Bassett doctor chosen for Fulbright award
Aug. 5—A doctor at Bassett Healthcare Network has been chosen for a Fulbright award.
According to a media release from Bassett, the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board have selected Dr. Samuel Badalian, chief of women's health at Bassett, to receive a Fulbright award for the 2021 — 22 academic year. With the funding, Badalian will travel to Yerevan, Armenia, in fall 2021 to establish urogynecology fellowship programs at two universities.
As a Fulbright participant and a representative of the United States, Badalian "will have the opportunity to work collaboratively with international partners and engage with the local community," the release said. The Fulbright program is devoted to increasing mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries. Past Fulbright alumni include 60 Nobel Laureates, 88 Pulitzer Prize winners, 75 MacArthur Fellows, and thousands of leaders across the private and public sectors, the release said.
Urogynecology — also known as female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery — is a subspecialty in obstetrics and gynecology. Badalian has been practicing, teaching and researching in the field for nearly 30 years, the release said. His plans include teaching a course at Yerevan State Medical University, introducing residents and fellows to the basic principles of the discipline. It will be the first approved program of urogynecology as a subspecialty in women's health in Armenia.
"Yerevan State Medical University already has a variety of outstanding woman's health programs," Badalian said in the release. "But I believe my experience will allow me to significantly contribute to these programs. I am also confident that this experience will benefit my own understanding of how to prevent and treat women's health problems."
"Dr. Badalian has my warmest congratulations for this well-deserved recognition of his work," said Dr. Tommy Ibrahim, Bassett's president and CEO. "When our caregivers provide our patients with excellent care, they naturally become preeminent in their field. Dr. Badalian's work continues Bassett's legacy of academic study and brings our work to the global stage. We are proud of his work."
The endeavor is a continuation of Badalian's past work, the release said. In 2019, he studied pelvic floor disorders among women in Armenia. The final study, published in the European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, found that rates of PFD were high in Armenia when compared to other nations. Badalian and his co-authors linked the rate to a combination of factors, but of special interest was the rate among patients who had previously undergone pelvic surgeries, the release said.
"Without urogynecology and female urology subspecialties, urogynecological procedures in Armenia are performed by gynecologists and urologists," Badalian said. "The rates we saw suggested that the surgeries may not have been performed properly, resulting in more problems. Our study recommends that the Armenian Ministry of Health and Yerevan State Medical University start education and training programs specifically geared towards pelvic floor disorders. After publication, I shared our findings with Dr. Arsen Torosyan, the Minister of Health, who expressed significant interest in starting a urogynecology fellowship program."
