Improving lives at scale: the public health doctor

Doctors are known for their ability to innovate to improve patient care. Atsu Latey’s innovation—a nationwide mental health telemedicine service in Ghana—was created before he had even left medical school.In 2017, from his medical school dormitory, Latey developed MindIT1—a service that would signpost people to affordable, accessible mental healthcare in Ghana.Given Latey’s drive to improve access to mental health, it might be assumed that his chosen discipline is psychiatry. Instead, he specialises in health policy and financing—a subspecialty of public health—because he wants to make a large scale difference to people’s health and care.“I find health policy to be a lever of immense change in society. Working in policy can help you to make changes that can positively affect the lives of thousands, and even millions, of people,” he says.Latey’s parents inspired him and his siblings to work with their hands to solve problems and help people. This, together with…
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