As an epidemiology student at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH), Hani Dayib Sirad knew she wanted her work to focus on refugees and other populations that often receive less attention in public health research. Combining her interest in refugee health and healthcare access with the data and analytical skills she was building at SPH, Sirad launched a research project examining the healthcare needs of refugees arriving in Minnesota

Through her applied practice experience and student work with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Sirad worked with MDH’s Refugee Health Program to analyze more than a decade of refugee health data, uncovering trends that may help healthcare providers and public health agencies better support newly arrived populations.

For the project, Sirad analyzed data on 26,602 primary refugee arrivals between 2012 and 2025. She examined which individuals were designated as “medical cases” — refugees with health conditions requiring support beyond a routine domestic medical examination. Using demographic and health data, she looked for patterns in who needed additional care coordination, how those needs changed over time, which health conditions appeared most frequently and how needs varied across age groups and countries of origin.

Sirad’s analysis revealed two notable patterns. First, the proportion of refugees requiring medical care coordination steadily increased over time, rising from about 7% in 2012 to nearly 10% in 2025, suggesting that a growing number of new arrivals need support beyond routine health screenings. Older adults carried the highest burden, with nearly half of refugees age 65 and older requiring additional medical coordination.

Second, healthcare needs varied substantially across refugee populations, challenging assumptions about which groups were most likely to require additional support. “I just assumed that if a country had a lot of arrivals, it would also have a high medical case rate, but that wasn’t always the case,” Sirad said.

While Somalia accounted for the largest share of refugee arrivals to Minnesota, only about 7.6% of Somali arrivals required medical case coordination. In contrast, refugees from Bhutan had a much higher medical case rate at 17%, while nearly 10% of refugees arriving from Myanmar required additional support.

The findings reinforced the importance of looking beyond broad population trends to understand the specific needs of communities and ensure that healthcare systems are prepared to meet them. As refugee populations and healthcare needs continue to evolve, she hopes research like this can help public health agencies better anticipate challenges and connect newly arrived families with the care they need. Sirad says she sees the project helping inform her career path after graduation.

“This project really reinforced my interest in pursuing a career in public health data analysis, especially work connected to refugee and immigrant health,” Sired said. “Data analysis has always felt a little intimidating to me, but being able to see trends and patterns emerge once the work is done is really cool and rewarding. Ideally, I’d like to work in infectious diseases and with vulnerable communities in any capacity I can. I think the world of epidemiology is fascinating, and there are lots of areas that I am interested in,” she said.