
Medical Student + Researcher
I'm currently a Medical Student at Harvard Medical School.
I'm exploring the impact of climate change on human health and health systems.
I'm fascinated by the role design has in improving the systems around us.
Boston, Mass.
Hi, my name is Akhil! I am currently a medical student at Harvard Medical School. I'm fascinated by how we can design healthcare systems that are more resilient to the effects of climate change and the humanity inherent to the practice of medicine. In my free time, I love to lift weights, read books, play ping-pong and I can also make a killer cup of chai.
Climate change and existing challenges within health systems domestically and abroad pose a major challenge for public health and medicine. To address these grand challenges, I believe in an approach that combines deep individual impact and broad impact at scale. Both approaches synergistically inform each other. I hope to combine deep, individual impact through clinical practice and broad systemic impact through design, research and public health.
I am interested in investigating the way systems are designed and how they can be improved. Right now my research interests include: environmental health, climate resilience, and health system quality improvement. I am also interested in investigating how to improve clinical decision-making.
Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
SEAM/Center for Environment and HealthSEAM Faculty Mentor: Dr. Gaurab Basu, MGH CEH Supervisor: Dr. Michael Padget ⋅ (2024-Current)
Students for Environmental Awareness in Medicine (SEAM) is a student organization that connects medical students at Harvard Medical School to various opportunities across the medical school and affiliated hospitals. Students within SEAM have piloted major integrations of climate change and planetary health within the curriculum, and launched initatives on campus centered around sustainability. The Massachussetts General Hospital Center for the Environment Health is based out of MGH and aims to further environmental sustainability within the daily operations of the hospital. My research with the center involves investigating the efficiacy of various sustainability interventions on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The University of Texas at Austin - School of Architecture
Urban Information LabPrincipal Investigator: Dr. Junfeng Jiao, Supervisor: Dr. Kijin Seong ⋅ (2021-2024)
The Urban Information Lab uses emerging information technologies to better understand, measure, plan and develop our urban environments.The lab uses computational methods to help develop smarter cities. My area of focus in the lab is at the intersection of urban design and public health in the context of climate change resilience and environmental justice. My current research projects investigate the impact of built environmental factors and extreme heat on emergency medical service (EMS) accessibiility, performance, and utilization.
The University of Texas at Austin - Dell Medical School
Health Leadership ApprenticeProgram Director: Dr. Steve Steffensen, Project Supervisor: Dr. Liana Petruzzi ⋅ (2021-2024)
The Health Leadership Apprentice program pairs up teams of undergraduate students of all majors to work with community partners to address social determinants of health in Austin. My team (Green House) worked with the community health workers that are a part of Dell Medical School to get a better understanding of what the role of CHWs are in the patient care team and what their workflows are. The ultimate goal of our work is to better understand the workflow of community health workers and upon this understanding to help find ways to improve processes and support their work.
Baylor College of Medicine - Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
Putluri LabMentors: Dr. Nagireddy Putluri (2018) and Dr. Sean Mondesire (2018-2020) ⋅ (2018-2020)
The Putluri lab investigates the metabolomic properties of tumors to understand the biochemical basis behind cancer progression. My role in the lab was to analyze over 10,000 high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (MS-HPLC) spectrums and to develop figures summarizing biochemical data. I led a team of 2-3 interns in completing data analysis using R and lab software. I also worked on an independent extension project where I investigated the accuracy of various neural network architectures in classifying chromatograms under the mentorship of Dr. Sean Mondesire, professor of Computer Science at St. Thomas University.