Research Interests
- Development and deployment of Artificial intelligence-based interventions for cancer screening, diabetes and cardiovascular health in low-resource settings
- Scaling evidence-based primary care and community-based interventions for cardiovascular health, hypertension, diabetes and chronic kidney disease
- Understanding Healthy ageing in the Indian population and designing context-specific interventions
- Understanding the impact of heat stress and designing interventions to improve health outcomes
- Understanding the linkages of mobility/ walkability and health, and designing interventions/policies in the context of the Indian population
Education
- Master’s Applied Epidemiology-Field Epidemiology Training Program (MAE-FETP), ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, 2006-08
- Diplomate of National Board (General Medicine), National Board of Examinations, New Delhi, 2001-2004
- MBBS, Government Kilpauk Medical College, Chennai, Dr MGR Medical University, Chennai, 1994-2000
Overview
A physician and public health professional specialising in research, teaching, and implementation science, Dr Kaur is focused on designing and scaling evidence-based public health interventions and policies within healthcare systems. Her work is driven by a commitment to patient- and community-centred approaches, quality, scalability, and impact.
She has dual training in Internal Medicine and Field Epidemiology and has served as Chair/Professor at the Isaac Centre for Public Health, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, since October 2023. In her current role, she is developing interdisciplinary research and training programs that address complex and emerging challenges in public health, including AI-based applications for primary care, public health approaches to heat stress, and digital health and interventions for chronic diseases.
She was a researcher and faculty member in public health at the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology in Chennai for nearly two decades (2004-2023). She played a pivotal role in establishing the Non-Communicable Disease Research stream and served as the Head of the Division of Non-Communicable Diseases at the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, from 2016 to 2023.
Over the past 21 years, she has contributed to public health efforts in hypertension, diabetes, cervical cancer, public health surveillance, and outbreak investigations across various Indian states.
She is passionate about empowering women to achieve excellence in research and play leadership roles in STEMM disciplines. She co-Chairs the Steering Committee of the India RISE (Research Innovation and STEMM Empowerment) Fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Gupta Klinsky India Institute. She is a mentor for the Women Lift Health and India RISE fellowship programs.
She was a member of the Chief Minister's Expert Task Force for COVID-19 control in Tamil Nadu, India, 2020-21, and a member of the WHO Global Cervical Cancer Elimination Expert Group, 2019 - 2023. She was faculty for a two-year Master’s program in Applied Epidemiology and Public Health (2008-2023), the flagship training program of ICMR-NIE, which trained over 300 field epidemiologists. She led part-time in-service Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) fellowships (2018-2023), a pioneering initiative to build public health capacity at the district and state levels.