Laurence Woollard
What’s your background? What did you study for your undergraduate degree?
In what now feels like another universe, I was originally pursuing a career in the music industry. I had studied Professional Musicianship at undergraduate level, finishing circa 2010. I then undertook a series of internships before landing a job offer at a music publisher in London. I reflect fondly on these times; the on-stage performance element as a gigging musician was a particularly important grounding in how to captivate and engage an audience’s attention, skills for which I have taken forward into my professional role and presentation delivery today.
What happened next? Why did you apply to study the Health Policy MSc at Imperial?
I entered the healthcare ‘arena’ through a lens of lived experience as being someone affected by the rare chronic bleeding disorder, haemophilia. Having initially volunteered for the national patient group, I developed a strong sense of personal agency and commitment to advocate on behalf of others impacted by my condition and other rare diseases. Since 2016, I have been engaging and partnering with various actors across the public, charitable and commercial sectors centring on patient involvement in healthcare decision making and research as well as demonstrating thought leadership on matters of empowerment and informed patient choice.
During this time, it became clear to me the importance of gaining a greater understanding of the relationship between health and health policy, both as a means of tackling existing and future health challenges in society as well as recognising the process in which economic and other public policies impact on people’s health. Moreover, I had personal ambitions of extending my advocacy work beyond a patient-provider focus to influencing health outcomes at a population level, using evidence-based policy making to drive change towards a more equitable paradigm for those impacted by rare conditions.
Therefore, a part-time Master’s programme felt the logical next step that would satisfy my learning needs as part of my professional development and provide the flexibility with balancing work, life and health demands. Imperial is renowned for its academic excellence and world-class experts, none more so than the Chair of the Health Policy MSc, Professor Lord Ara Darzi, who has recently been appointed by Government to lead an investigation into the state of the NHS. All in all, the course seemed to fit the brief
What do you enjoy most about Master’s in Health Policy programme?
Firstly, I have been really impressed by the breadth of topics covered in the programme whilst still maintaining in-depth coverage of each one. Also, the teaching pedagogy is designed as such to cater to individual learning needs and preferences, whether it is distilling detailed and complex readings into user-friendly video and audio formats or the mix of individual and group-based assessment tasks. Besides the lecturers who are subject matter experts in their own right with real-world policy experience, a number of guest speakers have complimented the weekly live lessons, such as representatives from the Institute for Fiscal Studies to former Special Advisors to the Health Secretary. These have provided on-the-ground and first-hand insight of the trade-offs policy makers are contending with daily as it relates to health and healthcare.
Which part of the Health Policy course has been most interesting to you so far, and why?
Each of the eight modules across the two years – on top of the dissertation – has offered something completely different but equally valuable. Health economics is not my speciality but the content on financing healthcare delivered by the module lead, Joel Smith, brought home the rising challenges for the sustainability of healthcare within publicly funded systems like ours here in the UK and the fiscal resources required to finance the required spending on health. The main assessment for this module also included a difficult but rewarding analysis of demand- and supply-side reform efforts for improving efficiency, quality and usage of health services, which demanded considerations of complexities associated with distributive justice that lies at the heart of the National Health Service. Gaining knowledge around these areas and readily applying the learnt material in this way has been a really fulfilling experience!
What has been most challenging about the course? Or what have you found surprising?
I referred earlier to ‘balancing’ competing interests and obligations alongside the part-time Master’s. In truth, I still have yet to find the ‘sweet spot’ between allocating time on course content and navigating everything that life throws at you. I think it is part and parcel of being a professional and postgraduate student and a far cry from my undergraduate days! Whilst Imperial expect the highest levels of academic rigour and integrity from their students which, of course, I have sought to demonstrate in my contributions and submissions, the course team have also been very supportive and responsive to my individual circumstances. Heath shocks are, by their very nature, unpredictable. As such, the empathy, understanding and accommodation shown by everyone involved with the programme has been a significant enabler to ensure I can work to and meet the high standards that I expect of myself.
What do you wish you had known before you had started the programme?
I applied to Imperial to be pushed academically and to enhance my research competencies and policy practitioner skills. I came into the programme fully aware that the expectations would be great. In hindsight, however, the quantity of reading materials has been quite tricky to manage in parts. Although it is all worthy of covering, it does take practice and patience to figure out the ‘need to know’ versus the ‘nice to know’ when under severe time-constraints. Despite nearing the end of the programme, I feel that I am still on this learning curve. The introduction of a ‘soft launch’ of the modules a week in advance of them formally kicking-off was highly useful for gauging time requirements of unit content and to stratify my study plan over subsequent weeks.
And one final thing you would like readers to know?
Committing to postgraduate study is a decision that should not be taken lightly. Certain sacrifices have to be made and allocating evenings and some weekends to course content and assignments become common place. It puts pressures on personal relationships and you may have to miss the odd social here and there. Nonetheless, what you gain in knowledge and experience, together with making connections and lifelong friendships with peers and the opening of “new doors” while doing so, makes it totally worth it!