Student doctor, orthopaedic track.Second-year at LMU–DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in Knoxville, Tennessee.
About
Three years beside a hand surgeon taught him to answer every clinical question with evidence.
Sameer Islam is a second-year osteopathic medical student at Lincoln Memorial University–DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, preparing for a career in orthopaedic surgery.
Before medical school he worked as a medical assistant and scribe at OrthoVirginia with hand and upper-extremity surgeon Dr. Alexander Croog. He took histories, presented patients, observed in the operating room and learned to take each question back to the literature.
He didn’t set out to be a doctor. He planned a career in cybersecurity until a summer in the emergency department at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital changed his direction. Since then he has run calls as a volunteer EMT, led the Muslim Student Association at VCU and coordinated volunteers for A Place to Stand in Fairfax.
Second-year student building toward orthopaedic surgery, with ongoing clinical research in spine.
Worked with Dr. Alexander Croog in hand and upper-extremity surgery: histories, triage, vitals, EMR documentation, case presentations and time in the OR.
Coursework in neuroscience, biochemistry, organic chemistry and developmental psychology.
Basic life support calls: assessment, vitals and stabilization on the way to the emergency department.
Fundraising chair, then president through the pandemic. He ran the budget with student affairs and built local partnerships.
Food drives, school courtyard cleanups with the Travis Manion Foundation and pandemic meal deliveries.
The summer that turned him from cybersecurity to medicine.
A 24-year registry-based analysis of Phase 3 and 4 randomized controlled trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov.
How often do spine fusion trials stop early or never publish, and what does that cost the patients who enrolled?
Surgeons choose fusion techniques from trial evidence. Results that go missing leave gaps in that evidence.
Independent review written at Dr. Croog’s request after a clinic case raised the question.
Training since 2008. He has taught classes and given community demonstrations at Fort Belvoir.
Red Cross–certified lifeguard at the Fort Belvoir family pools.
Singles and doubles, and twice named team MVP.