Mitra Afshari, MD/MPH Class of 2011
MPH Research in Uganda
Summer 2008

What did you gain from your international experience?
I traveled throughout urban and rural Uganda this summer as part of a three-person field research team for a Northwestern project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop appropriate diagnostic tools for the developing world. While biomedical engineers back on the Northwestern undergraduate campus are creating a rapid, point-of-care infant HIV diagnostic device, our team's goal was to gather the necessary information to show the Gates Foundation how beneficial a point-of-care device can truly be in comparison to the largely inadequate system that is currently in place for infant HIV diagnosis. The current system is designed for high-income, high-infrastructure countries, and as a result, is both too expensive and unsuitable for developing countries like Uganda. We traveled to various healthcare facilities, governmental, and nongovermental organizations to engage the stakeholders who could one day use this device in conversation, and gather information for our cost-benefit analysis.

I believe my biggest gain was the realization that diagnosis comes first--having the appropriate diagnostic tools is essential in the improvement of global health. While many international aid organizations are providing an abundance of ARV therapy for HIV/AIDS, these drugs are only so good if disease is first detected. Millions of deaths occur in the developing world each year because diseases go undiagnosed or undetected in time, including that of undeserving infants who could be easily be saved from a life with HIV with the right tools. If we really want to make a difference in Global Health, we must not only focus on novel therapeutics in research, but also biotechnologies that can be expanded to work in the developing world. I feel that my work on this project has developed my abilities as a Public Health student to decipher the population-level isssues that are sometimes overlooked but are often most critical in improving health outcomes in resource-poor countries.

How has this experience enhanced your medical training and how will it help you in the future as a doctor?
My summer in Uganda was not just a travel experience, but it has given me such a broader vision of health care. It has encouraged me to think more broadly and see the patient in the context of his or her community, or even the world. Managing the patient with the same condition differs makedly across countries, across communities, across cultures, across different healthcare facilities with dissimilar access to technology. This experience has given me sensitivity to be able to treat diverse patients in diverse locations more effectively. At the same time, witnessing healthcare in such resource-poor facilities has not only returned me to my foundation, wanting to help those most in need, but also stimulated my commitment to Global Health. I am not entirely sure what medical profession I will pursue, but a combination of Medicine, Public and Global Health, and Biomedical Engineering, my undergraduate major, seems like a very fitting career for me. Not to mention that I have most certainly been inspired to practice medicine abroad at some point in the future, perhaps in my native country of Iran.