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EP145 Shaping the Future of Global Health at NYU with Dr. Mark Jit
Aman Chopra: Folks, welcome back to another episode of the "I AM GPH" podcast. Today we have Dr. Mark Jit. Dr. Mark Jit is a scholar, professor and head of Department of Infectious Disease and Epidemiology and Dynamics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His research integrates infectious disease modeling and economic evaluation. His approach has been pivotal to major UK vaccine decisions over the past 15 years, and key global health recommendations concerning use of vaccines against COVID-19, HPV, measles, rotavirus, influenza, RSV, and Dengue among other diseases. I can keep going and that's really cool. Now we are very excited to welcome Dr. Mark Jit as the inaugural chair of the Department of Global and Environmental Health at NYU GPH. Dr. Mark Jit, welcome to the "I AM GPH" podcast and welcome to NYU, we're glad to have you here.
Mark Jit: Thank you, I'm really excited to be coming to NYU, so thank you for having me on this podcast.
Aman Chopra: Why don't you start out by telling us about your background? Where do you come from? How did you get into public health to begin with?
Mark Jit: Sure, well, fun fact about me, this move to NYU is actually going to be the second big international move in my life because I actually grew up in Malaysia and 30 years ago I moved to the UK initially to study, but I've spent about almost 30 years there now, living and working there. And it's been a really exciting time, but I'm actually thrilled now to make another move here to NYU. So if you are going to be coming to New York from across the world or even across the USA, well, we are all in the same boat. We'll all be exploring the city together.
Aman Chopra: I love this and we're glad to have you here. We have a very big international community here at NYU and I'm curious to know what got you into the world of public health 30 years ago? Did you start over there or did it move somewhere? How did this whole journey start for you?
Mark Jit: It's been an interesting journey. So the first degree I did was in mathematics. And as I was finishing that, I really wanted to work on something that took mathematics and applied it to things that affect people directly. So after I finished my PhD, there was a job opening in the public health agency of the UK taking mathematics and using it to understand how vaccines work and how vaccines can save lives. And so I applied for that job, I got it. And I really loved the work. I loved the way I could use the maths that I had learned, but also use it for really practical reasons, like being able to advise the UK government on, you know, what's the best way to use different vaccines and actually see the impact of that on people's lives.
Aman Chopra: So, I mean, that's a big jump, right? So it started with mathematics and then were you in mathematics for a decade, or public health came much earlier for you?
Mark Jit: I think it was a transition. I mean, I did my first degree in mathematics, then I worked, I did a PhD in mathematical biology and then-
Aman Chopra: Mathematical biology, wow, okay.
Mark Jit: Yeah, so that's applying mathematics to understanding how human systems, the human body works. And then I got into public health in, after that, working with the UK Public Health Agency, understanding how diseases spread in populations and how best we can use vaccines to prevent them from spreading and to save lives.
Aman Chopra: So I mean, it sounds like there's a lot of work in the middle over there, but I love how it's taking you a mathematic career – a career in math has got you into this part where you're influencing policy and big decisions to make for the world.
Mark Jit: Well, yeah, that's, I think that's the exciting thing about public health. It's really such an interdisciplinary area. There are mathematicians, there are social scientists, there are ethicists, philosophers, there are, you know, statisticians, there are biologists, doctors we're all coming together and trying to say, well, how can we have the greatest impact on entire populations in terms of improving their health.
Aman Chopra: Now, in your intro, I mentioned so many diseases and I mentioned that that's how much work you have done. And I could have kept going in that I'm curious to know what is vaccine epidemiology and how did you, I know you ended up with mathematics. How did that specificity come in? Like, what was your path into that industry?
Mark Jit: Well, vaccine epidemiology, I would say is the study of how infectious diseases spread in populations. And then what's the best way to use vaccines to prevent that spread and to save lives? And there's, it can be quite mathematical. Many mathematical models are used. I mean, those of us who have been through the COVID pandemic, you might have seen on TV, you know, these graphs showing this is how many cases of COVID we're gonna get in the next month, but if we manage to vaccinate enough people, the numbers will drop by this much. So there are mathematicians behind that, working out the calculations, taking observations from the real world, how many people are going to hospital with COVID, putting them in the models and then using them to project what might happen in the future.
Aman Chopra: Wow, have there been any days where, and then how would you describe vaccine epidemiology? Is it this predicting models or is it much more than that? How would you describe that term?
