Rob Broadhurst
Rob is a rising second year medical student with a desire to improve and expand primary care services in low-resource settings. He is convinced that community health workers are crucial to health systems strengthening and the pursuit of health equity.
His interest in tropical medicine stems from time spent working in Jamaica, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic during high school and college. After growing up in Nashville, Tennessee, Rob attended the University of North Carolina as an undergraduate, where he studied environmental health science and public health. Prior to beginning medical school, he worked in program development and monitoring and evaluation for a non-governmental organization in Haiti. Outside of medicine and public health, he loves fly-fishing and trail running.
Project: "Improving Uptake and Retention in HIV Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission Services through Novel Approaches in Family Supported Care and in Community Peer Outreach Support in Malawi"
June 2, 2014 - July 31, 2014
Lilongwe, Malawi
What does the Kean Fellowship mean to you?
The Kean Fellowship represents an incredible opportunity for both personal and professional growth. I have been interested in tropical medicine for some time, and the ability to pursue a research interest and gain clinical experience in Malawi is invaluable. I'm thrilled to have this opportunity this early in my career!
What do you anticipate learning?
I anticipate gaining significant research experience and technical skills in monitoring, evaluation, data management, data cleaning, data analysis, and manuscript writing. I also look forward to learning more about how a government-run healthcare system in a developing country effects clinical care.
What interests you about tropical medicine and what problems are you interested in solving?
I am most interested in the improvement and expansion of primary care services in tropical settings. The duality of dealing with infectious diseases in contexts with a growing burden of non-communicable disease is very exciting to me as well. I think that effective and sustained employment of community health workers will be vital to treating each of these conditions in a high quality manner.