Kushal Karan, M.D.

Education Highlight – The Chambers’ Global Health Fellowship provides support for UNMC students interested in conducting population health research overseas in qualified countries (countries without U.S. State Department travel restrictions). The fellowship is particularly interested in projects with:

• • a compelling, focused topic with well-defined aims and methods
  • applicants who have passionate motivation to impact the pursuit of health globally, across and within health disciplines.

The Fellowship includes 4-6 weeks of global site work, with an additional 4 to 6 weeks dedicated to preparation for the research project, post-data collection analysis and manuscript preparation. It is has been exciting to see the exceptional student work made possible by this Fellowship program.

Past Fellows, their degree program at COPH, and title of their Global Health Fellowship Project:

• Jonathan M. Ali (PhD, EAOH). Molecular Tools for Water Quality Monitoring: Development of a Native Sentinel Organism in Chile
• Bijaya K. Padhi (MPH, Health Promotion). Development of Land Use Regression Models to Quantify Air Pollution Exposures in Bhubaneswar, India
• Trang K. Hoang (MPH, EAOH) The use of pesticides and PPEs among farmers in Malang, East Java Indonesia
• Karan Kushal (MPH, HSRA). Evaluation of Personal Health Practices in Malang, Indonesia.

This year, four students have been selected to complete projects over the summer:

• Nada Alnaji (PhD, EPI), will partner with Relief International-Jordan (RI-J), working with refugees and displaced persons in Amman, Jordan. Her research involves studying Syrian refugee women and children and the effects of child marriage and pregnancy-related complications on health.
• Moses New-aaron (MPH, BIOS) will be working with researchers in Dodoma Tanzania at the Regional Referral Hospital’s Care and Treatment Center with women who are living with HIV. His research will combine both qualitative and quantitative analysis of cervical cancer screening, treatment and follow-up care for women.
• Sachi Verma (MPH, HSRA) will travel to northern Tanzania to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly launched emergency transport service using trained motorcycle drivers to respond to emergencies and provide transport to health services. She will work with a team to examine the efficiency and community acceptance/buy-in and ultimately the impact of the project on reducing trauma morbidity and mortality.
• Xiaoting Sun (PhD, HSRA) will be working using a longitudinal national health insurance research database in Taiwan to explore the effect of continuity of care (COC) on preventive services utilization and hospital readmission.

For a more complete description of this year’s fellows and their projects, please visit here.

The Summer Global Fellowship Award has been provided by generous support from UNMC faculty and physician Ward Chambers, along with his wife, Suzanne Chambers. This funded fellowship is dedicated to the global pursuit of health, with research to support advances and innovations in just and accessible care.