Three medical students have been named 2014-2015 fellows in the Doris Duke International Clinical Research Fellowship at Duke University. Rebecca Lumsden, Jumoke Ogundare and Helen Zhang will conduct yearlong global health clinical research projects in Kenya, India and Tanzania.
The Doris Duke Fellowship aims to produce future leaders in global health clinical research. Ogundare and Zhang are Duke medical students, and Lumsden is a medical student at the University of Massachusetts.
This is the second year the training fellowship is offered through Duke University. It involves training and 8-9 months of mentored clinical research in the field beginning this summer.
“I am humbled by my selection into the Doris Duke International clinical research fellowship. It is good to know that we have such a great program here at Duke University,” said Ogundare.
Ogundare will work with DGHI faculty Truls Ostbye to conduct a health needs assessment on the prevalence and control of chronic disease among elders and their caregivers in rural Maharashtra, India. The study will include measures of cognitive and physical impairment, dental health, depression, care needs and special concerns of widows and widowers. The work can potentially inform how health outreach plans are developed by government and non-governmental organizations in the district of Pune.
“Doris Duke fellows are involved in every aspect of the work, from study design to cross country ethics approval, field work, data management and analysis, which opens up valuable opportunities to contribute and acquire new skills. I look forward to the experience,” said Ogundare.
Zhang will study febrile illness surveillance in northern Tanzania. She will work with mentor and DGHI adjunct professor John Crump to identify risk favors for the bacterial zoonoses leptospirosis, Q fever, and brucellosis in northern Tanzania. Duke-KCMC studies have shown that, aside from malaria, bacterial infections cause fever in patients. Zhang will also conduct a health care utilization survey and socioeconomic assessment to estimate the prevalence of specific blood stream infections based on regional hospital surveillance data.
“I'm so excited to advance my training next year in Moshi, Tanzania, where I will have the incredible opportunity to participate in field studies and expand my research skillset,” said Zhang. “I hope that this experience will bring me one step closer to my dream career as a clinician-investigator working in the global health arena.”
Lumsden will work closely with DGHI faculty and mentor Gerald Bloomfield in Kenya to investigate the effect of cooking pollutants on heart disease in Kenyan women. The work is part of Bloomfield’s ongoing Household Air Pollution study. She hopes to gain a better understanding of performing clinical research in a global setting.
“I entered medical school with the desire to pursue a career in global health, combining both clinical work and research. To have the opportunity to work with a successful physician-scientist like Dr. Bloomfield and be able to learn from his experiences is really exciting for me at this point in my training,” said Lumsden. “I anticipate this year will reinvigorate my passion to pursue international, clinical research in Africa, after having spent the past three years in the classroom in Massachusetts, and will provide me a foundation of skills and knowledge that I will be able to use as I enter residency and beyond.”
Learn more about the Doris Duke fellowship at Duke.