Mark Jit: Well, I've talked about the mathematical side of vaccine epidemiology. There are many other aspects. There are some of the cutting edge lab techniques to be able to understand different infectious disease pathogens and as they evolve, as they spread between different individuals. Some of it is doing field studies, understanding, you know, who's getting sick, how the diseases are spreading by conducting trials or conducting observational studies where you watch populations and see what happens to them and what are the risk factors that cause these diseases to spread. How can we understand how quickly they spread, how long someone gets infected. So there are lots of different components to vaccine epidemiology.
Aman Chopra: Well you're gonna be exposing that to NYU, the terms, not the disease.
Mark Jit: Yes, well, hopefully I don't, hopefully none of us are bringing any diseases. But yeah, I'm really excited to be able to share some of the work I've been doing with students as we come together for the coming academic year.
Aman Chopra: I love, was there a story that you can take me to from your time working in vaccine epidemiology, something that it was this wow moment or this aha moment that I love this industry? Is there a moment that comes to your mind?
Mark Jit: Well, there have been times, I mean, I've had the privilege of, you know, being, working on a particular vaccine. And then I remember when I first got into the field, I was working with John Edmonds, who's a very famous infectious disease modeler. And he was working very closely with the UK government, and we were working on a particular vaccine, and we had done a lot of work and sent various reports to government. They were discussing it, and I remember working quite late one day to get some calculations finished, and then I sent them to him. And then a few hours later he came back and said, yes, they've made the decision, we are gonna introduce this vaccine. I was thinking, “wow, this is great.” Think of the number of people's lives who have been saved by this.
Aman Chopra: So it was the first one where you gave, it felt like an assignment submission for you, but then it actually influenced how it affects our society and it had a positive impact.
Mark Jit: Exactly, so, you know, those assignments you do in class, well, those are to get you your grade, but you might be doing the same thing many years later and that will have real effects on people's lives.
Aman Chopra: I love hearing this, I mean, that must be, many students watching this right now might think of that moment in their life where that assignment is actually very valuable if you think about that reference experience is there because they've done it before. Speaking of John, I'm sure John Edmonds, was John Edmonds, was that his name? He was someone you met in the UK?
Mark Jit: That's right.
Aman Chopra: So speaking of the UK, you know, you have come here from the prestigious London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. What drew you to NYU GPH specifically?
Mark Jit: Well, it's really the opportunity to be part of something new and exciting. The Department of Global and Environmental Health has just been started. And so we're really there at the early stages, but I'm sure this is a department that is going to shine because it's in a fantastic place. It's in NYU, it's in New York, so I'm sure this is, you know, there are gonna be many exciting things happening in this department, and I'm really excited to be there right from the start to be able to shape it and to be part of the pioneering batch that works out and works all this out.
Aman Chopra: How would you describe this department to the students that might not even be joining GPH for this department? Like how would you describe this department for a student that is figuring out their public health path?
Mark Jit: Well, I think global environmental health are great, two great subjects to bring together and really so important in our world today. I mean, we hear lots of things on the news about how the health of people around the world is affected by things that cross borders. I mean, we've just had a huge pandemic and we've got, you know, other infectious diseases that are threatening the lives of people. We've heard about climate change and how that affects health. We've heard about conflict in different countries and you know, like displacement of populations and how that affects health as well. We've heard about the potential of, say, AI and health and also the risks of AI as well. And I think all these issues are not issues that can be solved by a single country acting alone. These are issues where we have to look, bring countries together and say, how can we understand this problem together, work together to solve them? And I think that's what global and environmental health are really about.
Aman Chopra And then as a chair of the department, are those your hopes for the department, kind of global connectivity, connectivity of people? Are there any other things that come to your mind?
Mark Jit: I think that's exactly it. I hope that this department will really be about understanding how countries can come together. People around the world can come together to create a healthier future for the entire world's population. And I think that's the same as, you know, we get students from different parts of the US, different parts of the world. It'd be fantastic to see people in different countries in the same classroom talking about and understanding global problems together. And some of you may be even doing courses around the world because there are those opportunities at NYU as well.
Aman Chopra: It seems like this, when I hear this title of environmental health, it sounds very interdisciplinary again, and it seems like there's a demand for any student, no matter what. Are there any specific areas of, you mentioned AI was another one, you mentioned there's so many things with concerns to environmental health. Is this a kind of department where anyone can join or are there specific needs? It seems to be like anyone can join this department.
