AUC is pleased to announce that alumnus Dr. Nirmish Shah, AUC Class of 2000, will serve as keynote speaker for the incoming class’s Virtual White Coat Ceremony, which will be broadcast on Friday, February 5.
Dr. Shah currently serves as an Associate Professor at Duke University with a joint appointment between the Division of Adult Hematology and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. He has spent much time and effort focused on the care and research of both pediatric and adult patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). He has a specific emphasis on clinical and translational research, narrowing his concentration on novel therapeutic interventions, transition from pediatrics to adult medicine, and exploring the use of mobile technology for patients with SCD.
After earning his MD from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) in 2000, Dr. Shah went on to complete his pediatric residency at East Carolina University. He then completed fellowships in Adult Hematology/Oncology and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at East Carolina University and Duke University School of Medicine, respectively.
Dr. Shah is the Director of Clinical Research in Benign Hematology with a focus on SCD research, leading multiple sponsor-, NIH-, and investigator-initiated studies. He has worked hard to specialize his expertise, using it in collaboration with multiple investigators and integrating mobile health applications and wearable devices into healthcare studies. Over the past five years, he has been successful at securing multiple funding sources, including distinguished grants, to support each of his research efforts. These awards comprise an increasing focus on innovative approaches toward technology, collaboration and mentoring.
Notably, Dr. Shah has worked closely with Sicklesoft to develop disease-specific mobile apps to obtain subjective symptoms, use wearable devices to passively acquire objective data, and explore various analytic methods to understand and predict outcomes. This collaboration resulted in the development of an oncology-focused mobile application (TRU-Onc) and previously developed apps (TRU-BMT, TRU-PBMT and TRU-SCD), which were designed with input from patients, families and providers. Dr. Shah and his collaborators’ apps and wearable studies have performed successfully at five academic institutions in various research studies and have led to numerous publications.
Tune into AUC’s White Coat Ceremony on Facebook and YouTube on Friday, February 5 at 3:30pm ET. Learn more by visiting the event webpage.
