Teaching Faculty

Dr Bangdiwala is currently Director of Statistics at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) , and Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact at McMaster University.  He is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Biostatistics, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds adjunct faculty appointments at Universidad de Chile (Santiago), University of South Africa (Pretoria), Christian Medical College (Vellore, India), and Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi). He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute.

Dr Bangdiwala focuses his expertise on the statistical aspects of longitudinal multiple-centre experimental and observational studies. As lead statistician on several NIH (USA) and CIHR (Canada) funded randomized controlled trials and longitudinal cohort studies for over 43 years, he has had the experience of collaborating with other scientists in designing, conducting, analysing and interpreting epidemiologic and clinical studies.

His main clinical areas of application are in gastrointestinal (GI) and cardiovascular (CV) diseases. He has unique experience in studying cardiometabolic risk factors as they change in children and adolescents through puberty, in studying functional GI disorders in adults, and in injury and trauma research. As Director of Statistics at PHRI, he currently oversees over 30 ongoing large randomized controlled trials of cardiovascular diseases in adults.

His statistical research has focused on methods for assessing agreement, and on understanding the sources of heterogeneity in research data. He is known as the creator of the "agreement chart" for displaying categorical discordance and concordance information. He also is well known for his international teaching of statistical concepts to non-statisticians.

Bamba Gaye is a Research Scientist in preventive cardiology at the Department of Medical Physiology at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal. He is also  a Research Scientist at the Paris Cardiovascular Research Center, INSERM U970, in Paris, France, where he co-leads the Global Health Research Group within the Integrative Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Diseases section.  He trained in medicine with specialized training in pharmacology and bioinformatics (MSc), with a focus on genomic and genetic analysis as well as pursuing advanced studies in epidemiology and biostatistics.

His research interest is in the genomic and biomarker revolution and impact on cardiovascular epidemiology. His research work is focussed on precision prevention: providing personal advice on healthy living based on individual’s genetic background and environments. In 2018, he co-founded the African Research Network Non-Communicable Diseases (ARNcd), which has been growing a community of epidemiologists, cardiologists, pharmacologists, researchers, and statisticians from sub-Saharan Africa, France, and the United States. The ARNcd is conducting epidemiological studies within 37 medical centers and 14 universities across 20 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. In September 2023 he and colleagues organized an international conference - The Dakar Call to unite academia, global health, funding organizations, higher education, health ministries, and researchers to address the pressing challenges of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa. The Dakar Call also marked the laying of foundation stone of the Pan-African Research Institute which is envisioned to an excellence center for medical innovation and research and paving the path toward a healthier Africa.

Kay-Tee Khaw trained in medicine in Girton College, University of Cambridge, and St. Mary’s Hospital (now Imperial College) and in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with subsequent clinical and academic posts in the University of London and University of California San Diego.  She is Life Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Gerontology, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge UK. 

Her research interests are the maintenance of health in later life and the causes and prevention of chronic diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease with a focus on nutrition and hormones.  She was principal investigator in the European Prospective Investigation in Cancer in Norfolk, part of a ten country half million participant research collaboration over three decades.  She has >1400 peer reviewed publications, H Index 174 and is a highly cited researcher (https://research.com/u/kay-tee-khaw). She has chaired or been a member of scientific panels and committees in the UK for the MRC, Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK and internationally for the Academy of Finland, Swiss National Science Foundation, Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and the World Economic Forum Global Council on Challenges of Ageing.  She has served as Trustee for Age UK (now Age UK), British Heart Foundation and Kennedy Memorial Trust and is past Chair of the International Society for Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and prevention. She is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences UK, member of Academia Europaea and was awarded Commander of the British Empire for contributions to medicine. 

Kay-Tee Khaw trained in medicine in Girton College, University of Cambridge, and St. Mary’s Hospital (now Imperial College) and in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with subsequent clinical and academic posts in the University of London and University of California San Diego.  She is Life Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Gerontology, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge UK. 

