Varad Puntambekar

Biography

Varad is a graduate from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and is deeply interested in solving public health problems through strengthening public health systems. He is working presently as a Public Health Fellow at the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) in rural Maharashtra, India where he is developing a community-based COVID care model to prepare and strengthen the villages in Gadchiroli for the third and subsequent COVID-19 waves. In college, his research focused on utilizing AI and health technologies to address various public health challenges, ranging from creating an affordable, ultrasound-compatible heart model with congenital defects to designing a checklist aimed at improving documentation rates during obstetric emergencies in rural hospitals. He founded the Scientific Students’ Society at AIIMS and was also the literary secretary in the Students’ Union. He is a national-level badminton player specializing in doubles badminton and loves making short films in the deadpan comedy genre whenever he can find the time.