Akhil is a rising senior at Duke University. Growing up across the West Coast and Midwest, Akhil saw the geographic ends of healthcare access. He is deeply committed to supporting the needs of immigrant communities across America, especially in rural and underserved areas.
During his internship this summer, he worked with Dr. Reuben Robbins of the Global Brain Care Lab on supporting global implementation efforts for NeuroScreen, a digital neurocognitive screening battery, in aging populations with HIV in Malaysia and adolescents and young adults with perinatally acquired HIV (pHIV) in Uganda. His responsibilities included designing and verifying codebooks for future qualitative analysis, organizing case report forms for use in global settings, and verifying English translations of Tamil-implemented NeuroScreen tests. In addition, he conducted a background literature review on altered immune responses and neurocognitive issues in HIV-infected youth and adolescents.
Working with the Columbia-WHO Center has reinforced his desire to promote health across cultural contexts and allowed him to build on prior experiences with digital health interventions, health policy and cross-cultural care. Akhil is grateful to the internship staff and Dr. Robbins’ team for their support this summer. He looks forward to a career integrating research, service and advocacy to promote immigrant communities’ health.