IMPACT TB Health Economist, Anchal Thapa, visits UK team

On the 20th of May, 2023 I arrived in the UK feeling ecstatic to be back in the country that gave me so much memories during my time, doing my Masters. It was a Saturday, and I immediately got the taste of Liverpool’s football craze reflected in the heavy traffic that day alluding to game day! After a good rest during the weekend, I arrived at LSTM first thing in the morning on Monday, excited to be spending the next two weeks working with Noemia and exploring collaborations in the UK. Noemia, who is working at University of York as a Health Economics Research Associate, has been my mentor ever since I had joined LSTM/BNMT and working with her has always been so motivating. She joined me in one of the meeting rooms at the Wolfson building and we immediately delved into the agenda for the next two weeks. Before arriving in the UK, I had a list of things that I wanted to achieve which mainly included getting Noemia’s guidance on the current research studies that I had been working on. Our week continued, working together throughout the day, and ended with Noemia showing me around the city. We went to the dock-side and enjoyed the light breeze whilst gazing at the River Mersey.

On Wednesday of May 24th, I decided to take a day trip down to Birmingham to visit my professors and previous supervisors at the University of Birmingham. I was mainly there to network and find potential collaborators in the study that I was doing. Being at the university grounds took me back to my uni days, flooded with nostalgia and memories. I met up with all my professors and shared my journey so far and how I have managed to transition my educational achievements into my career as a health economist in Nepal. They were all as happy to see me as I was seeing them again.

During the rest of the week, I met up with Max and Raghu sir who were also visiting Liverpool at the same time. We met with Tom Wingfield and Laura Rosu from LSTM on separate occasions and had interesting conversations, nonetheless. On Friday, Noemia asked me to join her for lunch with her ARISE project colleagues, there I got to meet a fellow Nepali researcher and network with other people.

The following weekend was a bank holiday weekend, which meant that people were out and about enjoying the British summer time. I utilized my weekend by visiting the Maritime and Slavery Museum and the Museum of Liverpool, followed by some shopping around the city center.

On Tuesday, Noemia and I travelled to York to spend few days there, visiting University of York. This was my second time in York, and it was as beautiful as I had remembered. On the 31st of May, I had the opportunity to present at of the bi-weekly Global Public Health (GPH) Seminar on the topic of ‘Improving equity in patient-centric Tuberculosis care in Nepal’. In my talk, I had presented about BNMT’s current research efforts and highlighted the health economics research that I am undertaking in Nepal. The meeting was joined by esteemed professors, senior researchers and PhD students from the department of health sciences. Later we also had separate meetings with Omara Dogar, Helen Elsey and Gerardo Gomez. It was amazing meeting researchers who have so much experience in their respective fields and talking to them was highly motivating for me.

At York, we also met up with Vijay GC, who is a senior lecturer in health economics at University of Huddersfield, and I had previously gotten in touch with him after knowing that he was a fellow Nepalese health economist based in the UK. Noemia, Vijay and I are currently collaborating on a model-based cost-effectiveness analysis of GeneXpert testing versus Sputum Smear Microscopy. All in all, my York trip was very productive, where I met like-minded people and has motivated me to work hard and further my career objectives.

To sum up, my UK trip was quite successful with good networking, building collaborations and being inspired, all without a single drop of rain throughout the entirety of my stay there. I was blessed with sunny, long day time hours and got to experience Liverpool in the best light possible.