Nigerian Ruth Agbakoba wins 1st Prize at World Congress on Medical IT

 
Nigerian PhD Candidate, Ruth Agbakoba won the 1st prize award at The World Congress on Medical IT. 

Find out more about Ruth in her interview with Rising Africa :


Current Job

MRC-funded PhD student in e-health and digital health at the University of Glasgow

Key Quote

“I’ve learnt to believe in myself. It’s something I’ve worked to develop during my PhD ― to recognise that I’m here through hard work and not good fortune.”

Length of Career

Five years

Career in Brief

I did A levels in biology, chemistry, French and IT so it’s probably not surprising that I ended up in digital health. I was part of a cohort of students on the UK’s first clinically led undergraduate biomedical informatics course at St George’s Medical School, University of London. I graduated in 2009 with a first class honours and then I was offered an informatics scholarshipopens in new window at City University London where I completed an MSc in health informatics.

I then worked in the NHS for a year as an information analyst. I wanted to work outside academia to get a holistic view of careers in this area, but I’d always planned on coming back to academia and in 2012 I was one of six students to get an MRC studentship at the University of Glasgow.

I spend my days

I do a lot of catching up with emails and organising meetings. I also hold regular coding clinics where my supervisory team validate my data analysis. I’ve taken advice to get involved in lots of different aspects of research: I’m on the organising committee of a student conference, and review journal papers as well as doing my research. My research evaluates a national project in Scotland called Living it Upopens in new window, which is part of a larger UK-wide study looking at how digital technologies such as television, smartphones, games consoles and computers can be used to empower people to improve their own health and wellbeing. My research evaluates the project in real-time to see how successfully it is being incorporated into people’s everyday lives.

Career highlights

There are two that really stand out. One was being voted as doing the best presentation at our Institute of Health and Wellbeing conference in 2014. Accolades like that mean a lot when they come from your peers. The second was presenting at a major conference in my field in New York, also in 2014. It was great to present my research on an international platform.

Skills I need to do my job

A lot of it is time and project management. I’ve also learnt many transferable skills from being on the MRC doctoral training programme such as interviewing techniques and qualitative data analysis which I’ve put into practice in my research. I’ve also trained as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and I have monitored and assessed master’s degree students.



http://www.risingafrica.org/success-stories/health_medicine/nigerian-ruth-agbakoba-wins-1st-prize-at-world-congress-on-medical-it/