VECD Fellow Shares Research from Fellowship Year in Zambia

Vanderbilt Medicine MD/MPH dual-degree candidate, Justin Banerdt, completed his fellowship year as a VECD Fogarty Global Health Fellow in July 2018. He spent his year conducting research focused on the prevalence and outcomes of delirium in a critically ill patient population with a high burden of HIV/AIDS at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. UTH is the teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Zambia School of Medicine (UNZA).

Under the mentorship of Wesley Ely, M.D., MPH, Kondwelani Mateyo, MBChB, MMed, and Douglas Heimburger, M.D., MS, Banerdt presented his research to students and faculty at UNZA/UTH. His presentation was entitled, "Delirium Prevalence and Outcomes Among Patients Presenting to a Resource-Restricted Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia." He will also present his work as part of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine reunion on Saturday, October 13 between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. in Eskind Biomedical Library, Room 328.

Mr. Banerdt is a medical student at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, where he was mentored by Arthur Kleinman, M.D. He hopes to develop an academic career in global critical care and plans to continue to study ways of improving care for the sickest patients in low-resource settings around the world.