With the selection of this year's Kean Fellows slated to be announced next month, we spoke with Kean Fellowship Committee Chair Chandy John. A 2011 recipient of the Bailey K. Ashford Medal, John joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 2005, where he established the Division of Global Pediatrics, the first division of pediatrics devoted to global child health in the United States. John’s research focuses on malaria epidemiology and immunology and the interactions between infection, nutrition and child neurodevelopment. An excerpt of the full interview appears below. 
1. You’ve been an ASTMH member for well over 10 years (thank you). What continues to draw you to the Society?
The emphasis on collaborative work and serving the global poor really resonates with me. I find the research, education and clinical work done by ASTMH members fascinating. And I love the enthusiasm of ASTMH members for their work, and their general friendly and collaborative nature.
2. As the Chair of the Kean Fellowship Committee, you oversee the selection of some of North America’s brightest medical students for this prestigious program. What are the highlights of your work with the Kean Fellowship?
The biggest highlight is meeting with the students and their clinical and research projects. I think we all feel that the future of global health and tropical medicine is in great hands with students like the Kean fellows. They are so bright, smart and committed that they inspire all of us on the committee. I also enjoy working with the committee – it’s a fun group, and we put a lot of time and thought into the work of selecting Kean fellows.
3. What lessons have you personally or professionally learned from these young Kean Fellows?
Above all, their enthusiasm and passion for work in global health is inspiring. It makes me want to be a better global health researcher, educator and clinician. They are also really thoughtful and creative about how they design, fund and implement projects. Their perspectives help me think about new ways my collaborators and I could approach problems we’re studying.
4. Aiding the professional development of students and trainees is one of the Society’s top priorities. As a clinician educator who is not too far out from your training days, what can the Society do to better serve the needs of the next generation of tropical medicine physicians?
The Kean fellowships, very inexpensive student membership fees and low registration fee for the Annual Meeting are a good start. More travel awards would always be welcome because the learning experience of the Annual Meeting is tremendous, and once a student or resident or fellow has come to ASTMH, they’ll want to come back.
We’ve done a fair amount at the Annual Meeting to improve offerings in the area of career guidance by highlighting different pathways and opportunities for work in tropical medicine and global health – but we need to do more. Global health and tropical medicine are such a great interest of students now, and we need to help them figure out how they can make a career of this very rewarding work.
5. Last month, we observed World Malaria Day to focus attention on this disease, which continues to be among the top three killers of children in Africa. Given your background in pediatrics and malaria, what were you thinking about on World Malaria Day?
I was thinking about how remarkable it is that there IS a World Malaria Day. I got into malaria work because I saw kids dying of malaria in Bangladesh, Nigeria and Laos as a medical student and resident, and yet there were very few people doing malaria research in the United States at the time, particularly in my area of training (pediatrics). That has really changed, and it’s not just physicians, but increasingly the average person understands the importance of bed nets and the need for malaria vaccines. That is a huge move forward, and I think that increased awareness has contributed to the support of malaria research and public health efforts, which over the past two decades have been very successful.
6. How does tropical medicine in the classic sense fit in with today’s non-scientists’ understanding of global health?
That is a complex question because it depends on how you define global health and tropical medicine. The shortest answer I can think of is that “classic” tropical medicine, involving diseases like malaria, helminth infections, arboviruses, is still a major component of global health. We have broadened the focus of global health to include chronic and non-communicable diseases, and that’s an important thing to do, but we shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking the “old” tropical diseases have disappeared. Unfortunately, they haven’t, but we’re making significant progress in the effort to decrease or eliminate them – and will keep making progress if people remain aware that these are still serious health problems for people in low and middle income countries.
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