Skip to main content

Welcome to Dr Melek Somai

Dr Melek Somai is a new faculty member at the Global eHealth Unit (GeHU). Melek is a physician, biostatistician, and public health professional with expertise in clinical informatics and global health innovation. In his new role as teaching fellow in eLearning and eHealth at the Global eHealth Unit, Melek will lead the implementation of the GeHU visionary program in Health Information Technology and Innovation. Melek will be leading the efforts of the Global eHealth Unit to increase its capacity building programme in developing countries and its innovation and technology courses for the Masters Degree Program in Public Health. He is also a co-investigator of the EIT Health CARE CAMPUS program that aims to transform Active Ageing in Europe through the development of an innovative training curriculum for carers.

Before joining us, Melek was a Fulbright scholar and a faculty member at the Division of Clinical Informatics at Harvard Faculty Medical Physicians, which he held with a joint appointment as instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Also, Melek has been a team member of SANA, a volunteer organization hosted at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT; where he is a lecturer of the Global Health Informatics “To Improve Quality Of Care” class, an open-course at MIT that is delivered to more than 450 students worldwide and which will be available next year on MITx. Melek is also a former resident at the Harvard Innovation Lab. His team has been awarded the MIT Hacking Medicine GE-Intel award in 2014.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A warm welcome to Dr Shivani Tanna, our new Year 3 GP and CMT Course Lead!

Dr Shivani Tanna, Year 3 GP and CMT Course Lead "I am delighted to have been appointed as year 3 GP course lead. My role in the department started on the 1st March 2016 and I have now taken over as CMT course lead. Having taught on this course, I feel privileged to be able to help maintain its excellent reputation and content. I am also developing the new 10 week GP attachment in year 3 which is being piloted for 60 students from September 2016. The students have expressed great enthusiasm and interest in this and we have already reached our recruitment target. Together with plenty of input from department leads, teaching fellows, and our GP tutors, we have started developing new ideas for both the attachment and departmental teaching sessions. I am hoping this is going to be fun and rewarding for all involved.  I aim to design a course that is innovative, comprehensive and exciting. My version of “ICE”. If all goes to plan, the pilot will be rolled out ...

Family Medicine Residency Training Program in Saudi Arabia

Dr Ahmed Al-Mujil is a Family Medicine Doctor from Saudia Arabia on a one year attachment to the Academic Dept of Primary care at Imperial.   In this blog he gives us a unique insight into Family Medicine training in Saudia Arabia. The Family Medicine Residency Training Program in Saudi Arabia was established in 1994, at which time the first edition of the curriculum was written. Since then, Family Medicine and medical education have undergone significant changes. The curriculum was revised many times, until recent adoption of the Canadian Medical Education Directive for Specialists- CanMeds competencies framework in which the “competent physician” seamlessly integrates the competencies of all seven CanMEDS Roles. (Medical expert, Collaborator, Communicator , Leader , Health Advocate, Scholar and Professional). The duration of training in Family Medicine is four years starting from the first of October every year. All trainees must go through the rotations in their traini...

Integrating Work Coaches for Employment Support in GP practices

The integration of Work Coaches (WCs) & Disability Employment Advisors (DEAs) into UK General Practice (GP) provides an innovative approach to bridging the gap between health & employment services. We now reflect on the findings of our recent study led by Shriti Patani, Lara Shemtob & Kabir Varghese in collaboration with colleagues from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London. The study explored the benefits & challenges of integrating emplyment support services in primary care from the perspectives of GPs & work coaches.    What’s the context? Employment is a critical social determinant of health, with unemployment linked to poorer physical & mental wellbeing & reduced quality of life. Traditionally, individuals seeking employment support access services through Jobcentres. However, barriers including stigma or lack of awareness - especially in people with disabilities or long-term health conditions -...