Vishwathsen Karthikeyan

At the time of the QE Scholarship, Vishu was a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Health Sciences program who was completing additional undergraduate coursework. His interest in strengthening health systems, with a specific focus on improving healthcare accessibility, stemmed from his undergraduate courses and clinical research exposure. In order to broaden his understanding of barriers to healthcare access, Vishu interned at the Public Health Foundation of Delhi (PHFI), a public private initiative established to improve India’s health systems capability.

As an outbound Queen Elizabeth Scholar, Vishu assisted with a field study and literature review examining the social determinants of health among urban marginalized population. He also worked on developing a training module for community health workers on how to address the health of homeless persons. As part of the module development, he collaborated with a partner Non-Government Organization of PHFI, the Center of Equity Studies. Vishu was excited to see how his research could be used to influence policy makers and strengthen health systems.