Her research interests are the maintenance of health in later life and the causes and prevention of chronic diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease with a focus on nutrition and hormones.  She was principal investigator in the European Prospective Investigation in Cancer in Norfolk, part of a ten country half million participant research collaboration over three decades.  She has >1400 peer reviewed publications, H Index 174 and is a highly cited researcher (https://research.com/u/kay-tee-khaw). She has chaired or been a member of scientific panels and committees in the UK for the MRC, Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK and internationally for the Academy of Finland, Swiss National Science Foundation, Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and the World Economic Forum Global Council on Challenges of Ageing.  She has served as Trustee for Age UK (now Age UK), British Heart Foundation and Kennedy Memorial Trust and is past Chair of the International Society for Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and prevention. She is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences UK, member of Academia Europaea and was awarded Commander of the British Empire for contributions to medicine. 

Professor Dorairaj Prabhakaran, educated at Bangalore Medical College (MBBS), the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (MD: Internal Medicine and DM: Cardiology) and McMaster University Canada MSc: Health Research Methodology), is an eminent cardiologist, epidemiologist and academician of global repute. He is currently Executive Director, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, a WHO collaborating centre for the Southeast Asia region and an ICMR Collaborating Centre of Excellence. He is also a Distinguished Professor at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and holds professorships at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Emory University, Atlanta, USA. In addition, he is a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health and an International Fellow at the Population Research Institute, McMaster University.

Prof. Prabhakaran has more than 650 publications in scientific journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Circulation, British Medical Journal, Nature, JAMA, etc. and has an H‐Index of 112. He has been listed as the topmost researcher in Medicine in India in terms of publications for the years 2009‐2014 by Scopus and Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and recently listed among the top 2% of World’s researchers by the Stanford University with a very high ranking in Medicine and Cardiology. Recognising his contribution to Indian Science, he was elected as a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. He has won several awards and accolades, including the Quality Champion by the Quality Council of India. He was conferred the Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) by the University of Glasgow recently.

Following a very active career involving patient care and teaching at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, he established large population‐based research projects which have provided major insights in diverse domains. Briefly, his large body of work demonstrated: the relationship of air pollution to several chronic diseases in India using an innovative high‐resolution exposure model technique involving machine learning and multiple data sources; the complex interplay of genetic and environmental drivers of chronic diseases in the rapidly urbanizing populations in India; and the higher risk of heart diseases among the poor and low‐ education groups underscoring the need to provide not just social safety nets but springboards for the poor to build a healthy India.

In addition, Prof Prabhakaran is leading several projects to develop low cost, context‐specific solutions to enhance the quality of therapeutic and preventive care for chronic diseases in India. To enhance access to chronic disease care, he is spearheading research on low‐cost, mobile‐phone‐based solutions to provide personalized patient management solutions. His work also involves improving quality of care and is evaluating several models of care, including simple audit/feedback loops to physicians and Yoga‐care in cardiac rehabilitation, the trial of a cardiovascular polypill in secondary prevention and programs for building the capacity of primary care physicians in the field of chronic diseases. Prof Prabhakaran’s contribution to capacity building in chronic disease health research and training is exemplary. He is an exceptional mentor of doctoral, post‐doctoral and physician‐scientists nationally and internationally, many of whom have become leaders in heart disease research.

Dr Pereira is the current President of the Sri Lanka College of Cardiology. She graduated from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She underwent cardiology training at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka and received the gold medal in 2004 for overall best performance in the MD programme. She subsequently completed an Interventional Fellowship in Cardiology at Alfred Hospital Melbourne, and has been working as a specialist cardiologist since 2008. She has presented at many international conferences and been part of the faculty of EuroPCR, Singapore Live, APVIC, India Live, TCTAP and APSC ESC. She has also performed a live coronary intervention for Singapore Live 2024. Her special interest are complex coronary interventions, IVUS, rotational atherectomy and peripheral interventions.