Professional Background
Abdul Basir Barmak earned his MD degree from Kabul Medical University (KMU) in 2008 and attended a 1-year postgraduate certification in advance clinical research and statistical techniques provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Kabul, Afghanistan. During his medical education at KMU, representing the medical student body, he helped to renovate the MD curriculum through a 2-year curriculum development and renovation program sponsored by the WHO. From 2008 to 2012, he cofounded Cheragh Medical Institute (CMI) developing the MD program and serving as the Provost, and as Assistant Professor of Clinical Research/Biostatistics. Dr. Barmak came to Rochester as a Fulbright scholar for Graduate Medical Education in 2012 and by 2016, received his masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Rochester (UR) in Health Professions Education (MSc) and Higher Education Leadership and Administration (Ed.D.) with a focus on MD curriculum development. He helped to innovate the master’s program in Health Professions Education at UR as part of his doctorate assistantship. From 2017 to 2018, Basir served as a Research Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a nation-wide PCORI-funded project on the effectiveness of peer-to-peer community support to promote aging in place. In 2018, Basir returned to the UR to develop the Master’s of Science in Clinical/Dental Science program for Eastman Institute for Oral Health (EIOH).
In 2022 he received his MSc in Applies Statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and in 2023 he got a promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor. He currently serves as the Assistant Director of the master’s program, Director of the online education committee, and Associate Professor of Dentistry, teaching design of clinical research, biostatistics, and systematic review/meta-analysis courses. As the director of the online education committee, during the COVID-19 pandemic, he collaborated in converting traditional courses to online format using various educational technologies. He is involved in Learning Outcome Assessment at programmatic and institutional levels and has assisted in mapping learning outcomes, implementing AEFIS, generating periodic assessment dashboard, and accreditation process. Meanwhile, he supervises and mentors master's students’ research projects. He works with graduate students and faculty to develop and publish research projects and has assisted in the design and analysis of research projects with many departments. He has authored/co-authored more than 50 publications to date. Moreover, he assists faculty, course and program directors to develop courses, certification and residency programs. He also serves on a number of committees at UR, and is a member of several local and national professional organizations. Dr. Barmak embraces Meliora, or “Ever Better”, the foundation for UR’s mission to Learn, Discover, Heal, and Create. He is currently enrolled, part-time, in the PhD program in Bioinformatics at George Mason University.