Adj. Shahed Omar

Shahed Omar is a South African clinician-scientist specialising in critical care and infectious diseases, with a strong focus on tuberculosis and sepsis in high-burden settings. Affiliated with leading academic and public health institutions in South Africa, his work bridges intensive care medicine, pulmonary medicine, and translational diagnostics, contributing to national and global TB control strategies.

His research centres on drug-resistant tuberculosis, particularly rapid molecular and sequencing-based diagnostics. Through multicentre evaluations of targeted next-generation sequencing and implementation studies of Xpert platforms, he has advanced culture-free resistance profiling and highlighted gaps in commercial assays. Work in machine learning–based susceptibility prediction further reflects engagement with innovative, data-driven approaches.

In parallel, he leads pragmatic clinical trials in critical care, including studies on beta-lactam dosing, hemoadsorption in toxicology, lung ultrasound in pneumonia, and behavioural-economic interventions such as conditional cash transfers to improve TB outcomes. This portfolio demonstrates strengths in trial design, implementation science, and the integration of diagnostics, therapeutics, and health systems research to improve patient care.