Srinath Reddy
President, Public Health Foundation of India (India)
Prof. K. Srinath Reddy is presently President, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and formerly headed the Department of Cardiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He was appointed as the First Bernard Lown Visiting Professor of Cardiovascular Health at the Harvard School of Public Health in (2009-13) and presently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard (2014-2023). He is also an Adjunct Professor of the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University and Honorary Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney. PHFI is engaged in capacity building in Public Health in India through education, training, research, policy development, health communication and advocacy. In March 2017, he was also appointed as Advisor on Health to the Government of Odisha, with the rank of a Cabinet Minister, and in March 2020 was appointed as Advisor on Health to the Government of Andhra Pradesh, also with the rank of Cabinet Minister. He served as physician to two Prime Ministers of India.
Prof. Reddy obtained his medical degree from Osmania Medical College (Hyderabad), M.D. (Medicine) and D.M. (Cardiology) degrees from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Delhi) and M.Sc. (Epidemiology) from McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada). Having trained in cardiology and epidemiology, Prof. Reddy has been involved in several major international and national research studies including the INTERSALT global study of blood pressure and electrolytes, INTERHEART global study on risk factors of myocardial infarction, national collaborative studies on epidemiology of coronary heart disease and community control of rheumatic heart disease. Widely regarded as a leader of preventive cardiology at national and international levels, Prof. Reddy has been a researcher, teacher, policy enabler, advocate and activist who has worked to promote cardiovascular health, tobacco control, appropriate nutrition across the life course, chronic disease prevention and healthy living across the lifespan. He edited the National Medical Journal of India for 10 years and is on editorial board of several international and national journals. He has more than 500 scientific publications in international and Indian peer reviewed-journals.
He has served on many WHO expert panels and has been the President of the World Heart Federation (2013-14). He chaired the Core Advisory Group on Health and Human Rights for the National Human Rights Commission of India for several years and was a member of the first National Science and Engineering Research Board of Government of India. He chaired the High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage, set up by the Planning Commission of India. He has also served as the President of the National Board of Examinations which deals with post-graduate medical education in India.
Prof. Reddy is a member of the Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (ww.unsdsn.org), established to assist the United Nations in developing the post-2015 goals for sustainable development. He chairs the Thematic Group on Health in the SDSN. Prof. Reddy is a member of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition. He also Co-chaired the Health Ministry Steering Committee on Health Related Effects of Air Pollution. He has served as member of the Lancet Commissions on : Health Professional Education for the 21st Century; Investing in Health; Alleviating the access abyss in palliative care and pain relief; High Quality Health Systems.
His contributions to public health have been recognized through several awards and honours. They include: WHO Director General’s Award for Outstanding Global Leadership in Tobacco Control (World Health Assembly, 2003), Padma Bhushan (Presidential Honour, India, 2005), Queen Elizabeth Medal (Royal Society for Health Promotion, UK, 2005), Luther Terry Medal for Leadership in Tobacco Control (American Cancer Society, 2009), Membership of the US National Academies (Institute of Medicine, 2005), Fellowship of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2009), Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health, UK (2009).