Dr Will Choy is in Oxford with a clear purpose: to strengthen the bridge between clinical care, population evidence and policy in Australia.
“Australia has enormous strengths, but we also face widening health inequities, an increasing burden of chronic disease, and ongoing vulnerability to infectious disease and health system shocks,” Will says.
As the 2025 Roden Cutler NSW John Monash Scholar, Will is undertaking a Master of Science in Global Health Science and Epidemiology alongside a Master of Public Policy at the University of Oxford.
“I’d like my career to sit at that intersection: clinically grounded, methodologically rigorous, and oriented toward public value, with a focus on work that improves outcomes for communities that have historically been underserved.”
Alongside this, he’s already looking ahead.
“In line with this, alongside the MSc, I’m currently applying for a DPhil that would expand the IRIS Consortium Biobank into Australia, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance and the disparities in invasive bacterial disease burden faced by First Nations Australians,” he says.
The shift from clinical medicine to population health has stretched him in new ways.
“The biggest surprise has been how different the learning ‘muscle’ is compared with clinical medicine,” Will says.
“In medicine, learning is often anchored to a patient in front of you and decisions that need to be made quickly. Here, the pace is slower but the questions are broader: how to define outcomes well, how to think carefully about uncertainty and the minutiae of study design, and how to translate evidence into something useful for populations.”
“It’s been an adjustment to spend so much time sitting with complexity — and to become comfortable saying ‘it depends’ before reaching for a conclusion,” he adds.
Will says his time at the University of Oxford has been about learning to handle uncertainty well.
“My hope is that we stay aligned with the purposes that brought us here, fostering connections across the John Monash Scholar and Oxford communities, and turning higher-level goals into small, regular actions.”
“It’s been great settling into Oxford, and it’s been fantastic to have such a strong Monash community in town,” Will says.
“Our cohort’s made a habit of decompressing over a bowl of noodles at local institutions like Tse or 3000 on Monday nights, which has been a great anchor point.”
Will continues his studies at the University of Oxford on a 2025 Roden Cutler NSW John Monash Scholar.
