Abdelrahman AlAshqar, MD
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About
Titles
Hospital Resident
Biography
Abdelrahman AlAshqar is a former resident physician in the department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine. He is now serving as a fellow physician of Gynecologic Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine while continuing to collaborate in research with the teams at Yale. While originally from the Kingdom of Jordan, Abdel was born and raised in Kuwait in an atmosphere that valued education, discipline, and academic excellence. He was granted a full scholarship to study medicine at Kuwait University and graduated as the Valedictorian with Distinction and Class Honors. He later worked as a trainee physician in Kuwait's Ministry of Health for one year before applying for residency in the United States.
Throughout medical school and residency, Abdel developed a passion for medical education and mentorship and taught hundreds of medical students and residents over the span of twelve years, while in clinical training himself. He earned numerous prestigious awards for his academic excellence, research, and teaching, including the awards by His Highness the Amir of Kuwait, Kuwait University President, and Yale School of Medicine. Abdel was appointed by the Vice Dean for academic affairs in his Alma Mater as a student representative in the staff-student consultative committee in efforts to improve the medical curriculum. He also won Nael Al-Naqeeb award for best undergraduate research on the intersection of neuroscience and prenatal health.
In addition to his life as a fellow, Abdel has a particular affection for cats. He is also an avid wildlife enthusiast and dreams of visiting the humpback whales in British Columbia, the great migration across the Serengeti, and the wilderness of Alaska.
Education & Training
- Fellow physician
- Stanford School of Medicine (2029)
- Resident physician
- Yale New Haven Hospital (2026)
- MD
- Kuwait University (2018)
Research
Overview
Abdel has worked in clinical translational gynecologic research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine since 2018. His early research focused on cardiometabolic risk in benign gynecology and outcomes of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery before shifting to gynecologic cancer research at Yale while still extrapolating from his prior research interests. He primarily investigated the association between cardiovascular disease and gynecologic malignancies and his research on this topic earned the award for best Chief Resident Research Presentation at graduation. Particularly interested in ovarian cancer research advancement, Abdel hopes to be part of the movement that revolutionizes the paradigm for ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Medical Research Interests
Public Health Interests
Academic Achievements & Community Involvement
News & Links
Media
While emerging evidence supports a link between cardiovascular disease and ovarian cancer, it remains limited to descriptive statistics showing increased cardiovascular mortality among ovarian cancer patients. Abdel is currently investigating this association in more depth with emphasis on the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) after ovarian cancer to help inform risk stratification and survivorship strategies in such vulnerable population of women.
- Once thought to be an exclusively hormonal disease, endometriosis now emerges as rather inflammation mediated. Estrogen and various cytokines exert cross-activating properties, promoting ectopic lesion development, persistence, and progression.
- Despite significant reduction in the rate of open hysterectomy over the last decade, hysterectomy cost continues to be on the rise. This is likely attributed to the introduction of the Da Vinci system and longer OR times of minimally invasive cases.
- Upper micrographs show double immunofluorescent detection of SERT and doublecortin (DCX) in the hippocampus of pSal and pLPS adult female rats.
- Emerging evidence now supports that uterine fibroids may be linked with systemic vascular derangements, including hypertension, preeclampsia, and even atherosclerosis through intricate signaling cascades.
- Photo by JMIG
Hysterectomy start time appears to influence surgical outcomes with afternoon hysterectomies being associated with increased operative blood loss and length of stay but decreased cost.
- Several signaling cascades have been implicated in the vascular pathobiology of uterine fibroid development, chief among them are the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and the hypoxia inducible factor pathway.