Kala Mehta, DSc, MPH
Professor
Epidemiology & Biostatistics
School of Medicine

She is also faculty of the SFBUILD, a pipeline program to promote diversity in science. In this program she works with undergraduate students, teaches them clinical research skills, and then works with them to find research placements in labs at UCSF and San Francisco State University.

In terms of research, Kala focuses on both domestic and international vulnerable populations. Her early work examines disparities in older adult health. Her more recent work focuses on the intersection of social entrepreneurship and health in a global context. From 2011-2014, she was a faculty affiliate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she led a research evaluation on the impact of a management and transportation intervention on health in Zambia. Her current research evaluates a large maternal and child health intervention in Bihar, India.

Kala received her DSc. in Epidemiology from the Erasmus University Medical School in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and has obtained post-graduate specialization in epidemiology and clinical research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of California, San Francisco.

• A Randomized Study to Assess the Effect of Including the Graduate Record Examinations Results on Reviewer Scores for Underrepresented Minorities.
  American journal of epidemiology 2021 Dang KV, Rerolle F, Ackley SF, Irish AM, Mehta KM, Bailey I, Fair E, Miller C, Bibbins-Domingo K, Wong-Moy E, Glymour MM, Morris MD
• Designing a biomedical coding program focused on inclusivity and agency.
  Nature computational science 2021 Mehta KM, Ceberio N, Vernard S, Carrasco YP, Bibbins-Domingo K, Nguyen TT, Lê P, Bailey J, Parangan-Smith A, Uwaezuoke K, Rivers RC, Watson K, Márquez-Magaña L
• Adaptation of an online training and support program for caregivers of people with dementia to Indian cultural setting.
  Asian journal of psychiatry 2021 Baruah U, Loganathan S, Shivakumar P, Pot AM, Mehta KM, Gallagher-Thompson D, Dua T, Varghese M
• Feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of an online training and support program for caregivers of people with dementia in India: a randomized controlled trial.
  International journal of geriatric psychiatry 2021 Baruah U, Varghese M, Loganathan S, Mehta KM, Gallagher-Thompson D, Zandi D, Dua T, Pot AM
• Research Beyond the Ivory Tower: Partnering with Safety-Net Health Systems for Equity.
  Journal of health care for the poor and underserved 2021 Mehta KM, Babaria P, Bibbins-Domingo K, Sarkar U
• Evaluation of a large-scale reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition program in Bihar, India, through an equity lens.
  Journal of global health 2020 Ward VC, Weng Y, Bentley J, Carmichael SL, Mehta KM, Mahmood W, Pepper KT, Abdalla S, Atmavilas Y, Mahapatra T, Srikantiah S, Borkum E, Rangarajan A, Sridharan S, Rotz D, Bhattacharya D, Nanda P, …
• Impact of the Ananya program on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition in Bihar, India: early results from a quasi-experimental study.
  Journal of global health 2020 Darmstadt GL, Weng Y, Pepper KT, Ward VC, Mehta KM, Borkum E, Bentley J, Raheel H, Rangarajan A, Bhattacharya D, Tarigopula UK, Nanda P, Sridharan S, Rotz D, Carmichael SL, Abdalla S, Munar W, Ananya …
• Using best subset regression to identify clinical characteristics and biomarkers associated with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury.
  American journal of physiology. Renal physiology 2020 Kwong YD, Mehta KM, Miaskowski C, Zhuo H, Yee K, Jauregui A, Ke S, Deiss T, Abbott J, Kangelaris KN, Sinha P, Hendrickson C, Gomez A, Leligdowicz A, Matthay MA, Calfee CS, Liu KD
• Perspectives on Components of an Online Training and Support Program for Dementia Family Caregivers in India: A Focus Group Study.
  Clinical gerontologist 2020 Baruah U, Shivakumar P, Loganathan S, Pot AM, Mehta KM, Gallagher-Thompson D, Dua T, Varghese M
• Use of mobile technology by frontline health workers to promote reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition: a cluster randomized controlled Trial in Bihar, India.
  Journal of global health 2019 Carmichael SL, Mehta K, Srikantiah S, Mahapatra T, Chaudhuri I, Balakrishnan R, Chaturvedi S, Raheel H, Borkum E, Trehan S, Weng Y, Kaimal R, Sivasankaran A, Sridharan S, Rotz D, Tarigopula UK, …
• The value of kinetic glomerular filtration rate estimation on medication dosing in acute kidney injury.
  PloS one 2019 Kwong YD, Chen S, Bouajram R, Li F, Matthay MA, Mehta KM, Glidden DV, Liu KD
• Mapping 123 million neonatal, infant and child deaths between 2000 and 2017.
  Nature 2019 Burstein R, Henry NJ, Collison ML, Marczak LB, Sligar A, Watson S, Marquez N, Abbasalizad-Farhangi M, Abbasi M, Abd-Allah F, Abdoli A, Abdollahi M, Abdollahpour I, Abdulkader RS, Abrigo MRM, Acharya D…
• iSupport: a WHO global online intervention for informal caregivers of people with dementia.
  World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) 2019 Pot AM, Gallagher-Thompson D, Xiao LD, Willemse BM, Rosier I, Mehta KM, Zandi D, Dua T, iSupport development team
• Stroke epidemiology and stroke policies in China from 1980 to 2017: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
  International journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society 2019 Hu S, Cui B, Mlynash M, Zhang X, Mehta KM, Lansberg MG
• Effects of team-based goals and non-monetary incentives on front-line health worker performance and maternal health behaviours: a cluster randomised controlled trial in Bihar, India.
  BMJ global health 2019 Carmichael SL, Mehta K, Raheel H, Srikantiah S, Chaudhuri I, Trehan S, Mohanty S, Borkum E, Mahapatra T, Weng Y, Kaimal R, Sivasankaran A, Sridharan S, Rotz D, Tarigopula UK, Bhattacharya D, Atmavilas…
• Higher Birthweight and Maternal Pre-pregnancy BMI Persist with Obesity Association at Age 9 in High Risk Latino Children.
  Journal of immigrant and minority health 2019 Kjaer TW, Faurholt-Jepsen D, Medrano R, Elwan D, Mehta K, Christensen VB, Wojcicki JM
• iSupport, an online training and support program for caregivers of people with dementia: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial in India.
  Trials 2018 Mehta KM, Gallagher-Thompson D, Varghese M, Loganathan S, Baruah U, Seeher K, Zandi D, Dua T, Pot AM
• Duration of acute kidney injury in critically ill patients.
  Annals of intensive care 2018 Federspiel CK, Itenov TS, Mehta K, Hsu RK, Bestle MH, Liu KD
• Shorter preschool, leukocyte telomere length is associated with obesity at age 9 in Latino children.
  Clinical obesity 2017 Kjaer TW, Faurholt-Jepsen D, Mehta KM, Christensen VB, Epel E, Lin J, Blackburn E, Wojcicki JM
• Beta-blocker subtype and risks of perioperative adverse events following non-cardiac surgery: a nationwide cohort study.
  European heart journal 2017 Jørgensen ME, Sanders RD, Køber L, Mehta K, Torp-Pedersen C, Hlatky MA, Pallisgaard JL, Shaw RE, Gislason GH, Jensen PF, Andersson C
• Systematic Motorcycle Management and Health Care Delivery: A Field Trial.
  American journal of public health 2015 Mehta KM, Rerolle F, Rammohan SV, Albohm DC, Muwowo G, Moseson H, Sept L, Lee HL, Bendavid E