Lana Meiqari

Lana Meiqari has joined the program in September 2014, and is based at Athena Institute of the VU University Amsterdam as the host institute with the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp as the partner institute. She received her medical degree from Damascus University, Syria in 2007, and obtained a master of science in public health with focus on epidemiology from Emory University, USA in 2012. She has previously worked with several international and local non-governmental organizations to support the humanitarian relief efforts in the Middle East focusing on primary health care, reproductive health, early warning surveillance, and coordination.

Her PhD project aims to investigate the health system’s response to the double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries. The research will explore access to care and continuity of care for patients in rural and urban contexts, with focus on vulnerable populations (i.e. elderly and people with disabilities). The research will be conducted in Vietnam in cooperation with Medical Committee Netherlands Vietnam (MCNV).