Orla Hilton
Student | Full-time | United KingdomMSc Tropical Medicine & International Health
Contact Orla Hilton
Educational/professional background
I hold a first-class BSc in Pharmacology and an MBBS from Imperial College London, where I received both a President's Scholarship and a Dean's List prize. During medical school, I conducted research at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and completed an elective at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme.
Following graduation, I moved to Liverpool for an academic foundation post with the Brain Infections Group. After receiving an NIHR Master's Scholarship, I began studying Tropical Medicine and International Health at the °®ÍþÄÌapp of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in 2024. I have since been awarded a British Infection Association grant to support research in migrant health following completion of my MSc.
Research interests or career goals
My research has spanned the fields of neurology, immunology and infectious diseases. More recently, my work has expanded to include migrant health, examining mental health determinants in UK asylum seekers and exploring the relationship between infection and mental health in this population. I aim to continue working as a clinical academic with aspirations of becoming a professor in the interconnected fields of malaria and migrant health.
Why I chose LSHTM/my programme
Growing up in London, I was inspired to study at LSHTM after attending an event on polio eradication when I was 16. Years later, while seeing patients with cerebral malaria during my medical elective in Malawi, I became more interested in tropical medicine and parasitology, which led me to my current MSc. The unique breadth of my course particularly appealed to me, as it allowed me to choose modules in the second term to fully tailor my studies to my own interests. I was also keen to join the LSHTM community and meet others who were passionate about advancing global human health.
Extra information
Happy to advise doctors with a UK medical license interested in undertaking the course.