Winner of the 2023 Dean’s Well being Fairness and Management scholarship

Harmless Menyo

Harmless Menyo, 29
On-line MPH, Epidemiology and Biostatistics

• • Anticipated commencement: 2025
• • Hometown: Kampala, Uganda
• • Most well-liked pronouns: he/him/his

Berkeley Public Well being: Why did you select to enter public well being and why did you select Berkeley Public Well being on your diploma? 

Harmless Menyo: For the final six years, I’ve labored carefully with low-resource communities by means of M-SCAN Uganda. By means of this program, we have now developed moveable, inexpensive, and power-efficient ultrasound units that work on laptops, tablets, and cellphones and might detect problems early in being pregnant.

Within the communities I’ve labored with—together with refugee settlements—I’ve seen the social determinants of well being at full play. Many pregnant girls lack primary care, akin to easy diagnostic instruments, clear supply areas, and a lot extra.

My curiosity in public well being is sparked by my want to enhance the well being of those communities by means of higher understanding of the important thing determinants of well being, of challenges to the supply of key diagnostic instruments like ultrasound units, and thru use of human-centered design that might incorporate analysis findings from the communities themselves into work flows that information finest supply and execution of public well being improvements.

Since UC Berkeley is a number one institute in public well being, it has been my dream college for years. Seeing this dream come true is unbelievable. UC Berkeley’s particular emphasis on public well being apply will supply me the ability set I have to positively influence the communities I serve.

The UC Berkeley innovators community is an incredible area and alternative for me to increase the concepts I’ve and scale the improvements I’ve already labored on. Whereas at UC Berkeley, I plan to analysis moveable ultrasound units and ultrasound patches and hope to contribute to raised diagnostics, particularly in low-resource settings.

BPH: Why did you select your focus and what pursuits you about it? 

Menyo: To this point, the M-SCAN Uganda program has carried out not less than 4,000 scans with extra information coming month-to-month from over 25 well being facilities. This system wants somebody with a particular ability set to research this information. This sparked my particular curiosity in epidemiology and biostatistics. By means of instruments akin to regression fashions, we will draw a variety of that means from the information.

BPH: You obtained the Dean’s Well being Fairness and Management scholarship. What does that imply to you? Are you able to inform us extra about your ideas on well being fairness?

Menyo: My pleasure was by means of the roof after I obtained information that I used to be recipient of this prestigious and really aggressive award from UC Berkeley Faculty of Public Well being.

This can be a validation for the work I do at M-SCAN serving pregnant moms throughout Uganda. I consider that everybody regardless of their social, financial, geographical, or political class deserves high quality well being care and, as such, all of us have an element to play in reaching well being fairness. With an expertise of seeing the numerous well being disparities present in low useful resource settings, I consider consideration to well being fairness in any respect ranges beginning with the remotest and most rural is far wanted to get rid of such disparities by means of a 360 diploma strategy to present challenges in such communities.

BPH:  What component of public well being would you most like to vary? 

Menyo: Final Mile Well being supply of inexpensive diagnostic gear, particularly the extra moveable, inexpensive, and energy-efficient ultrasound units with clear mapping from coaching, deployment, danger detection, intervention, and referral the place essential.

BPH:  What would you love to do together with your diploma after commencement? 

Menyo: I’m trying ahead to advancing analysis and innovation within the context of low-resource diagnostics, with a concentrate on ultrasound supply to low-resource settings.

By means of Berkeley Innovators, I plan to innovate extra and produce extra impactful merchandise to sufferers, companion with extra innovators, and create a consortium that backs up native researchers finishing up analysis in low-resource settings in Africa.

BPH: How do you suppose Berkeley Public Well being will set you up for fulfillment in your future profession?

Menyo: The huge assets at Berkeley Public Well being will supply area for me to develop into a profitable public well being specialist and even a greater epidemiology/biostatistician specialist with edge chopping analysis and informative information analytical ability units.

This interview Q&A has been edited for size and readability.