About Us

Who Operates the Student Section

The HSAN student section is student-run. The vision for the student section is to unite students interested in the "big picture" of public health. That big picture is Health System Strengthening (HSS).

Not sure what HSS is? No worries, neither are the experts as the definition is still being sorted out. Essentially, if you’re interested in population health, upstream health determinants, governance, financing, disease prevention, service delivery, health information systems, human resources, or healthcare delivery, then you’re in the right place.

Aim of the Student Section

Our aim with this website is three-dimensional:

• Educate students about HSS. Our education on the subject is often lagging or nonexistent. We need to know what HSS is before we can contribute to it.
• Provide a platform to showcase your research, experiences, and perspectives on HSS and global health in general.
• Foster collaborations with experts and other students on research, advocacy, education, and clinical efforts pertaining to HSS.

Who Should Participate

We welcome graduate and undergraduate students, medical and public health students, developed and developing country students. Pretty much everyone is welcome! The more voices we gather, the louder we will be.

As students, we can be naïve enough to think we can overcome insurmountable obstacles and that is part of what makes us so valuable to public health. By connecting students with other students and HSS professionals, we hope this website can infuse optimism, curiosity, and creativity into the strengthening of health systems.

If you are interested in being a leader of the HSAN Student Section or want to contribute ideas, please email students@hsanet.org.

Looking Forward

The more students get involved, especially with the Collaboration Center, the more robust our network will be. We hope to make this website the nucleus for all things HSS. One way to raise awareness about the site is through social media such as Facebook or Twitter. If you’re interested in helping maintain either of these functions, please contact students@hsanet.org.

Current Student Section Leadership

Andrey Ostrovsky
Coordinator

Andrey is a 4th year medical student at Boston University School of Medicine. He has been involved with HSAN since it was first conceptualized at the “Montreaux Conference” in 2005 while Andrey was an intern at the World Health Organization. Through ongoing communication with the HSAN leadership, Andrey has been fortunate to participate in several projects involving HSS including the development of this website. He is currently coordinating the HSAN Student Section and eagerly looks forward to engaging other students in HSAN.

Currently, Andrey is between his 3rd and 4th year of medical school and is conducting a year-long research project in pediatrics at University of California, San Francisco. He is simultaneously gaining exposure to local public health system strengthening as a policy analyst intern at the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH).

Clincally, Andrey plans to pursue med-peds residency training. He hopes to combine his clinical work with HSS in developed and developing countries.