Indian-American among ten ‘Emerging Leaders’ in Health and Medicine

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The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) on May 5, 2020, announced the 2020 Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine Scholars, among them an Indian-American.

Dr. Ami S. Bhatt, assistant professor of medicine and genetics and director of global oncology, Center for Innovation in Global Health, at Stanford University, is among 10 from around the nation, to receive the prestigious scholarship.

The award is meant for individuals who are early- to mid-career professionals from a wide range of health-related fields, from emergency medicine and health economics to biomedical engineering and research and public health policy.

It aims to bring new and younger leaders to collaborate with the NAM and its members across fields of expertise to advance science, combat persistent challenges in health and medicine, and spark transformative change to improve health for all, a press release from NAM said.

Dr. Bhatt and the other scholars will be involved in a variety of activities throughout the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies) over a three-year term, beginning on July 1, 2020.

“As the world faces the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded of the importance of involving emerging leaders, who are poised to shape the future of health and medicine, in cross-disciplinary activities to tackle pressing challenges such as these,” NAM President Victor J. Dzau is quoted saying in the press release.

Dr. Bhatt received her MD and PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology) at University of California, San Francisco. While at UCSF, she received the Fineberg Award for Excellence in Teaching and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha.

She completed residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and was a fellow in Hematology/Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Thereafter, she carried out her post-doctoral studies at the Broad Institute of Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At the Bhattlab in Stanford, she seeks to improve outcomes in patients with hematological malignancies (lukemia and lymphoma) by meticulously characterizing the dynamics of the microbiome in immunocompromised individuals, and exploring how changes in the microbiome are associated with idiopathic diseases in this population, her biography on the lab’s website says. Microbiome are the genetic material that make up all the microbes – bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses – inside and on the human body.

As the Director of Global Oncology for the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University. Bhatt aims at improving cancer care, education and research in underserved settings.

She was a visiting lecturer at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and the University of Botswana. She, along with Franklin Huang, is a co-founder and co-president of the non-profit organization Global Oncology (www.globaonc.org).

Dr. Bhatt joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine (Divisions of Hematology and Bone marrow transplantation) and Genetics in Fall of 2014.

The National Academy of Medicine, established in 1970 as the Institute of Medicine, is an independent organization of eminent professionals from diverse fields including health and medicine; the natural, social, and behavioral sciences; and beyond, according to its website.. It serves alongside the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering as an adviser to the nation and the international community.