Aghna is a third-year medical student at Keele University with an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Toronto which she completed with high distinction and landed first in her class. Aghna has been working as a mixed-methods researcher for over 6 years, her research projects including validation and implementation of patient-reported outcomes measures in post-transplant care; symptom experiences and management needs of solid-organ transplant recipients; psychosocial and ethnocultural barriers to living-donor kidney transplant; social, psychological and behavioural impacts of pandemics; chronic pain experiences in military personnel; patient engagement; social accountability in medical education; and application of machine learning and artificial intelligence in predicting physician burnout, vaccine hesitancy and ICU mortality. She has published multiple papers and presented research at national and international conferences. She was listed among the top 20 posters presented at the European Association of Psychosomatic Medicine conference in 2024. 

 

Aghna ultimately wants to work as a clinician scientist and is particularly interested in cardiothoracic surgery, neurosurgery and transplantation. She hopes that through BSDJ, she can encourage medical students and junior doctors to explore academic medicine, while also working towards promoting inclusivity in academia for her peers. 

 

Fun fact: I have lived in three continents.