Section / Work

Care · Discovery · Access · Capacity

Four fields, one system

The work isn't four careers taped together. Care, Discovery, Access and Capacity are different instruments for the same question: closing the distance between what is possible and who can reach it.

01

Care

Clinical medicine and health equity — the human question that anchors everything else.

  • Problem
    Good medicine begins with seeing one person clearly — and asking why the same care is not reachable for everyone.
    Now
    Final-year MBChB training at the University of Cape Town (2020–2026), running clinical years in parallel with an MSc in neurogenomics.
    Who it serves
    Patients, and the research and systems work every clinic informs.
02

Discovery

Bioinformatics and neurogenomics — long-read sequencing and the epigenetics of disease.

  • Problem
    Many early-onset ALS cases stay genetically unresolved after conventional testing. The answer may lie in what short reads cannot see.
    Now
    My parallel MSc in neurogenomics — at UCT's Clinical Omics and Informatics (COIN) Unit, funded by the Mandela Rhodes Foundation — uses high-fidelity long-read sequencing to characterise DNA methylation in South African patients with early-onset ALS whose cases remain unresolved after conventional genetic testing.
    Who it serves
    Families living with unresolved ALS, and African-ancestry genomics more broadly.
03

Access

Healthcare entrepreneurship — making quality medical tools and essentials more reachable.

  • Problem
    Quality medical tools and student essentials are priced out of reach for many of the people training to use them.
    Now
    I co-founded and lead WiZmed, now the continent's leading stethoscope distributor. We're the youngest authorised 3M Littmann distributorship globally, the first in Africa to offer in-house precision stethoscope personalisation, and were named Top Medical Equipment Distributor (MEA Business, 2023). The WiZmed Foundation has issued 70+ equipment subsidies to students who couldn't otherwise afford them.
    Who it serves
    Healthcare students and professionals across Africa.
    WiZmed ↗
Waheed with WiZmed co-founder Ashraf beside the WiZmed banner
WiZmed — for students, by students. With co-founder Ashraf.
04

Capacity

Institution-building — research training, mentorship and interdisciplinary networks across Africa.

  • Problem
    Research opportunity is unevenly distributed. Talent is everywhere; the pathways into research are not.
    Now
    I co-founded the African Research Society at UCT in 2022 — moving from Founding Vice President to President to Chief of Operations. We registered it as a non-profit, built the Interdisciplinary Research Apprenticeship Programme, host events featuring Nobel Laureates and African research icons, and have raised over R600,000 for research capacity.
    Who it serves
    Students and early researchers across Africa and its diaspora.
    African Research Society ↗
The African Research Society team
Building the African Research Society — research opportunity, opened up.

Research outputs and their evidence live in the research record. What has my attention right now is on the Now page.