Omar Sajjad MED’27 Presents CCI-funded Project at Geisel and Dartmouth Health Inaugural Research Day

Geisel medical student Omar Sajjad MED '27 presented a poster at the first-ever annual Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth Health Biomedical Research Day, held September 18, 2024, at Dartmouth Health in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

Omar Sajjad MED'27
Omar Sajjad MED’27, CGHE 2024 CCI recipient at Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth Health Biomedical Research Day.

Over 260 participants attended presentations from students, faculty, and staff highlighting research across Geisel Medical School and Dartmouth Health.

Omar was awarded funds from the Center for Global Health Equity to complete a Co-designed, Community-based Internship (CCI), which he completed during his summer 2024 break. CCI enables students to actively engage with domestic or international partners in interdisciplinary education, research, advocacy, or clinical opportunities that promote health equity in local and global environments.

Omar's project involved conducting a scoping review of psychometric tools to assess neurodevelopment in Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS) patients eight years of age and older as part of a larger research project conducted in Brazil – under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Brickley and Dr. Amber Raja from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK – investigating the long-term effects of CZS on neurodevelopment.

Image courtesy of CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith, 2016. Zika virus particles (in red). Digitally colorized transmission electron microscopic (TEM) image.

He says, "The process of conducting a comprehensive scoping review, screening thousands of articles, and identifying relevant psychometric tools initially seemed daunting, but ultimately honed my analytical skills more than I could have imagined. Collaborating with an international research team and contributing to a project with real-world implications for public health has underscored the importance of evidence-based medicine in improving patient outcomes."

For more information about Zika, check out the World Health Organization (WHO) Zika Fact Sheet: https://www.who.int/health-topics/zika-virus-disease#tab=tab_1. For information about Congenital Zika Syndrome and other birth defects, visit the U.S. CDC website at: https://www.cdc.gov/zika/czs/index.html.