Parts of this post were originally submitted to the King's SOF.
Photo courtesy of me
While pursuing my undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, I always saw the Health Systems Research (#HSR2022), and I hoped that one day I would be able to attend it. In January of this year (2022), I saw the conference was requesting abstracts, but I was not sure what to submit.
In April, as the deadline for abstracts was approaching, I realized that the research I had been working on, which focused on intra-Africa trade, medical supply chains, and the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement would be a good fit. The conference theme was Health Systems Performance in the Political Agenda: Sharing lessons for current and future global challenges. Shortly before the deadline, I submitted my abstract within the subtheme: The politics and policies of health systems.
In June, I was notified that my abstract was accepted, and I was surprised as I was not expecting it. After the notification of the abstract acceptance, I applied for a scholarship and I was grateful to receive a scholarship from Health Systems Global. I also applied and received additional funding from the King's College London Student Opportunity Fund. To have the opportunity to travel to Bogotá, Colombia, and attend HSR2022 was going to be an exciting experience. This was going to be my first time in South America and attending an HSR conference. The Conference was from October 31 to November 4, 2022.
Indeed, this experience was a very exciting one as there were individuals from organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Results for Development (R4D), and UNICEF to name a few. This was a great place to connect with individuals in the field and gain further insights into health systems work. Prior to the conference, I read this post on conference networking by Dr. Shakira Choonara and we were able to connect at the conference. Networking skills were very important at this conference!
Below are also some of my networking tips after attending this conference
Be strategic - Look at organizations and people in the conference schedule and target who to talk to and which events to attend.
Make business cards - This is an easy way for people to connect with you. These can be created on Canva. Include your number and social media platforms on them and have your cards ready so they are easy to hand out to individuals.
Side events - Check which side events are happening as some schools may have alumni events which is a great way to connect with more individuals
Attend Social Events and the Welcome Reception - These are both great opportunities to connect with more people. Make sure to make your way around the room and hand out your business cards as you talk to people.
Reach out to people virtually - See what people are tweeting about the conference and reach out to those individuals and message them to try to find a time to connect at the conference.
As someone with many interests in health systems, I was able to attend a variety of events and connect with individuals in the field which has given me a better understanding of career opportunities and a deeper understanding of the many areas within health system strengthening.
Two sessions that I attended that I would like to highlight are the Women's Mentorship session and a session with Journal Editors. Health Systems Global in collaboration with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and the Journal on Health Policy and Planning runs a Women's Mentorship program to support early-career women researchers. My takeaways from this session were:
Network and collaborate to minimize institutional barriers within the publication process
Be intentional in all your decisions surrounding publishing and mentorship
This made me think about how I approach publication as a young professional, especially to be intentional in my decisions of who I work with and where I decide to publish.
The second session I really enjoyed was with the Journal Editors. This session made me consider which journals I aim to publish in, and it made me reflect on the location of the high-impact journals and how this is decided. It was also nice to hear that journal editors try to be helpful, so it is important to ask them for assistance if you need it. My favorite quotation from the session is below. This highlights the importance of inclusivity and using local researchers.
On the final day of the conference, I presented my research titled “COVID-19 Driven Pan-Africanism: The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and a Possible Future of Health Systems on the African Continent.” My research was in a session titled “Governing for health in COVID times: local, national, and regional realities.” My presentation is below.
To view the transcript and the presentation slides, see below.
I also heard from other researchers on regional collaboration and citizen engagements which were enlightening.
Photo courtesy of Darren Dookeeram
It was also nice seeing some students from King’s on the conference app and connecting with them at the conference.
On LinkedIn, I shared some concluding thoughts on the conference which are below
1. Conferences need to ensure that all voices are at the table. Visa discrimination was an issue at this conference and has been at many others. AMREF, a leading African health organization, pulled out of in-person attendance at this conference due to this.
2. To be more inclusive, sessions should be available in different languages or translation services should be offered. HSR did have translations available. A LinkedIn colleague Rashidah Omotola AbdulQuadri also added the importance of accessibility at conferences and also including articles/abstracts in braille.
3. When we talk about partnerships, we need to think about power imbalances and who controls the health agenda.
I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend HSR2022 in person and I hope to attend another conference. Thank you to the King's Opportunity Fund and Health Systems Global for providing funding for me to attend this conference in-person.