Umar Siddiqi, AB’24, is passionate about enhancing access and quality of care for patients through innovation. Siddiqi was recently named a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. This fall, he will pursue a medical degree from the Stanford School of Medicine.
Originally from Elmhurst, Ill., he earned a bachelor's degree from the College in biological sciences with a specialization in immunology. Ultimately, he hopes to practice medicine as a physician-investigator, at the forefront of discovering novel therapies and deploying them in ways that allow for equitable access.
A past recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship, he has performed extensive research in the field of cardiac surgery—leading national, multi-center studies to investigate critical heart failure phenomena.
Throughout his time in the College, Siddiqi worked closely with Dr. Valluvan Jeevanandam, the chief of cardiac surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
“Dr. Jeevanandam allowed me early exposure to the world of advanced heart failure therapy, and I’m thankful to him for taking me under his wing,” said Siddiqi. “Shadowing him in clinic and the operating room allowed me to learn so much about what it means to be committed to innovation and excellent clinical care within the field of medicine.”
Siddiqi worked on heart pump technology, designing and developing left ventricular assist devices and prototyping the next generation of mechanical circulatory support.
“There are tens of millions of people worldwide who suffer from end-stage heart failure but not enough donor organs, which leads to inequalities in transplant listings,” said Siddiqi. “I envision mechanical circulatory support as a scalable solution to this problem, a new gold standard, one that would ideally be accessible for all.”