Nour Kanaan

Nour Kanaan (she/her/hers) is a rising senior at Duke University, majoring in Psychology & minoring in Neuroscience and German. This summer, Nour Kanaan worked with Dr. Reuben Robbins and his team at the HIV Center on evaluating their tablet-based app NeuroScreen, a novel neurocognitive testing tool for assessing neurocognitive impairment (NCI) among people living with HIV (PLWH) in under-resourced countries with high HIV burden like Uganda and South Africa. Nour started writing a manuscript comparing the acceptability of NeuroScreen as reported by American users to that reported by Ugandan and South African users. Data suggest that both populations find NeuroScreen convenient despite the disproportionality in technology use frequency. Additionally, Nour was able to assist in drafting an abstract exploring the relevance of NeuroScreen for people with psychosis in Uganda. Nour also gained valuable insight into the dynamics of a research team through attending the lab meetings twice a week, sharing progress, giving suggestions, and attentively listening to the team members as they plan next steps and resolve discrepancies.

She assisted in various tasks in the lab, including interview transcription and data monitoring. Outside the lab, Nour completed weekly cohort tasks. These tasks included preparing for a journal club discussion on Thursdays with the rest of the cohort and reviewing the Global Mental Health Programs website and Five on Friday blog posts to ensure that scientific findings are communicated effectively to a lay audience. Nour is grateful that she was able to participate in the Global Mental Health Programs Summer Internship. Not only did it provide her with valuable skills and opportunities for career development, but it also allowed her to connect with faculty and peers who share similar interests and learn from their inspiring journeys. She is extremely excited to continue working on her manuscript throughout August.