Student blogs

This year, Karolinska Institutet granted the KI Global Master’s Scholarship to nine of the new students out of around 1500 applicants. We proudly present one profile of the awardee who admitted to the Health Informatics course.

Who are you? And what have you been doing before KI?

I’m Arin Karlina, called Arin and I came from Indonesia.
Before studying in KI, I previously studied Computer Science in Institut Pertanian Bogor for my bachelor degree where I do my thesis about topics of Human-Computer Interaction in my final year. After graduated in 2014, I continue my interest in the topics of the user by joining a Research and Consulting company with the main roles to manage and conduct both product and user research around telecommunication industry projects. Moreover, in 2017 I take the role of a User Experience Researcher in a start-up company for a year.

What made you decide to go pursue a master degree study?

I always love endeavoring new knowledge and sciences. It always blows my mind about how science is so infinite and broad every time I study a new course. I decided to pursue my degree study in order to achieve my goals to get this knowledge again, specifically that combined health sciences in general or specific, with research in technology that I have been eyeing since 2016. Furthermore, I think four-year gaps from my previous study is the right gap for me to study again this year in 2018.

Why did you choose KI? And why Health Informatics Programme?

I am a patient and a caregiver myself, thus I understand the concept of experiencing multi-layer of healthcare experiences that are come from my personal perspectives and as a caregiver’s perspectives. Moreover, as a Computer Scientist, I have seen the vast growth of technology development in many public sectors but are still struggling to foresee a commitment of developing it in the public healthcare sectors. Through my job in research for the telecommunication industry, I also see that the rapid development of internet speed and access by the launching of 4G, 5G and so on have increased the development of e-government services. Thus, I think of why not to use this already good internet infrastructure also for the healthcare? Specifically, the patient-centered healthcare which is aimed for specific patients who need ongoing treatment for the lifetime. The internet could give us far more reachable and easier access to healthcare!

I choose KI in order to fulfill these ideas. I believe, in a few years from now, the knowledge which I would have gained from KI and the entitlement that I am graduate of a very respected medical university, will become a raised value for me to start making an impact. And why health informatics? I come from a Computer Background and working industry that has no intersects with any of health aspects. Therefore, I need to see and learn the perspectives from the health aspects in order to achieve my purposes. I found the health informatics programme through long research, the more I read about it, the more I think it’s the most ideal programme for me. Moreover, as a computer scientists, a UX enthusiast, a research maniac, I have experienced many multidisciplinary fields starting from my bachelor thesis and work experiences. Being in the multidisciplinary field is like a playground for me. As I said, I never stop to be amused about how magnificent all the disciplinary sciences that we have. And how great it will be if the health aspects merged with the research and development in technology! I believed it will result in something meaningful and powerful in terms of reaching great human care.

How did you feel of studying basic medical science from a computer scientist’s point of view?

I feel great! It’s definitely an eye-opening study that I have never imagine learning before. This course has broadened my view of how great our body systems are. I always wonder about why do people act this way or that way. Now I am starting to learn that it actually is the result from the complex process inside a body! How amazing it is!

From my computer science point of view, these basic medical sciences are rich fields that are potential to be giant resources of research studies that could be combined with computer sciences. Research focuses on AI, data science, UX, imaging and more are actually potential to be applied in these medical sciences. Again, science is so cool, isn’t it!

As one of the scholarship awardees, anything you wish to say to KI?

The very first words that I want to say to KI is a big THANK YOU! This scholarship is basically an open door for me to everything that I have been dreaming of! KI has made it possible for me to experience more value in my life, starting from dream study of health informatics in a prestigious university of KI and to living in Stockholm that I never dreamt of stepping my foot here before.

What do you expect offer to KI during your study?

I expect to offer my greatest effort in accomplishing my vision and mission which is to support reaching a better quality of patient-centered care especially for patients who is in need for a long-term care. In order to accomplish that, I will grasp all the knowledge and experience as much as I can while I am here in KI, as well as attending seminars and workshops in the industry (if applicable) and be involved in student activities which I started in my country student union by being KI’s representative in our country’s social media account. It is great to promote KI and to share the experiences of studying here to all the prospective students in Indonesia. I hope more of them will come to KI!

Any tips for the prospective student before applying for the Health Informatics programme at KI? Especially for the fellow computer scientists out there!

Make sure you read the learning outcomes and check if it’s in line in what you wanted to study. Don’t be that person who’s in the class, but doesn’t feel the course is right for them. Try to be sure that Health informatics is really the one. For Health Informatics at KI itself, it has the bridging course for those in the medical background or in technical background. For those in medical, you will get a supplementary course about basic computer science, while for those in technical, will get the basic medical sciences course. This helps a lot to understand the topics in both perspectives.

For my fellow computer scientist who desired to have specific specialization, health informatics will be a cool subject to do! If you have a passion to be involved in the health industry, health informatics is definitely the one. Moreover, for those of you in Computer Science who driven in research, Health Informatics have a bundle of knowledge that applicable for ongoing and future in-depth research topics. In short, I hope to see more of my fellow computer scientists to be here in KI.

Good luck in choosing your path!

Contact me at:

email: winner.ng@stud.ki.se

LinkeIn: Winner Ng