Mina graduated from Baghdad University, College of Medicine in 2013; after which she served as a junior medical doctor at the Medical City Teaching Hospital, the biggest Tertiary Centre in Iraq, for two years during the political conflicts. Aiming to peruse a good quality medical training in a settled environment, Dr. Maallah relocated to the United Kingdom and joined the Master of Public Health Programme at City, University of London in 2016. Having graduated from there with Distinction her passion for Public Health sparkled.

Mina’s interest in health promotion and public education started when she was a medical student at Baghdad University when she volunteered to support the activities of the Iraqi National Cancer Research Centre to promote public awareness about the early detection of breast cancer among the Iraqi population. Since then, she had an interest in investigating the reasons behind the higher mortality rates and the later stages at presentation of those Iraqi patients compared to their counterparts in developed countries. The findings were illustrated in her dissertation of the Master of Public Health.

In 2019, she was granted the full registration with the General Medical Council and since then she has undertaken various roles as a junior doctor in the NHS , to widen her experience and understanding of the healthcare system. The roles allowed her to work at different settings including inpatients and outpatient’s health services and gave her the opportunity to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams and different organizations; strengthening the development of her communications, leadership, management, task prioritization and clinical skills.

Currently, Mina is working as a Clinical Research Fellow at the Clinical Research Facility of Northwest London serving in several clinical trials with a focus on COVID-19 and infectious diseases. She was cited as a co-author in the Lancet and Journal of Infectious Diseases publications. Dr. Maallah has participated in local and national audits within the NHS and contributed to conferences’ presentations with a focus on topic related to health improvement. At the present, she is working on service improvement and evaluation projects focusing on improving access to maternal and child health services in Northwest London.

While attending the NIHR ARC Improvement Leader Fellowship, Dr. Mallaah will work alongside Marsha Alter and Shivali Lakhani; Senior Community Pharmacists in Northwest London and under the supervision and guidance of Prof. Mitch Blair (Professors of Paediatrics and Child Public Health at Imperial College London) to investigate the barriers and drivers of launching the Self Care Pharmacy First Scheme for Children services in NWL. Through examining the population with the highest rate of A&E and GPs attendances of children’s low acuity presentations within the area. Data addressing the public acceptability of this scheme and the needs of the Community Pharmacists to deliver this service will then be collected from the targeted population through detailed surveys and interviews.

Mina’s aim is to complete a PhD in Public health to seek an academic career path with an interest in tackling health inequalities in underserved communities. Her aim is to support these populations, specifically women and children, to get access to better health services and improve their survival from chronic non-communicable diseases including cancers.