I started my career working as a medical doctor in the Ivory Coast, which is my home country.
I worked for a public health agency when I was writing my thesis, and this experience helped me to become aware of public health issues. I felt that working in public health was a very interesting area for me to develop other skills in addition to my clinical skills. Instead of working for one patient as a doctor, in public health you work for an entire population.
My current job is working with the International Medical Corps as the Medical Director responsible for country programs management in Mali.
Prior to this, I held several roles with Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) in East and West Africa as a Medical Coordinator in charge of Liberia, Mali, Kenya and Somalia. I have also worked with Save the Children International in the Central African Republic as a country health and nutrition advisor.
While I no longer practice medicine, I still use my medical training to assist my teams with developing protocols and other processes. My medical knowledge is also very useful when communicating with doctors in various situations.
Prior to starting the IHM MBA I completed a Master of Science in Public Health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Belgium.
This academic training gave me a good scientific basis for understanding public health issues, managing data and making decisions, but I realized I needed more education to get me to where I wanted to be.
I knew that to be successful in moving from a technical role to a management position, I needed to know how to work with people from diverse backgrounds. It is very important to know how to motivate people, and how to push people to achieve goals.
People often thrive when they with a good manager and leave when they have a bad manager, so I want to be the best manager I can be.
I selected the IHM because I knew the program would help build my leadership and management competencies, particularly as managing diverse teams requires a strong set of skills.
I have completed three modules of the IHM so far. My favorite is the module that takes place in Bangalore, which allows us to acquire the change management skills necessary to implement initiatives and leadership management in organizations.
An International Healthcare Management MBA helps professionals to better understand management within healthcare, compared to a general MBA that provides general management knowledge.
My favorite aspect of a specific healthcare MBA is that we have access to practitioners in the healthcare industry, rather than from a range of industries, as in the general MBA. This allows me to gain a better understanding of the challenges in the specific field that I am working in.
So far I can say that I am thoroughly enjoying the MBA IHM and I am looking forward to the upcoming modules, interaction with my peers and continuing to expand my healthcare network.
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