It’s no secret that learners can be leaders in the medical field. From fellows to residents to medical students, everyone has a role to play in serving their communities while they further their medical education.
In the Global Neurosurgery program, some medical students get the privilege of going beyond their own community to represent Vanderbilt University and VUMC in support of research and education efforts abroad. Surya Gangavarapu, MD, a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and current resident in Neurological Surgery within the Global Neurosurgery program, went abroad in 2023 to work with one of VUMC’s partner sites.
After majoring in neuroscience and economics as an undergraduate student, Gangavarapu looked for ways to combine the two interests and make an impact. With support from Michael Dewan, MD, and Josie Haizel-Cobbina, MBChB, MPH, he found a way to work his research interests into the parameters of the project, studying barriers to pediatric neurosurgical-oncologic care, which called for a mixed-methods approach. Gangavarapu said the qualitative research provided a great opportunity to look beyond the numbers.
“Numbers can only tell half the story,” Gangavarapu said. “There are some things you just can’t measure well. There are some things where the numbers might even tell you the wrong story unless you ask the people it affects.”
The research remains in progress, with more data collection remaining on multiple fronts. But Gangavarapu is proud to have made an impact during his time abroad, and appreciative of the chance to learn from people halfway across the world in sub-Saharan Africa.
“It gave me an immense amount of perspective,” said Gangavarapu. “That’s one of the things I’m most grateful for. Seeing the challenges faced by both health care workers and the patients just made me so grateful for everything we have here. It made me feel even more strongly that it’s our responsibility as American health care leaders and high-income country health care leaders to try to help in situations where the same opportunities are not there.”
