Qaasim Mian
Born in Edmonton, AB, Canada, Qaasim Mian is a third-year medical student in the joint MD/MBA program at the University of Alberta. He has a specific interest in healthcare management and addressing inequalities in access to health resources in developing countries. He also has a specific interest in pediatrics and a strong research background in this field, specifically Neonatology, where his research has focused on physiological parameters during neonatal resuscitation. Other research interests include pediatric infectious diseases and medical education.
He currently is involved in a global development project that focuses on designing and implementing solar-powered oxygen systems in Uganda as a reliable and cost-effective measure to treat hypoxemic children with pneumonia. This project will be undergoing a transition-to-scale over the next few years and Qaaasim is involved in developing, implementing and monitoring these systems.
Project: "Developing a clinical understanding of malaria in the resource-limited setting"
April 30, 2018 - June 3, 2018
Uganda
What does the Kean Fellowship mean to you?
The Kean Fellowship is an excellent opportunity for me to explore two of my career interests: pediatrics and global health. With this award, I will be able to gain further exposure to these areas within medicine, building my knowledge base and gaining valuable experience as I continue to evolve as a medical student.
What do you anticipate learning?
My goal within this Fellowship is to gain exposure to specific areas of medicine that I can only experience in a global health setting. While my clinical elective will focus on malaria, I will also be exposed to other pediatric conditions with a significant disease burden in tropical resource-limited settings, including tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, schistosomiasis, HIV, and pneumonia.
Furthermore, I will be able to better appreciate the level and quality of healthcare that is provided in resource-limited settings, including the various limitations that are present and the unique solutions implemented to solve these problems.
What interests you about tropical medicine and what problems are you interested in solving?
I am interested in tropical medicine because it is very different compared to the medicine I will learn and practice in North America, in terms of diseases and management and in terms of how healthcare systems are structured as a whole. I am interested in developing and implementing innovative solutions to address issues within the context of resource-limited systems with a focus on factors such as cost-effectiveness and ease of implementation. These problems interest me because of the enormous potential for improved patient care by addressing these issues.