Syed S. Hashmi, MD, MPH, PhD

Professor
Director, Bioinformatics Core, Pediatrics Research Center
Department of Pediatrics
McGovern Medical School
UTHealth Houston

Email:  Syed.S.Hashmi.1@uth.tmc.edu
Phone:  713-500-5709

Educational Philosophy

My foray into teaching was in high school when a teacher asked me to tutor junior classmen.  Initial apprehension soon turned to a love of teaching.  Since then I have learned from numerous mentors and through seminars and courses on how to improve my teaching skills.

My teaching style is heavily influenced by the same teacher who started me off on this path in high school.  There are two important things I learned from him:

My guiding principle: Teach the students and not just the content.  Often instructors forget what it meant to be a student and in their attempt to get the content across they fail to consider the different experiences, prior knowledge and learning styles of their students.  Although a class course can’t be tailored for each student a “one-size-fits-all” paradigm doesn’t help either.  Therefore, I often explain difficult concepts from different angles and accompanied by multiple examples. To supplement that, I’m always available for discussions outside class, which leads me to …

If at first they don’t get it, try, try and try again. I always make time outside class-hours to discuss unclear concepts.  I inform my students on the first day that I have an “open-door” policy and they can drop by with queries whenever they want. Not only does this help students grasp concepts through additional discussions but also helps me be a more effective teacher by increasing my awareness of and tailoring my teaching for my students.  This “open-door” policy also extends to trainees and faculty at the MMS, who regularly approach me to discuss concepts and issues that may be related to research.  I believe that taking time to explain the concepts (rather than just answer their question) helps them better conceptualize the issue and enables them to apply it again in the future.

This final point of conceptualizing and implementing is applicable to me as well.  Learning is a life-long process and I take every opportunity to learn new teaching methods and improve my skills.  I’ve benefited from numerous mentors throughout my career and membership in the MMS Academy of Master Educators (MMS-AME) will both help me learn from other educators as well as continue the cycle by mentoring others at UTHealth and contributing to the excellence in teaching that we expect from this institution.

Education

MD
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Medical School, Szeged, Hungary, 1998

MPH, Community Health
The University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, Texas, 2003

PhD, Epidemiology
The University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, Texas, 2008

Areas of Expertise and Interests

Medical Genetics, Neurology
Research Scholarship
Research Methodology
Epidemiology of birth defects
Teratogenic exposures during early pregnancy
Minority health

Publications

Le Ng X, Alikhan M, Stark JM, Mosquera RA, Shahrukh Hashmi S, Gonzales T, Brown DL, Nguyen TT, Yadav A. Comparison of pneumococcal vaccination response in children with sickle cell disease: HbSS and HbSC. Allergol Immunopathol (Madr). 2019 Nov – Dec;47(6):564-569

Gould H, Hashmi SS, Wagner VF, Stoll K, Ostermaier K, Czerwinski J. Examining genetic counselors’ implicit attitudes toward disability. J Genet Couns. 2019 Aug.

Gourishankar A, Belton MD, Hashmi SS, Butler IJ, Lankford JE, Numan MT. Demographic and clinical features of pediatric patients with orthostatic intolerance and an abnormal head-up tilt table test; A retrospective descriptive study. Pediatr Neonatol. 2019 Jul.

Moise KJ Jr, Hashmi SS, Markham K, Argoti PS, Bebbington M. Cell free fetal DNA to triage antenatal rhesus immune globulin: Is it really cost-effective in the United States? Prenatal Diagnosis 2019 Feb;39(3):238-247.

Gupta-Malhotra M, Shete S, Barratt MS, Milewicz D, Hashmi SS. Epidemiology of Childhood Onset Essential Hypertension. J Hum Hypertens. 2018 Dec;32(12):808-813

Hashmi SS, Gamble C, Hoover-Fong J, Alade AY, Pauli RM, Modaff P, Carney M, Brown C, Bober MB, Hecht JT. Multicenter Study of Mortality in Achondroplasia. Am J Med Gen A. 2018 Nov;176(11):2359-2364

Rhoads JM, Collins J, Fatheree NY, Hashmi SS, Taylor CM, Luo M, Hoang TK, Gleason WA, Van Arsdall MR, Navarro F, Liu Y. Infant Colic Represents Gut Inflammation and Dysbiosis. J Pediatr. 2018 Aug.

Mosquera RA, De Jesus-Rojas W, Stark JM, Yadav A, Jon CK, Atkins CL, Samuels CL, Gonzales TR, McBeth KE, Hashmi SS, Garolalo R, Colasurdo GN. Role of prophylactic azithromycin to reduce airway inflammation and mortality in a RSV mouse infection model. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2018 Feb.

Girardet R, Bolton K, Hashmi S, Sedlock E, Khatri R, Lahoti N, Lukefahr J. Child protective services utilization of child abuse pediatricians: A mixed methods study. Child Abuse Negl. E-pub. 2017 Nov.