Elias Jabbour is a medical student and a McGill Global Health Scholar supported by the Soe-Lin-Hecht Global Health Scholar Undergraduate Award. Elias will work with Professor Jonathon Campbell of the Departments of Medicine and of Global and Public Health.
"I have the opportunity to untangle the financial intricacies of the health system in Brazil. Under the continuous guidance of supervisors both locally, and virtually, I was able to quickly get immersed into the numerous layers of the Brazilian healthcare system, obtain insights from many stakeholders in the community as well as the ministry and experience first-hand daily operations of primary practice clinics. In parallel, I was presented with the opportunity of delving deep into financial databases and take on complex data handling to help advance our understanding of the costs of Tuberculosis in 5 cities in Brazil. These findings can then contribute to ongoing and future cost-effective analyses related to tuberculosis across the nation.
The most exciting part of this adventure has been going through tuberculosis-endemic regions, namely favelas and low-SES regions to collect data and get acquainted with daily operations. Such an experience has allowed me to witness the noticeable contrast in resources that exists between communities living only footsteps away from one another. Working with such communities has greatly helped with contextualizing my research objectives and illustrated the importance of implicating diverse members of the healthcare team in order to optimally serve endemic communities."
