Joseph Perosky
Joseph is currently a third-year medical student at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. He received his bachelor of science in mechanical engineering and Master’s of science in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan. He spent the past 10 years working as an engineer on clinical research projects in West Africa. He has designed, evaluated, and implemented biomedical devices, clinical simulators, and mHealth interventions. During his undergraduate studies, Joseph founded a non-profit organization called United 2 Heal, which has a mission of collecting, sorting and sending surplus medical supplies to hospitals in need around the world. He currently serves on the advisory board and assists with international affairs. Most recently, he worked and lived in Liberia in collaboration with the University of Michigan, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Liberia Ministry of Health studying maternity waiting homes as an intervention to increase facility deliveries and improve maternal and neonatal outcomes. Joseph eventually hopes to establish an obstetrics and gynecology practice in Liberia while continuing to provide research and medical care in West Africa.
Project: "An Investigation into Factors Influencing Maternal Health Services During the Recovery Period from Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Liberia "
6/01/2018 - 12/31/2018
Liberia
What does the Kean Fellowship mean to you?
I am truly grateful for this opportunity provided by the Benjamin H. Kean Travel Fellowship in Tropical Medicine to learn more about what has happened regarding the delivery of maternal health services during the recovery period from the Liberian Ebola Virus Disease outbreak. In March 2014, I was packing for Liberia when word came that a health outbreak may be starting in West Africa. At the time, I was part of a team examining maternal and newborn health outcomes in rural, remote villages in Liberia. Little did we know this we would be the beginning of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak that decimated the country. During the heat of the Ebola outbreak, there was an influx of funding, research and disaster relief in West Africa. However, following the cessation of the outbreak, funding and support from international partners declined. Despite this, the Liberian Ministry of Health has striven to improve maternal and child health outcomes, but this recovery period has not been well documented. The Kean fellowship will allow me to grow as a future clinician scientist while also allowing me the opportunity to provide documentation, knowledge and support about an infectious disease outbreak that is close to my heart. There is not a single Liberian person I know that did not lose a friend or family member from the EVD outbreak. This fellowship will allow me the time and support to document lessons learned during the recovery period from the EVD outbreak in Liberia.
What do you anticipate learning?
The opportunities and significance of this proposal are great. There is much to be learned from qualitative data regarding what took place during the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak and subsequent recovery period. This information will help the international community be better prepared for future infectious disease outbreaks, specifically the response involving MNCH services and allocation of MNCH resources. The results of this work will also help to inform and broaden my own experience and expertise in tropical medicine and reproductive health. I plan to do a residency in OB/GYN while pursuing a research focus in international reproductive health. During residency I plan to submit a proposal for an NIH K award to allow me dedicated time post-residency to focus on my research in West Africa. I plan to utilize my background in mechanical and biomedical engineering designing technological interventions for low-resource settings with my clinical knowledge to help improve health outcomes for mothers and their newborns, with a focus in sub-Saharan Africa.
What interests you about tropical medicine and what problems are you interested in solving?
Over the course of the past 10 years working in West Africa, I have come across many tropical diseases firsthand. Malaria seems to be as common as a cold in Ghana and Liberia, being treated by antibiotics as opposed to the prophylactic regimens that I take while traveling. I witnessed how malaria, dengue, typhoid, tuberculosis and most recently the Ebola virus can negatively impact those living in endemic areas, at the level of the individual patient and their family, but also society as a whole. The Ebola Virus Disease outbreak of 2014-2015 was devastating. There is not a single person I have talked to while working in Liberia during the past year that does not know someone who died from EVD. When there was no one else to care for EVD patients, it was often midwives who were taken from their normal roles to provide infectious disease care. The failures and shortcomings of the healthcare infrastructure were saddening but also provoking. There is so much room for improvement through analysis of lessons learned. Preventing, containing, treating and possibly eradicating tropical diseases, and specifically how they impact women of reproductive age and their newborns, is a mission that I plan to pursue now and throughout my career as a physician and researcher.