Dr. Anu Oommen
Professor
MD (Community Medicine), PhD scholar at the Melbourne University
ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2932-7827
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/anu-oommen-2977665a
Department: Community Medicine
Department Phone No: +91-0416-2284305
Location: Chirstian Medical College, College campus, Bagayam, Vellore, India
Skills and Expertise
Dr Anu Oommen is a community medicine physician and Professor at the Community Medicine Department, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. She has 15+ years of experience in secondary and primary care services and related research, in rural and tribal areas, as well as teaching public health and epidemiology. Her research interests include burden of disease measurement, screening for non-communicable diseases, health systems, and implementation research. Her previous research on burden of coronary heart disease and its risk factors showed the tripling in burden of diabetes and hypertension over 20 years, in rural and urban Vellore. She now has changed her focus to implementation research, starting with cervical cancer control and hopes to contribute to reducing research-to-policy and practice gaps, bringing effective interventions to women and their families who are at the highest risk of preventable NCDs. As a public health teacher, she also aims to motivate my students to apply their public health skills and knowledge to bring equity in health care for marginalized populations by applying scientific principles to develop and evaluate public health interventions. She is also currently pursuing a PhD with the University of Melbourne on developing and testing implementation approaches to cervical screening using HPV self-collection for vulnerable groups.
Publications
1. Oommen AM, Abraham VJ, George K, Jose VJ. Prevalence of risk factors for non-communicable diseases in rural and urban Tamil Nadu. Indian J Med Res 2016; 144:460-71. doi: 10.4103/0971-5916.198668. 2. Jeyapaul S, Oommen AM (corresponding author), Cherian AG, Marcus TA, Malini TM, Prasad JH, George K. Feasibility, uptake and real-life challenges of a rural cervical and breast cancer screening program in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, south India. Indian Journal of Cancer 2021 Jul-Sep;58(3):417-424. doi: 10.4103/ijc.IJC_271_19. PMID: 33402583. 3. Oommen AM, Isaac R, Paul B, Weller D, Finkel ML, Thomas A, Ram TS, H R P, Cherian AG, Thomas V, Sadan V, Siva R, Rose A, Marcus TA, Jeyapaul S, K SR, Malini T, N S, Jebaraj P, John NO, Ramesh C, Raj C JJ, Kumar S R, B V B, Dorathy P I, Murali V, N P, K K, Ranjani D P. Strategies for primary HPV test-based cervical cancer screening programme in resource-limited settings in India: Results from a quasi-experimental pragmatic implementation trial. PLoS One. 2024 Apr 5;19(4):e0301385. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301385. 4. Alexander AM, Mohan VR, Muliyil J, Dorny P, Rajshekhar V. Changes in knowledge and practices related to taeniasis-cysticercosis after health education in a south Indian community. Int. Health (2012) 4 (3): 164-169. 5. Oommen AM, Ashfaq M, Cherian AG, Colling AM, Ramirez AT, Saunders T, Singarayar P, Thomas V, Thomas A, Marcus TA, Pricilla RA, Nightingale C, Brotherton JM. Strategies and implementation outcomes of HPV-based cervical screening studies to prevent cervical cancer in India: A systematic review. J Cancer Policy. 2024 Nov 6;42:100513. doi: 10.1016/j.jcpo.2024.100513.