Nirmala Bhoo Pathy is a professor of Epidemiology and Public Health in Universiti Malaya. She is also a board-certified public health physician and practices in Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, Malaysia.
Prof Bhoo Pathy’s career is focused on improving life after cancer, particularly for families living in low- and middle-income countries. Notably, she was the principal investigator of the multicountry Asean CosTs In ONcology (ACTION) study, which has been crucial in providing evidence for low- and middle-income countries to prioritise policies and develop local solutions to reduce the financial loss and premature deaths associated with cancer.
She is a global thought leader in cancer care and policy. She served as a commissioner in the recently concluded Lancet Commission on Women and Cancer, which was created to investigate the nexus of women, power, and cancer. Her collective work with 20 other global experts looked beyond “women’s cancers” and the biomedical aspects of any type of cancer that women- in all their diversities – might experience.
The report that sheds light on ways in which sex and gender influence exposures to cancer risk factors, interactions with the cancer health system, and specific challenges faced by healthcare professionals, advocates, and caregivers, will serve as high-level reference documents for international organisations such as WHO, European Commission, and APEC as well as governments and health systems worldwide.
Prof Bhoo Pathy presently also serves as a commissioner in two other global commissions focussing on cancer and health systems and the humanitarian aspects of cancer. Apart from these, she is an expert panel member of various international cancer working groups such as the Global Breast Cancer Initiative (WHO), Covid-19 and Cancer Taskforce, and APEC Health Working Group. As the founder and scientific lead of a solution-oriented research group, ‘Well with Cancer in Malaysia, based in the Faculty of Medicine Universiti Malaya, Prof Bhoo-Pathy currently oversees a wide range of studies on cancer care, cancer control and cancer policy; These projects range from qualitative inquiries, to questionnaire development, epidemiological studies, implementation science and health systems research.
Nirmala Bhoo Pathy graduated as a medical doctor from Universiti Malaya, Malaysia in 2001. Following completion of her master’s degree in Public Health with distinction in 2008, she was awarded a fellowship by the European Commission, under which she completed a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology with cum laude, followed by a PhD (cancer epidemiology) in the University of Utrecht, Netherlands in 2011.
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