Mark Jit: Well, I think both global and environmental health are very interdisciplinary. So we really need people with different kinds of skills who wanna bring those skills to understand the big global and environmental health challenges the world has. Environmental health is going to be, is such an important field and it's going to be increasingly more important in the future as we see huge, major problems like climate change, like the, you know, pollution in different parts of the world. And to be able to understand these problems, to mitigate the effects on health, and to see how we can actually bring change to the world, we are going to have to have people bringing in their skills. Whether it's mathematical skills, whether it's social science skills, whether it's skills in understanding, you know, how human behavior works, how economies work, how political systems work. We need to come together to be able to solve these problems together.
Aman Chopra: I'm excited hearing this. I want to join your department just like.
Mark Jit: Oh, please do.
Aman Chopra: How do you see it evolving to address the dynamic global health challenges of our time? Like how do you see this department serving that?
Mark Jit: Well, I think it'll be through all the things that a university department does. So both research, so understanding, actually using the best possible human knowledge to understand what are the best ways we can solve the major health challenges to education to really educating and inspiring and working with the students who will be the leaders in global and environmental health in the future, so that they can really make a difference. And in actually serving the world, in having faculty in the department, actually being at global organizations and, you know, being able to bring evidence to advocate for change. I think that's what the department is about.
Aman Chopra: You know, I'm curious to dive deeper into this global health thing you were talking about and connectivity of the global collaboration. I know that you have served at several schools, you've been affiliated with the University of Hong Kong and you've also been at the National University of Singapore. Can you discuss the importance of partnerships and collaborations in global health? You mentioned this, but are there any examples that you can give me that you have seen happen?
Mark Jit: Well, I think there's so much we can learn from each other. So really across the world, for instance, I mean, let's go back to the COVID Pandemic. I think we all know that different parts of the world, you know, the US, Europe, Asia, countries in different parts of the world had different approaches to the COVID pandemic. And some were successful, some were less successful. But there's a lot of learning that we are doing now in looking at different countries and said, hey, what worked there? What didn't work so well? There's so much learning we've been able to do because now, you know, like researchers and policy makers in different countries are talking to each other, learning from each other. And I think that's the kind of collaboration where we can really come together and understand what we can learn from different parts of the world. I mean, I think one of the other exciting things that's happening in the world right now is we are really seeing research and education in universities in Asia, in Africa and Latin America really grow and expand and you, you know, and there's so much we can learn from each other as we partner with institutions from these different parts of the world and actually solve challenges where we really need to work together, that we need to learn from each other and we need to collaborate with each other to solve these problems.
Aman Chopra: Something that came to my mind, a student is watching, this student is in summer right now, perhaps, or even winter, and they have some time, how can they start thinking about collaborating with people? So say some person, he or she are 19 years old in their house, and how do they start collaborating with someone, they wanna learn about this area and someone might be doing that. How do people start collaborating?
Mark Jit: Well, I think if you are a student, you can even start in your own classroom. I know that at NYU in, you know, in this program, there'll be students from all around the world. You might be sitting next to someone from a totally different part of the world who might even be, you know, the minister of health in another country in 20 years time. So as you're collaborating on your project for a particular course, maybe in 20 years time, you'll be signing an international global health agreement with that same person. It starts from the classroom, I think.
Aman Chopra: Dr. Mark Jit you have infectious energy. And I'm sure students that are listening to this are very, very excited to even meet you soon. And when they come to the program, what message do you have for incoming students and current students here at NYU?
Mark Jit: Well, just to say, I'm really excited to be able to meet you when you come to NYU to study. So you know, this is a journey we're making together. I'm going to be new to NYU, but I have exciting plans for the department and hope we can be part of this together and we can be inspired together and we can make a difference in the world together.
Aman Chopra: And certainly, all the students I've spoken to on the podcast as well, they are high energy. They love serving the community. Perhaps, why don't we leave them with one thing, what they can think of in their own public health journey. What is something you tell students that come to you for, I can't figure things out. What is the one piece of feedback you'd give them in your experience?
Mark Jit: Well, I would say if you are new to public health, you're coming, you're new to global and environmental health, you're coming into the field for the first time, then actually, you know, be part of this because you are part of a movement that really has the potential to change the world, to save lives, to make such a big difference to people's lives. So hold onto that vision. What you're doing really has the potential to make an impact.
Aman Chopra: Show up and things will happen.
Mark Jit: Exactly, yes.
Aman Chopra: I love this, I love this. Well, Dr. Mark Jit welcome to NYU, thank you for being on the episode and let's, and we're really, really, really excited to have you as a part of our community and see you around on campus.
Mark Jit: Thank you, delighted to be part of this podcast.
Aman Chopra: Amazing, folks, that was Dr. Mark Jit. Shoot some comments down below, say hello to him on campus if you see him, and we'll see you in the next episode. Take care everybody.