Yusuf Aulia Rahman
I’m Yusuf, an internal medicine specialist from Lampung province of Indonesia. Dealing with numbers of advanced HIV/AIDS cases in tertiary referral hospital made me realise the importance of improving health services not only in hospitals but also in primary health centres.
It was really difficult to access learning facilities to gain HIV/STIs knowledge other than get into residency program in big hospitals. I started to follow courses and sharing them with colleagues from primary care centres by conducting HIV workshops in collaboration with local provincial health offices and the Ministry of Health. Recently there are more new HIV care centres and they remained open, this brings care closer to the patients and reduces non-adherence to medication.
“ My dream after my return to Indonesia is to open an integrated medical centre not only serving patients’ needs, but also as a learning ground to further reduce the knowledge gap among Indonesian health workers, and as a research hub for international collaboration. ” ”
Looking at subjects in different ways
I do realise that improving the quality of health workers in HIV/STIs and other infectious diseases management is a big challenge in a country as big as Indonesia. My goal was to pursue the Master in International Health as the curriculum really offers all I was looking for: from identifying problems to funding a project, from clinical science to social science, even political factors. The mix of nationalities and professional backgrounds of both students and tutors results in a very dynamic sharing of experiences and perspectives and this really helps in looking at subjects in different ways and from different points of view, and learn so much from each other.
My dream after my return to Indonesia is to open an integrated medical centre not only serving patients’ needs, but also as a learning ground to further reduce the knowledge gap among Indonesian health workers, and as a research hub for international collaboration. I know this is an ambitious goal which will require huge efforts and persistence, but I strongly believe it’s achievable. And I’m sure that studying the Master of International Health at KIT Royal Tropical Institute is the best preparation for this. I am very grateful to KIT Scholarship Fund to make this possible.