Håkon Angell Bolkan is a general surgeon at Trondheim University Hospital, where he mainly manages emergency and trauma surgery. He has more than 15 years of experience in global international health. Håkon served as the President of MSF Norway between 2009 and 2011. In 2011 he founded CapaCare,, a non-profit organization offering medical training in areas where health care workers are scarce. Balkon’s main research interests are surgical health systems in low-income countries. We asked him why he thinks the Dutch postgraduate training programme ‘Global Health and Tropical Medicine’ is important and why he supports our campaign.

The ‘Into the World’ campaign focuses on the MD Global Health. Many of the published stories are inside perspectives. This week we want to highlight a different view. We recently asked professor Rose McGready, who has worked together on professional level with MD’s Global Health for the last 10 years about her experience on the residency program, the impact of these doctors on global health and their role in the future of healthcare.

Professor Rose McGready is Professor of Tropical Maternal and Child Health at the University of Oxford since 2014. She has been working at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU) on the Thailand-Myanmar border since 1994. Her work and research concentrate on uncomplicated malaria in pregnancy. Most studies at SMRU are longitudinal cohort studies with follow up until years after pregnancy. They have increased our understanding of malaria and antimalarials; common tropical infections in South-East Asia; pregnancy related health problems such as anemia, nutrition in pregnancy and quality and practice of care by skilled birth attendants.

Continue reading and find out how Professor Rose McGready assesses the MD Global Health program:

“Health care in developed countries is amazing. The diagnostics and facilities available can be super sophisticated and these tests are surprisingly available to the public who need them. In limited resource settings there are problems with the basics, not just in term of resources in the laboratories and pharmacies, but also in terms of trained human resources such as midwives, nurses and doctors.
Our organization has had the good fortune to meet and work with MDs from the dutch Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM) training. They have profoundly influenced and inspired our work. They have a solid training on the basics and know how to implement these. Furthermore they have a wish to pass on their skills (in our setting to those who missed out on training opportunities due to conflict) and a vision to make a difference in the corner of the world where they work.
I do not know of a country as generous as the Dutch in this area – the GHTM MDs are excellent ambassadors for the Netherlands. Over the past 10 years we have employed more than 10 GHTM from this Dutch course. All of these doctors have paid attention to improving the staff they leave behind when their visa expires. GHTM doctors have played a significant part in the improvement in maternal and child health care.
The benefit is not just one way. Several of these doctors have gone on to use their experience here in the context of further education such as masters or PhDs, which provides a significant return on investment. These doctors are more appreciative of their own public health system, because they have learnt how desperate and fragile health systems are in other parts of the world.
Training doctors in GHTM is a very positive investment for the Dutch people of 21st century.

Yours sincerely,

Rose McGready,
Professor of Tropical Maternal and Child Health, University of Oxford
Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, Mae Sot, Thailand”