Student blogs

-After being a Medical Doctor for 7 years, I decided to crossover to be a Health Informatician-

Hi!

My name is Winner (not kidding!) and I am the blogger from the Master’s in Health Informatics programme. For this first blog, I will share the insight that made me take off my white coat and finally end up studying here.

My First Crossover: From an Idealist Newly Graduated Doctor to Healthcare Manager

The first 4 years after graduating, I tried my best to serve the patients with all that I had. Working in a hospital in the capital city of Indonesia, I had been enrolled in the emergency room, inpatient ward, ICU, outpatient clinic, and the operating theatre. During the time, I learned that to give the best healthcare service to patients, being a good -even the best doctor- is not enough! Every healthcare worker needs to be supported by a good management system to be able to provide good quality of care. Considering the more strategic role, I decided to crossover to be a healthcare manager.

My Second (Hopefully the Last) Crossover: A Conscientious Manager to Health-Informatician-to-be

I spent the next 3 years to study healthcare management while working in a more managerial role at the hospital, particularly in the quality improvement and patient safety field. That time I realized that my brain and my two hands (even with a group of teammates) were not effective enough to ensure that a thousand of people (yeah, the hospital back then was quite big!) working in the hospital would provide good quality service and patient safety. I learnt that every organization needs to be supported by a good information system to be able to set better goals and policies. Another consideration and another crossover to be made, I decided to be a health informatician, a relatively scarce role yet globally.

Decision to crossover 10,000-kilometres to land at Karolinska Institutet

Having decided to learn about health informatics, I looked at several universities around the world providing the course. Most of them held health informatics courses under the mathematical or computer science faculty, which made me doubtful. I did not plan to study pure computer science but also wished a balanced exposures on healthcare system and computer science. Then, from a friend of mine who had been taking his master degree in global health at KI, I found the programme at Karolinska Institutet is the most interesting. It resides under the medical faculty but accept students from both clinical and computer science background. KI also provides a curriculum that accommodates both fields! Knowing this, I decided that KI should be my priority when applying. And here I am now!

The Most Challenging Part: Coming Along Here with My Family

I did not have the time to collect enough data, but I was pretty sure that I will not find many international students moving to Stockholm with their family. And I am one of those! Few doubts ever came to my mind before decided to move here with my lovely wife and two cute children: Should I leave them for 2 years? Or should they come along with me to crossover to an unknown new part of the world?

But then further information (from sweden.se, studyinsweden.se, and from my friend’s testimony) had me ensured that Sweden is a child-friendly place, and also one of the happiest country in the world (according to UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network). So I trusted my gut to bring my family here.

Upon arrival, we, my family and I, did not need much time to realize that Sweden, particularly Stockholm, is indeed very child-friendly and holds one of the best educational systems in the world that we would love our children to experience of. And fortunately, they got their seats at the Swedish preschool just before we arrived here.

After Being a Student Here, Many Things to be Grateful of

I am grateful that my children are being well taken care of at the preschool and by the Swedish child care system. I am grateful that KI’s Master in Health Informatics Programme offers a good balance of study and life. I am grateful that as one of KI’s Digital Ambassadors, I have the opportunity to share my experience and hope to help some of the doubtful prospective students to make a wise decision for their future. I plan to write blogs about my daily life as a student with family and about development in the health informatics field that I found interesting and applicable for most readers. For I had been encouraged by the previous blogs here, now it is my turn to pay it forward.

You are most welcome to contact me for more information.

Email: winner.ng@stud.ki.se

LinkedIn: Winner Ng

Facebook: Win Ner

Instagram: @winneresthie