Welcome! I’m Keerti.
I’m a doctor, researcher, educator and filmmaker working at the intersection of medicine, global health, storytelling and creative public engagement. Through context-grounded, data-driven approaches and creative expression, I explore complex human challenges to cultivate change. Through my work and daily life, I aim to foster conversations and honest debate that spark positive change towards more equal and tolerant societies — through my medical practice, research, and creative storytelling — alongside everyday human connections.
Specifically, I am passionate about understanding and addressing health inequity through clinical innovation, meaningful research, creative projects and engagement with populations in need. As a physician, my interests lie in complex medicine and compassionate healthcare provision; as a researcher, in exploring what drives health inequity — and why and how societies, systems and individuals can enable it — and how we might begin to do things differently to disrupt these cycles.
As a human being and mother navigating life, I am interested in continually learning how I and my children can thrive with purpose in an uncertain and dynamic world. I advocate for greater opportunities, health equity and social justice for vulnerable communities. I am particularly interested in how we engage everyday people in important global health matters without judgement and, despite misinformation, through understanding, dialogue and compassion.
Most of my blog and published perspective articles grapple with these questions.
I am an NHS Consultant Physician and researcher at the internationally renowned 56 Dean Street clinic at Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust. I trained in London and have worked as an infectious diseases and HIV physician, researcher and lecturer in South Africa (Johannesburg, Soweto), Zambia, India, Brazil and Indonesia. I bring senior clinical, research and leadership experience across a wide range of health systems and contexts — from high-acuity hospital care to community-based initiatives, capacity building and strategic programme development.
In my current roles, I lead work to embed health equity into clinical research delivery for the NIHR Research Delivery Network in North London, and teach as a clinical tutor at Imperial College Medical School. I lead and co-lead national and global initiatives (including UKRI/MRC, NIHR and Wellcome funded programmes) focused on translational science, equitable research strategy and inclusive innovation. I also contribute technical and mentorship expertise to multi-country projects across Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa — including consultancy to WHO and supervision for the IAS Asia-Pacific Mark Wainberg Fellowship.
I established and lead/co-lead a long-standing UK–Indonesian multidisciplinary collaboration, translating tailored medical and behavioural models of HIV prevention to marginalised communities in Indonesia. These projects involve collaborative leadership, multi-stakeholder engagement, health system analysis, and clinical and social science research aimed at developing practical and sustainable implementation solutions.
Alongside my clinical and research work, I also direct and co-create media for public and community engagement — using film, music and digital tools to build trust, spark dialogue and improve health literacy. Several of these creative projects, including short documentary films exploring trust and inclusion in health research, have been recognised through international film festival selections and awards.
In a world highlighting difference and division between people, communities and nations – meaningful narratives and the scientific, digital and creative arts are needed more than ever to enable people to understand how related and connected we are to each other. What drives health inequality and how it manifests and directs a myriad of physical and mental health issues requires robust research and a commitment to understand the data within its context. It requires not only researchers, but all of us, to listen empathically to people from the diversity of human life; across social, cultural, religious, racial, gender identity and sexual orientations, economic and educational strata.
This is one of the hardest things for human beings – we tend to stick to our own, and our thinking becomes siloed. The more conversations we have with people we perceive different to us, the closer we will get to cultivating true positive change – to benefit us all.
This site showcases some independent work and international, multi-disciplinary collaborations. It includes research, perspectives/blogs and creative media.