South Asian Wellness Task Force
The South Asian Wellness Task Force is comprised of Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) physicians, dietitians and health educators, as well as local community members. PAMF internal medicine physician Ronesh Sinha and PAMF researcher Latha Palaniappan chair the task force.
Task Force Members
- Anita Bhandia, M.D., PAMF Internal Medicine
- Rajiv Bhatnagar, M.D., Ph.D., PAMF Dermatology
- Geetha Desai, M.S., R.D., CLE, PAMF Nutrition Services
- Anita Gupta, M.D., PAMF Internal Medicine
- Vijay Jain, M.D., CMG Internal Medicine
- Janet Lederer, Vice President of PAMF's Education Division
- Girish A. Narayan, M.D., PAMF Cardiac Electrophysiology
- Kaveri S. Patel, D.O., PAMF Family Medicine
- Neeta C. Patel, M.D., PAMF Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Cheena Ramrakhiani, M.D., PAMF Cardiology
- Vaijayanthy Rangarajan, M.D., PAMF Internal Medicine
- Shally B. Sinha, M.D., PAMF Pediatrics
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Task Force Chairs
Ronesh Sinha, M.D., received his M.D. degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1998. He completed his residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Sinha holds clinical faculty positions at the University of California, Los Angeles; Stanford University School of Medicine; and the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He actively teaches Stanford and UCSF medical students.
Dr. Sinha's professional interests include preventive medicine, especially focusing on the prevention of heart disease in South Asian patients. He is board certified in internal medicine and speaks fluent Bengali and basic Spanish.
Read more about Dr. Sinha's background and practice philosophy.
Latha Palaniappan, M.D., M.S., received her M.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1996 and went on to receive her M.S. degree in epidemiology from Stanford University in 2001. She worked with Doctors Without Borders from 1999 to 2000 treating East Timorese refugees.
Dr. Palaniappan is currently an assistant investigator with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation's (PAMF) Research Institute and faculty member at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Her research interests include ethnic differences in insulin metabolism as it affects the incidence of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and coronary heart disease. She has explored this thesis in large national cohorts including the National Health and Nutrition Examination III (NHANES III), the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC) and the Insulin Resistance in Atherosclerosis Study (IRAS), as well as the California mortality database. She has published extensively in the area of cardiovascular disease prevention, and has been elected a fellow of the American Heart Association.
She has recently completed a study examining the effects of weight loss on insulin resistance in South Asian Indian women (South Asian Indian Women Weight Loss Study). Her clinical interests include preventive cardiology, particularly raising awareness of cardiovascular disease risk in South Asians.
Read more about Dr. Palaniappan.
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