Health disparity research puts Nasar Ahmed, and FIU, front and center


When one walks into Nasar Ahmed’s office, to the left of the door, on the wall and directly opposite his desk, is a nearly 6-foot high dry erase board with no fewer than 50 items handwritten on it—an inspirational quote, a list of about seven “Articles in Process,” notes on the 13 graduate students he oversees, lists of local community resources and allies to tap for one of a number of his research studies, particularly those focused on reproductive cancers in the Caribbean communities. It’s all in a day’s work to keep the school and his momentum growing for the chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work.

Positive results from breast cancer research conducted by Ahmed were published in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention—and the report was picked up by about 71 international news outlets, according to Ahmed. While most epidemiologic research studies are retrospective in nature, Ahmed took an aggressive approach employing a randomized, controlled clinical trial design, the “gold standard” of research often used in drug development and intervention studies.

The trial looked at whether a step-wise counseling program with help from physicians and lay health workers could improve participation rates for routine mammograms for 2,357 low-income women with health insurance. The study compared the counseling to usual care or a simple prompt letter from a medical director. The results overwhelmingly showed that Ahmed’s counseling intervention significantly improved mammogram completions, increasing the likelihood of a mammogram 80 percent. Based on these data, Ahmed wants to improve medical standards by changing the screening guidelines for mammograms to include counseling.