Kaumudi Joshipura

Dr. Joshipura is the NIH Endowed Chair & Director of the Center for Clinical Research and Health Promotion at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Medical Sciences Campus, and an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). She has a Master’s degree in Biostatistics and a Doctorate in Epidemiology from HSPH. She is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Public Health. Dr. Joshipura has led several NIH funded grants including grants to conduct a cohort study and a randomized controlled trial, a mentoring grant and has also co-directed training grants. Dr. Joshipura has taught both methodological and substantive courses, co-directed the Oral Epidemiology doctoral training program at HSPH, and mentored numerous faculty and students. She is the UPR site liaison for the multi-institutional Fogarty Global Health Training consortium based at HSPH and serves on the MPH EPI committee at HSPH. She served as an advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Association of Periodontology (AAP), World Health Organization (WHO), and American Dental Association.

Her research has focused on evaluating lifestyle and other modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic conditions, and on evaluating the interrelationships of microbial, dietary and inflammatory risk factors. She was among the first to show that periodontitis and/or tooth loss were risk factors for coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke and peripheral artery disease. This stimulated related work on several systemic outcomes including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, adverse pregnancy outcomes, glaucoma and pancreatic cancer. and conducted. The primary goals of the cohort study “San Juan Overweight Adults Longitudinal Study (SOALS)” were to evaluate the bi-directional association between progression of periodontal disease and glucose abnormalities among overweight and obese individuals. Several addition assessments including plaque and saliva samples were obtained, which enabled multiple manuscripts and NIH funded ancillary projects, and has scope for many more. Her recent manuscript from SOALS was the first suggesting that mouthwash use is related to increased risk of pre-diabetes/diabetes.

The randomized controlled trial (PEARLS: Pregnancy and EARly Lifestyle improvement Study) was designed to evaluate the effect of diet and physical activity interventions during pregnancy and early life on cardiometabolic outcomes in overweight/obese mothers and their offspring. Dr. Joshipura is a Steering Committee member of the LIFE-Moms consortium that completed lifestyle interventions and multiple assessments including collection and storage of several biospecimens in over 1,000 overweight/obese pregnant women and their offspring. Her current projects as PI include: (1) Preparedness to Reduce Exposures and diseases Post-hurricanes & Augment REsilience (PREPARE): This study evaluates risk and resiliency factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD) and evaluate organizations’ preparedness and resiliency to inform interventions and policies. The goal is to improve preparedness and resiliency for individuals, organizations and communities to reduce the impact of disasters on chronic disease. (2) Oral Microbiome, Nitric oxide Metabolism, and Oral and Cardiometabolic Health: This study aims to identify oral microbial profiles associated with nitric oxide metabolism, to evaluate their associations with cardiometabolic health, and to identify modifiable factors to improve microbial profiles and nitric oxide metabolism. (3) A pilot project to evaluate associations between water quality and health.

Dr. Joshipura aims to identify and promote preventive measures that are cost saving, free or low-cost, and can be adopted widely and globally. To this end, she founded a global public movement “VMove” (as in “We Move” www.vmovement.org) to help individuals and organizations incorporate physical activity throughout the day without needing resources. VMove, launched at a TEDx talk, aims to reduce risk of several chronic disease by changing the norms and promoting “CreActivity” (creative physical activity) in different settings, to enable people to overcome barriers to move more throughout the day in a fun manner. VMove especially encourages public health students and professionals to join and help spread and lead the movement.

Education

• Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bombay University, 1982
• MS in Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, 1989
• ScD in Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 1995
• Board Certified in Dental Public Health, 1999