Research Trainees

Michael Asamoah-Boaheng has a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Michael’s research interests includes Obstructive Airway Diseases specifically (Asthma and COPD), COVID-19 seroprevalence and the burden of diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa. He has over the years conducted and published high quality research and currently has over 24 peer reviewed publications and 15 international research conference presentations to his credit. He is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow on the project “COVID-19 Occupational Risks, Seroprevalence and Immunity among Paramedics in Canada (CORSIP)” and also a member of BC RESURECT.

Callahan is a graduate of Mechanical and Materials Engineering from Queen’s University who has embarked on a new journey in the medical field as an MD candidate in the Vancouver Fraser Medical Program at UBC. His research focuses on vascular access strategies employed by paramedics during out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA), with a particular emphasis on intraosseous (IO) access. He is engaged in a project that aims to compare the clinical outcomes of adult OHCA patients treated with different vascular access strategies

Jacob is a PhD Candidate in the Experimental Medicine Program at UBC Faculty of Medicine and a graduate research assistant with Canadians Saving Arrest Victims Everywhere (CanSAVE). In addition to his graduate work, Jacob is a paramedic with BC Emergency Health Services. His current research efforts within CanSAVE include leveraging cardiac arrest data to conduct epidemiological modelling for projects related to early detection and intervention for cardiac arrest using wearable and non-wearable sensors. His broad research interests involve applying real-world and non-traditional sources of data to emergency response systems to increase the early recognition and prediction of acute health emergencies. Outside of this work, Jacob can be found skiing, running, or mountain biking in the coast mountains surrounding Vancouver.

Mahsa is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of British Columbia. As a researcher on the Canadians Saving Arrest Victims Everywhere (CanSAVE) Novel Biosensor project, her research is focused on using wearable devices to detect out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest incidents. This work involves (1) identifying/developing appropriate wearable sensors to collect bio-signals associated with cardiac arrest conditions (e.g., electrocardiogram, breathing rate); and (2) using unsupervised/supervised machine learning algorithms to identify appropriate combinations of collected bio-signals to detect a sudden cardiac arrest event. The outcome of this research may contribute to rapid recognition of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which can summon bystanders and Emergency Medical Services to provide the required emergent life-saving interventions.

Ben is PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor Timothy C.Y. Chan. His primary research interests are the application of optimization and analytics methods in resuscitation science and prehospital medicine.

Justin is a Research Assistant working with supervisor Dr. Grunau on several clinical medicine and epidemiology studies in the field of Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and makes contributions to BC’s Cardiac Arrest Registry and the COVID-19 Occupational Risks, Seroprevalence and Immunity among Paramedics (CORSIP) project. He is currently the study coordinator for the “Cardiac Arrest Detection in Palliative Care” and “OHCA wearable” studies. Outside of work, Justin enjoys volunteering and exploring the outdoors.

Mehdi Nouri Zadeh, MD, is a current Master’s student at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine University of British Columbia, bringing a comprehensive background as a medical doctor from Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Mehdi specializes in the collection and analysis of physiological signals and sample collection, with a strong focus on neuromuscular performance monitoring using cutting-edge technologies such as Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS), electromyography (EMG), and metabolic carts. His research primarily addresses the assessment of muscle spasticity in children with cerebral palsy, emphasizing the non-invasive monitoring of Botox treatment effects. In addition to his thesis work, Mehdi has applied his NIRS expertise to CanSAVE Biosensor Development MAID project, aimed at developing methods for early detection of cardiac arrest.