Rajrupa Ghosh

In one sentence, what is public health to you?

A way to improve health, preventing disease, and promoting a healthy lifestyle among the population.

What inspired you to study public health?

My first job involved many statewide supervisory visits of public hospitals in a developing country. The poor health conditions of the patients and the lack of basic necessities such as clean drinking water or a hygienic environment pointed towards ignorance and poor management of health issues. This helped me to realize that awareness regarding public health is as important and crucial in promoting health and preventing diseases, as is clinical medicine. This inspired me to take up public health as a career so that I can be a part of and contribute to a field that aids in improving quality of lives all over the world.

What has been the single most rewarding experience of your career/studies so far?

Working on and being recognized for the academic achievements in my career, which includes, receiving the ‘Outstanding Teaching Assistant’ and ‘Outstanding Service’ awards by University of Maryland, School of Public Health.

Advice:

Public Health is all about group work and the better you communicate with your peers, the easier the job will be. We are all one team!

What do you think is the biggest challenge that the public health field should be focusing on?

Since the field of public health is extremely diverse, it is difficult to state one specific problem. However, awareness of health issues among population is one area to be focused one. This would primarily involve promoting a healthy lifestyle to prevent chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, which affects millions of people worldwide.