in Nigeria as well as Country Representative for Health Information for All (HIFA).

Stephen plans to use this opportunity to maximise his impact by championing the cause of patient safety and quality in Nigeria and across Africa.

Stephen says "Quality and safety is a major wheel through which universal healthcare coverage can be achieved. The goal is to be a bridge in the gap between the International Quality Improvement and Patient Safety community and my country to ensure rapid spread, adoption, implementation and practice."

We are looking forward to working with both Stephen and our 2020 winner Rhoda Kalondu over the next year.

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Dr Rhoda Kalondu

Rhoda is the Head of the Patient Safety Unit at Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi and wants to use this Fellowship to learn how to establish a culture of safety and develop systems for assessment and analysis at her institution, and more widely. As well as this, Rhoda intends to develop and execute an intervention to improve patient safety in Kenyatta National Hospital.

It is one thing to institute measures and processes for improvement, but quite another to change the culture of an environment. Rhoda's ambition to lead others in this change inspired the panel.

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Dr Subhrojyoti Bhowmick

I am an MBBS graduate from Calcutta University with a Gold Medal in Gynecology & Obstetrics.

I have completed M.D in Pharmacology from IPGME& R, Kolkata and have over 12 years of experience in the field of Clinical Research, Pharmacovigilance and Medication management in Hospitals.

I have completed certification in Clinical Research Administration & Project Management from Stanford University, USA and in Patient Safety from Johns Hopkins University, USA.

I am an Assessor for National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Health care providers (NABH), India assessing hospitals for medication safety and clinical quality standards and NABH Assessor for Ethics Committee Accreditation program in India as well.

I serve as the Chairperson, Institutional Ethics Committee of Health Point Hospital, Kolkata and am associated with 2 other Hospital ethics committees as a member.

I finished my Fellowship in Healthcare Quality from the International Society of Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) from Ireland in 2017.

I have published several research articles and have also authored a chapter on “Regulations governing Clinical Trial” in the book “Fundamentals of Clinical Trial & Research”.

I am a peer reviewer for prestigious international journals like the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, CNS Drugs and Drug Safety case reports.

I am the recipient of the UK Seth Oration Award for Best Clinical Pharmacology paper by the Indian Pharmacological Society in 2009 and the “Most promising Healthcare professional in Patient Safety in India” award by the Asian African Chamber of Commerce and Industry in October 2018.

Recently in April 2019, I received the Young Quality Achiever award by Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations (CAHO), India for 2019 for my work in the field of medication safety and clinical research.

I have a keen interest in teaching and am visiting adjunct faculty of Pharmacology at KMC, Mangalore, India and for Healthcare technology at MAKAUT, Kolkata, India.

I was associated with Stanford University School of Medicine, in the USA as a Senior Clinical Research Associate from 2015 to 2017 and have certification in Biostatistics, Evidence-based Medicine and Medical Writing from Stanford University.

Currently, I am working as the Clinical Director of Academics, Medical Quality and Clinical Research at Peerless Hospital and B K Roy Research Centre, Kolkata.

I am very happy and thrilled to receive the prestigious ISQua Lucian Leape Patient safety Fellowship Award for 2019 and I look forward to honing my skills further in the field of healthcare quality and patient safety through my experiences during this fellowship.

I sincerely believe that successful completion of this fellowship will help me evolve as a more confident Patient safety leader in India who in turn can provide significant inputs on policy changes through NABH for the Indian healthcare system.

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