Dr Nitika Pant Pai is Associate Professor at McGill University’s Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and a Physician Scientist at the MUHC Research Institute. She has been working in diagnostics for 20 years in the United States, Canada, South Africa, and India, with a focus on point of care diagnostics for HIV, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, HPV, and bacterial sexually transmitted infections. She develops and incorporates digital innovations, implementation science, Bayesian diagnostics, and artificial intelligence to generate innovative digital diagnostic solutions to plug health service delivery gaps in diagnostics. In 2015, she founded a social enterprise, Sympact-X, funded by the Government of Canada, to take her innovations to scale, for social impact, both nationally and internationally. Her website is nitikapantpai.com.
In this podcast we talk about Nitika's journey to becoming an epidemiologist, Gandhian philosophy, and her experiences as a 'disruptor' entrepreneur. Nitika describes how diagnostics can take people from the unknown to the known, and the ways in which stigma surrounding HIV and tuberculosis can play a role in the forefront or the background. We also discuss patriarchy and the need to dismantle inequitable power systems.
Episode hosted by Dr. Carmen Logie. Supported by funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and Canada Research Chairs program. Original music and podcast produced by Jupiter Productions, who have various production services available to support your podcast needs.