PMU doctoral student Dr. Mahdi Safdarian receives “GBD Emerging Researcher Award”
Dr. Mahdi Safdarian, M.D., Ph.D. student at Paracelsus Medical Private University (PMU) in the Medical Science doctoral program and research associate at the University Hospital Salzburg’s Department of Neurology, Neurocritical Care, and Neurorehabilitation, has been honored with the 2024“Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Emerging Researcher Award” from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). The award recognizes Dr. Safdarian’s outstanding contributions to spinal cord injury research. His dedication and innovative use of findings from the Global Burden of Disease study have had a significant impact on the understanding of this condition, according to the IHME. The award ceremony will take place in October in London.
Under Dr. Safdarian's leadership as the lead author, a global network of researchers—the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) Network—produced the first atlas of the global, regional, and national burden of spinal cord injuries from 1990 to 2019. This groundbreaking work, titled „Global, regional, and national burden of spinal cord injury, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019“ was published in The Lancet Neurology in November 2023. The study provides a comprehensive global atlas of spinal cord injuries and delivers key insights to improve care strategies worldwide. (To the publication: www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(23)00287-9/fulltext)
The IHME is an independent research organization focused on global health, based at the University of Washington School of Medicine. The “Emerging Researcher Award”, established in 2020 and endowed with $5,000, supports rising global health researchers in conducting innovative studies to improve understanding of disease burden.
Recipient of the Christian Doppler Prize 2023, State of Salzburg
Dr. Safdarian’s work was also recognized in 2023 when he received the Christian Doppler Prize from the Salzburg State Government, the region’s most prestigious science award, in the “Neuroscience” category. For more details, visit: https://service.salzburg.gv.at/lkorrj/detail?nachrid=69394
