Background
As The Lancet is the leading medical journal in global health, The LancetStudent.com aims to encourage students everywhere to engage in global health.

From our conversations with students from around the world, we know that students themselves, ie, you, want to know more about, and be more involved with, global health issues and so TheLancetStudent.com is here to inform, raise awareness, and most importantly, encourage you to get involved in global health.

Our aim
We aim to help you get more involved in global health in a number of ways, for example, by including thought-provoking and informative messages in our daily blog, providing teaching materials in global health, summarising relevant content from the weekly issue of The Lancet especially for you, and organising votes and polls. BUT we can’t do it without your involvement.

What YOU can do
You can:
Write for our Articles section
Submit your elective reports
Read our weekly summary of The Lancet (The Lancet Digest)
Post comments on our blog (and to all published Articles)
Vote in our polls
Download our podcasts
Use our global health resources and follow our external links
AND, most importantly, send us your suggestions and submissions, tell us what you think, and share your ideas by emailing student@lancet.com. This is YOUR site and we are relying on your input.

So who are we?
The Lancet Student is mainly organised and run by three Student Editors, John Bell, Georgia Lockwood Estrin and Ana Amaya:

John Bell

John studied Biomedical Science at Durham University prior to completing a MA in Publishing at Kingston University in London. Since joining The Lancet Student John has worked within the Editorial Team and now serves as the leading Editor to TheLancetStudent.com, overseeing the creation and production of the journal’s weekly content, in addition to managing the journal’s strategy and structure. Intending to embark on a career in academic publishing, The Lancet Student provides a great avenue to combine John’s passion for global health, human rights and academia, whilst coaching students in publishing through peer-reviewing, production and maintenance of a global e-journal.

Georgia Lockwood Estrin

Georgia joined the Lancet Student in January 2010. She studied Neuroscience at The University of Nottingham and then went on to complete an MSc in Clinical Neuroscience at University College London. Georgia has also worked with a number of organisations whose role is to educate and communicate science effectively to the public. Georgia is motivated and inspired by the uniquely progressive nature of the Lancet Student as an outlet for students to communicate, educate and campaign about issues affecting health around the world.

Ana Amaya

Ana studied Integrative Biology at the University of Florida, continuing with a Masters in Public Health at the University of South Florida and is currently undertaking a Doctorate in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In addition to her studies, Ana has also worked with a number of international organisations and research projects. Originally from El Salvador, Ana believes in the role of the Lancet Student as a tool to educate and motivate students to become active advocates for health and reduce inequalities at a global scale.

The Lancet Student was founded by two editors of The Lancet: Rhona MacDonald and Richard Lane

Rhona MacDonald
Rhona graduated in Medicine (Aberdeen, UK) in 1992 and joined The Lancet in 2006. She has worked with many different charities, and non-governmental organisations, including Medécins Sans Frontières and Oxfam, and has worked as a doctor specialising in public health and primary care in several low and middle income countries. She also used to be an editor at the BMJ, and was senior editor of the studentBMJ for several years. Rhona is involved in the day-to-day running of the website, including writing the blog and replying to your emails.

Richard Lane
Richard joined The Lancet in 1999 as Press Officer, becoming Web Editor in 2004. He has a psychology degree from the University of Leeds, UK, and before joining The Lancet worked in a variety of media-related roles at the Independent Newspaper, the Royal National Institute for the Blind, and the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. He introduced podcasting to The Lancet in 2006, and oversees all editorial activity for TheLancet.com and TheLancetStudent.com

Our History

After a few frantic months of preparation and great teamwork, The Lancet Student (TLS) officially launched on 4th August 2007 at an international conference in Canterbury where over 500 medical students from 93 countries gave it a great welcome. In addition to the free cake, the focus of TLS on global health greatly appealed to the medical students.

Since then TLS has grown from strength to strength in all sorts of ways. First, the target audience is no longer just “medical students” but ALL students who are interested in global health from ALL over the world.. Second, the website has greatly developed since the early days. It is more interactive and has more to offer students, such as a regular newsletter, and the opportunity to become a regional advisor. But most importantly, TLS is now run by students. Initially Rhona MacDonald, a senior editor at The Lancet ran TLS for a year or so. But the aim was always to make TLS a site FOR students BY students. And so TLS began to take on interns–students who help with the hands-on work while Rhona continues to oversee the site. Rob Hughes (Bristol UK), Sophie Mathewson (London UK), Christine Tapp (Vancouver, Canada), and Abi Smith (Bristol UK) were among the first interns. But it wasn’t until October 2008 that TL had its first student editor. Hannah Barton (Cambridge UK) helped to manage and develop TLS for several months. After she left, John Bell (London UK) took over and has been the student editor ever since. However, the workload of The Lancet Student is such that it now needs two students full time. So in Feb 2009, Katie Lee (California USA) joined the TLS team and was also a student editor for 9 months. Over the Spring and Summer, several interns came and went, including Lashel Devich (Arizona USA) and Erica Pool, Sophie Atkinson, James Chan, and Sara Negri (all from the UK). Then in August 2009, Jonny Curry, (Bristol UK) the current President of Medsin, joined the TLS team as a student editor.

All of the students have brought their own personalities and ideas to TLS and the site has thrived because of it. TLS hopes to expand student involvement by offering a competitive TLS Fellowship programme.