Ruvandhi Nathavitharana

Dr. Ruvandhi Nathavitharana is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Nathavitharana’s research focuses on the use of implementation science to optimize TB diagnosis and improve TB care delivery in South Africa and Peru. Dr. Nathavitharana has served as a technical expert analyzing data to inform WHO policy recommendations on TB diagnostic testing. As an associate director for the BIDMC Internal Medicine Residency Social Justice Pathway, Dr. Nathavitharana is passionate about building local partnerships to support advocacy and policy change to advance health equity and address the social, economic and political dimensions of illness. Dr. Nathavitharana serves as the Chair of TB Proof, an advocacy organization, based in South Africa, whose mission seeks to combine stories and science to destigmatize TB and mobilize national and global resources to end TB. As one of the co-leads for TB Proof’s Use My Voice to End TB project, Dr. Nathavitharana works closely with community peer research associates, students, and collaborators at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, to use qualitative methods to understand how different domains of stigma impact engagement throughout the TB cascade of care and to develop effective stigma reduction interventions.