The World Health Summit provided "a smörgåsbord of interesting discussions," says YPL Eimear Duff

Eimear Duff, a Senior House Officer in internal medicine at St James's Hospital (Dublin, Ireland), is among the 24 outstanding young physicians below the age of 40 from all over the world that have been selected to participate in the 2021 IAP Young Physician Leaders (YPL) programme.

She blogged about her experience at the 2021 World Health Summit (WHS) on the website of the Royal Irish Academy, the IAP member academy that nominated her.

The WHS, she wrote, "provided a smörgåsbord of interesting discussions."

There was a particular focus on pandemic preparedness and response, with interconnected themes of vaccine policy for health equity, planetary health, access to essential medicines, artificial intelligence, among many others, being explored. With seven sessions being held concurrently at any one timeslot, I initially felt torn between which to attend, and flitted between different virtual 'rooms', trying to absorb as much as possible. I soon realised the sessions were uploaded onto YouTube shortly afterwards! At the Young Physician Leaders' spotlight on "Empowering Young Global Health Leadership", there was an excellent discussion on our shared professional challenges, and solutions to these explored. Another particularly enjoyable session was the interactive "Pettenkofer Talk" on career paths in the interdisciplinary field of Global Public Health, where I gained useful career advice from Prof. Dr. Ilona Kickbusch. As a patient-facing clinician, I had the invaluable opportunity to zoom out from wards and clinics and immerse myself in the World Health Summit, reflecting on broader issues in global health. I am deeply grateful to the Royal Irish Academy and the InterAcademy Partnership for this extraordinary experience.

You can read the full blogpost on the website of the Royal Irish Academy and watch the full IAP YPL session at the 2021 WHS here: