Berkeley Public Well being student profile: Innocent Menyo

Winner of the 2023 Dean’s Well being Equity and Leadership scholarship

Innocent Menyo

Innocent Menyo, 29
On the internet MPH, Epidemiology and Biostatistics

• • Anticipated graduation: 2025
• • Hometown: Kampala, Uganda
• • Preferred pronouns: he/him/his

Berkeley Public Well being: Why did you pick out to go into public overall health and why did you pick out Berkeley Public Well being for your degree? 

Innocent Menyo: For the final six years, I have worked closely with low-resource communities via M-SCAN Uganda. By means of this plan, we have created transportable, very affordable, and energy-effective ultrasound devices that perform on laptops, tablets, and mobile phones and can detect complications early in pregnancy.

In the communities I have worked with—including refugee settlements—I have observed the social determinants of overall health at complete play. Lots of pregnant females lack fundamental care, such as uncomplicated diagnostic tools, clean delivery spaces, and so substantially much more.

My interest in public overall health is sparked by my need to enhance the overall health of these communities via improved understanding of the crucial determinants of overall health, of challenges to the delivery of crucial diagnostic tools like ultrasound devices, and via use of human-centered style that would incorporate analysis findings from the communities themselves into perform flows that guide finest delivery and execution of public overall health innovations.

Considering that UC Berkeley is a major institute in public overall health, it has been my dream university for years. Seeing this dream come correct is unbelievable. UC Berkeley’s particular emphasis on public overall health practice will supply me the ability set I will need to positively influence the communities I serve.

The UC Berkeley innovators network is an awesome space and chance for me to expand the suggestions I have and scale the innovations I have currently worked on. Although at UC Berkeley, I program to analysis transportable ultrasound devices and ultrasound patches and hope to contribute to improved diagnostics, particularly in low-resource settings.

BPH: Why did you pick out your concentration and what interests you about it? 

Menyo: So far, the M-SCAN Uganda plan has carried out at least four,000 scans with much more information coming month-to-month from more than 25 overall health centers. The plan demands somebody with a particular ability set to analyze this information. This sparked my particular interest in epidemiology and biostatistics. By means of tools such as regression models, we can draw a lot of which means from the information.

BPH: You received the Dean’s Well being Equity and Leadership scholarship. What does that imply to you? Can you inform us much more about your thoughts on overall health equity?

Menyo: My excitement was via the roof when I received news that I was recipient of this prestigious and really competitive award from UC Berkeley College of Public Well being.

This is a validation for the perform I do at M-SCAN serving pregnant mothers across Uganda. I think that absolutely everyone irrespective of their social, financial, geographical, or political class deserves good quality overall health care and, as such, we all have a portion to play in reaching overall health equity. With an encounter of seeing the a lot of overall health disparities current in low resource settings, I think interest to overall health equity at all levels beginning with the remotest and most rural is substantially necessary to remove such disparities via a 360 degree method to current challenges in such communities.

BPH:  What element of public overall health would you most like to transform? 

Menyo: Final Mile Well being delivery of very affordable diagnostic gear, particularly the much more transportable, very affordable, and power-effective ultrasound devices with clear mapping from instruction, deployment, danger detection, intervention, and referral exactly where needed.

BPH:  What would you like to do with your degree following graduation? 

Menyo: I’m hunting forward to advancing analysis and innovation in the context of low-resource diagnostics, with a concentrate on ultrasound delivery to low-resource settings.

By means of Berkeley Innovators, I program to innovate much more and bring much more impactful solutions to individuals, companion with much more innovators, and make a consortium that backs up regional researchers carrying out analysis in low-resource settings in Africa.

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

Menyo: The vast sources at Berkeley Public Well being will supply space for me to turn out to be a profitable public overall health specialist and even a improved epidemiology/biostatistician specialist with edge cutting analysis and informative information analytical ability sets.

This interview Q&ampA has been edited for length and clarity.