Dr. Sabeen Irfan Senior Manager, Satellite Clinics & Mental Health Service line United Family Healthcare

Over 18 years of professional experience in healthcare in Pakistan and China. Areas of expertise include healthcare operations, service line planning and development, patient experience, quality and safety and project management. Passionate about promoting physical and mental health awareness and often volunteer at such campaigns in the community

Self-introduction

Hi, my name is Sabeen. I've been in Shanghai for almost 16 years, and I'm working for international healthcare management here. I work with a private organization called United Family Healthcare. Our organization operates through a network of hospitals and clinics through all tier -one and some tier-two cities in China. I'm based in Shanghai, and I'm overseeing the operations for satellite clinics in Shanghai.

Actually, in recent months, I have been extensively focusing on expanding mental health services through our network of clinics and hospitals. As you might be aware that modern life stressors combined with the setting of the pandemic which has going on for 3 years and has quite a significant impact on mental health. It's kind of like a psychological sub-health state where people feel they are not necessarily mentally ill but they don't feel happy either. So we are focusing a lot on promoting mental well-being in the community, not only by providing psychological support when there is a disease but also more sort of providing personal growth opportunities by offering workshops, support groups, parenting groups so on and so forth. So it's quite exciting and I'm happy to contribute to that.

What was your original motivation to do an MBA?

I would like to share a little bit about my background. I'm a doctor，I studied medicine. However, quite early in my career I moved from clinical to healthcare administration, and I have also done some postgraduate studies in public health. I think my medical background and also my postgraduate studies in public health have given me a sound understanding of health system, plus my experience over the years, but in the past few years I would say that I started to feel I would like to strengthen my knowledge and understanding of the dynamic global business environment. And also learn more about the ever-changing market trends, so we can better take care of the needs of our customers no matter what industry we belong to. That's why I started to look for some suitable course options and I came across Global MBA programme from the University of Manchester.

I would like to share a little bit about my background. I'm a doctor，I studied medicine. However, quite early in my career I moved from clinical to healthcare administration, and I have also done some postgraduate studies in public health. I think my medical background and also my postgraduate studies in public health have given me a sound understanding of health system, plus my experience over the years, but in the past few years I would say that I started to feel I would like to strengthen my knowledge and understanding of the dynamic global business environment. And also learn more about the ever-changing market trends, so we can better take care of the needs of our customers no matter what industry we belong to. That's why I started to look for some suitable course options and I came across Global MBA programme from the University of Manchester.

What aspects do you think UoM MBA programme have changed you?

I think this programme allowed me to strengthen my belief in my own capabilities because starting quite a rigorous MBA programme with a full time job and also with the needs of family, it seemed very kind of challenging at the beginning but then that was the exciting part of it because it really allowed me to challenge myself and it's always interesting to see when you really put your mind into something how you can actually do it despite different challenges that you meet so I feel that it has personally influence me in many ways. It has allowed me to connect with friends and classmates from different industries because I have been affiliated with healthcare mainly, so I would say that was a great opportunity to learn from people from different industries and see how we are so different in various industries but there are a lot of similarities in the business environment that allow you to learn from each other quite effectively. And professionally, I feel it has boosted my confidence to make certain decisions because I feel the knowledge that we acquired through some of the courses in the programme, it has given me deeper insight and I feel more relaxed and more sort of in control when I make certain decisions. So it has been quite an amazing journey and it has really been a great decision to pursue this.

What is the most memorable experience in the learning process?

Actually we just started in January 2020 and it was just this before pandemic came, I would say that looking back if I kind of knew just few days back that's what gonna happen I don't know if I was to gonna take this decision because I work in healthcare and we are one profession that never stops, you know even in this kind of situation. So in fact we have to do a lot more to make sure that we are there to meet the needs of our patients no matter what kind of situation. But I had already started when it happened, and in the initial phases it was a bit I would not call it disappointing but concerning, we were very concerned if we will be able to have workshops if you know we will be able to really make the most of this programme. Because the Shanghai situation was not very stable in the first few months so we had to take a few virtual workshops that had its own challenges but at the same time. I would say all in all I'm actually very grateful to UoM staff and also the China centre staff that because of all of you we were actually able to complete everything in time so while we maybe miss some aspects that we were not able to travel to other global centres for workshops or something I really see how you guys put a lot of efforts to connect us virtually, because I did some workshop where I was connected to people from other centres virtually so I think you really put a lot of efforts to still give us the best that could happen and I'm actually very happy that in the end we were able to finish on time and it was not delayed. So it was challenging but I feel very grateful that we were able to do it all together.