My name is Kristina Poldre and I graduated in 2012 with an Honours Health Studies (now known as Health & Society) degree with a minor in Sociology. Immediately following my undergraduate degree, I pursued a professional master’s degree in Health Informatics (MHI) at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation (IHPME).

 Since 2013, I have been at Sinai Health System – Mount Sinai Hospital campus, first as a Project Analyst and then a Project Manager (2017 - present) in the Information Services department. I also obtained my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2017. As a project manager, I am responsible for the implementation of information technology projects at the hospital, such as upgrading the laboratory information system software and managing the projects’ scope, budget, schedule and resources. My favourite part of my job is being able to work with different clinical and business groups (e.g. Risk, Nursing units, Patient Food Services, etc.), the variety of projects I get to work on and the dynamic work – every day is different.

 I knew early on within my first year that I was going to pursue a degree in Health Studies (Health and Society); I had always been drawn to healthcare (thanks to my clinician parents) but I had no desire to be front-line and patient-facing. While I did not learn about Health Informatics (eHealth) until my fourth year, I appreciated the breadth of Health and Society courses, such as public health, mental health, global health, health policy and aging. This encouraged me to explore and analyze different health-related topics that I otherwise would not have exposure to. I also really appreciated the program for its crossover courses with other Social Science departments such as Geography, Religious Studies and Economics. This provided a rich learning environment and provided further exposure to other ideas of ‘health’ and ‘society’.

My advice to incoming students is to keep an open mind and do not restrict yourself to the information that you know today – the world and workforce is constantly evolving, and the career(s) that you will have probably do not exist yet. If someone had told me during my first year that I would have been a Project Manager working in information technology/ healthcare, I would not have believed them… but here I am! Expose yourself to different realms of health and society, think outside the (standard) box, be curious, and believe in your abilities and most importantly, find ‘the thing’ that excites you to get out of bed every day.