Anam Shahil Feroz (32) is a trained nurse from Pakistan. She is completing her doctorate in Health Systems Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on supporting pregnant women in Pakistan at high risk of preeclampsia and who have limited access to healthcare services due to sociocultural and financial constraints. Preeclampsia is the second leading cause of maternal deaths in Pakistan. The overarching goal of her research is to use innovative digital health technology to improve preeclampsia-related maternal health outcomes in Pakistan, where maternal mortality is declining very slowly.

Anam is addressing this crucial issue by designing a user-centric mobile-based telemonitoring program that allows high-risk pregnant women to monitor themselves at home for blood pressure and symptoms, for real-time monitoring by healthcare providers. Through her research, she hopes to strengthen the self-care agency of high-risk pregnant women, which is often compromised by several sociocultural and demographic factors. In addition to publishing her doctoral research work, Anam hopes to disseminate her findings beyond the lab, scientific journals, and conferences through story-telling to overcome the obstacle of reaching lay audiences. She has over 61 publications alongside many awards to her credit.

Anam explains, “MMEG brings a ray of hope to a South Asian researcher like myself, who historically has had low representation in the scholarly world.”