Mahdi Safdarian, M.D.

I am Mahdi Safdarian, a medical doctor from Iran and I recently started doing a 3-year PhD in Medical Sciences at the Department of Neurology, Christian-Doppler-Klinik, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria.

I was born on 25^th, July 1990 in Tehran, Iran and entered medical school at the age of sixteen. I have been a member of the National Talented Organization of my country Iran.

My first encounter with medicine was happened because of my brother! I had a brother with several congenital musculoskeletal and specially spine malformations (about whom I have written a case report; PMID: 28377974). He went under several surgeries and I think this had a great impact on me to become interested in medicine and specially field of spine.

After entering medical school, I started collaborating with my university professors and getting involved in some research projects mainly in the field of spine and spinal cord injury. I have published about 70 papers with an H-index of 21 (https://bit.ly/3xAAVQa). I was one of the founding members and quality supervisor of the National Spinal Cord Injury Registry of Iran at the Sina Trauma & Surgery Research Center. After finishing my medical school, Dr Ali-Reza Fathi a neurosurgeon in Switzerland invited me for a clinical training course in the their hospital at Aarau. I also received some requests for continuing my academic activities after medical school.

I developed a diagnostic medical software according to the International Classification of Sleep disorders with one of my friends. I have also developed an android application according to the AOSpine classification system for spine fractures with one of my friends. I have also registered a nano-drug patent with one of my friends (Nano-structured Aluminium MgS syrup Patent (Registration Number: 95123 - Iran Intellectual Property Office, State Organization for Registration of Deeds and Properties -2.26.2018). We also developed Silver Nanocrystalline dressings for burn patients at Kimiazi Lab in corporation with Mottahari Burn Hospital, in which I was one of the two persons providing these dressings in collaboration with other staff.

Besides my own research projects, I have experience of working with some international research collaborations such as the Global Burden of diseases (GBD) network, Institute of health metrics Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington.

In addition to my research activities, I also tried to be active in clinical practice. As a general practitioner, I had the chance to visit many patients both in general and private health settings in Iran. I have the experience of working as a general physician in one of the most remote areas of my country (Qaemie-Shiraz), in addition to working in private clinics in Tehran.

My ultimate goal therefore would be to continue my career in both research and clinical path, preferably in the field of spine, where most of my previous research experiences have been.

I believe the knowledge and expertise I can of this program could correctly navigate the enthusiasm I have toward high goals in my career.