Rakhal Gaitonde

Dr. Rakhal Gaitonde is a Professor of Public Health at the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Insititute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram. He completed his MBBS from Government Kilpauk Medical College and MD Community Medicine from Christian Medical College, Vellore. He subsequently worked with NGOs implementing projects on community-based accountability in Tamilnadu under the National Rural Health Mission. He worked in the grass root NGO sector for nearly a decade before completing his PhD in Public Health fromUmea University in Sweden. It was after this that he joined the faculty at the Achutha Menon Centre, where he teaches Social Determinants of Health, Health Policy and Health Economics.

His work includes the research of Health Inequity, Health Policy and Systems Research, and the Politics of Knowledge. He has more than a decade’s involvement in Environment and Occupational Health supporting a number of pollution impacted communities through research and advocacy. He is actively involved in the medico friend circle. He has recently contributed to the preparation of reports for the Kerala State and Tamilnadu State Planning Commissions as they evolved their vision for health. He is a member of the Lancet Citizen’s Commission for the Reimagining of India’s Health Care system.

In the field of TB, Prof. Gaitonde has worked for almost a decade with the National Institute for research on Tuberculosis (NIRT), India. He helped set up and was the first chairperson of their Community Advisory Board. He was a member of their Internal Scientific Committee as well as has served on the Data Safety Board of one of their trials. More recently he was part of the Govt. of India Committee set up to study the introduction of Adult BCG vaccination as part of India’s Program.