Woman IAS officer to research on pandemic at Harvard

New Delhi: The global public health emergency due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus pandemic, has alarmed authorities and policy makers worldwide to handle such situations with robust and guided interventions in future.

"This can only be achieved by having a vast academic and practical training of the public health and healthcare, for this I chose to study Public Health through the Harvard Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) which is a program to prepare for high-level leadership to make a difference in public health," Dr. Mrinalini Darswal told IANS who is a doctor turned IAS officer from India.

She has worked as special secretary, Health, Commissioner Food Safety, Drug Controller, and project director for HIV/AIDS control for the Delhi Government.

Dr Darswal is the only Indian among fellow foreign students who will study this first-of-its-kind, multidisciplinary degree that provides advanced education in public health along with mastery of skills in management, leadership, communications, and innovative thinking.

"It's a doctoral degree course in which I shall learn how to address complex problems of public health policy and use advanced analytical and managerial tools to lead organizational and societal change," Dr Darswal told IANS, adding, "I anticipate that this year most students would be studying pandemics due to the recent outbreak of novel coronavirus."

Talking about the coronavirus, Dr Darswal said that medical professionals are fine tuning their responses according to the WHO guidelines.

"Currently, nothing is known definitively about this novel virus," she said.