Ramnath Subbaraman

Associate Professor, Public Health and Community Medicine

ramnath.subbaraman@tufts.edu

136 Harrison Avenue

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Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action, and Research

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Career Highlights / Publications Research Professional Activities Courses / Teaching Activities

Research/Areas of Interest

Dr. Subbaraman's field research in India focuses on identifying deficiencies across multiple points in the TB cascade of care to facilitate the development of patient-centered interventions. He is currently contributing to evaluations of novel digital adherence technologies that have the potential to support medication adherence in TB patients; this work is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He is also investigating approaches for improving the outcomes and yield of active case-finding strategies for early detection of individuals with TB, with the support of a Doris Duke Clinical Scientist Development Award.

Dr. Subbaraman has also contributed to research on social and environmental determinants of health in urban slums in India, in collaboration with colleagues at PUKAR, an innovative research collective based in Mumbai. PUKAR uses community-based participatory research approaches to engage youth living in marginalized populations to study their communities and advocate for social change. PUKAR's health-related field research has illuminated the adverse impacts of legal exclusion on health outcomes in non-notified slums in India through studies of nutrition, child immunization, mental health, and water access, among other issues. Dr. Subbaraman is currently a co-principal investigator on a grant from the Sociology Program at the National Science Foundation exploring how public policies impact the experience of health in Mumbai's slum communities.

Education

Master of Science in Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, United States, 2017
Doctor of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, United States, 2007
Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States, 2001

Biography

Dr. Subbaraman is an infectious diseases physician and epidemiologist who conducts implementation science research aimed at understanding and addressing gaps in the TB care cascade in India. Specifically, his research focuses on understanding reasons for losses of people with TB across the care cascade; assessing quality of TB care; and evaluating the acceptability, accuracy, and effectiveness of TB digital adherence technologies. He also conducts community-based participatory research on social and environmental determinants of health in urban informal settlements in India, in collaboration with PUKAR, an innovative Mumbai-based research collective. He is the principal investigator—along with colleagues at the ICMR-National Institute for Research in TB in Chennai, India—of an R01 grant focused on evaluating urine isoniazid testing as a strategy for measuring and addressing TB medication adherence in routine care. His research has also been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

In addition to conducting research, Dr. Subbaraman is also the co-lead for the Global Health Science and Practice (GHSP) concentration within the TUSM MPH program, and his MPH teaching focuses on implementation science in global settings. He is also co-director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics course for first-year MD students at TUSM. He is associate director of the Tufts Center for Global Public Health.

Dr. Subbaraman is also clinically active and provides patient care on the general infectious diseases consultation services and the infectious diseases ward service at Tufts Medical Center. He has a secondary clinical appointment in the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center. He is also one of the Members of the Public Health Council of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, appointed by the Governor. The Public Health Council assists in promulgating regulations, approving Determination of Need applications, and advising the Department of Health on policy decisions, at the discretion of the Commissioner.