Pavitra P. Krishnamani, MD MS

Pavitra P. Krishnamani, MD MS, is a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician and Assistant Professor at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She also serves as an Affiliate Faculty member at the Institute for Data Science in Oncology at MD Anderson. Throughout her career, Dr. Krishnamani has been a healthcare innovator and global health advocate, having written and worked extensively in both fields. Passionate about education, Dr. Krishnamani is a cited author and seasoned speaker, delivering notable talks at events such as SXSW, Stanford MedXEd, and Inventures Canada.

Dr. Krishnamani earned her MD from Thomas Jefferson University and her MS in Global Medicine from the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and a fellowship in Oncologic Emergency Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2023, remaining at the institution as faculty. Dr. Krishnamani also completed an additional fellowship in Healthcare Innovation at Jefferson's Digital Innovation & Consumer Experience group (DICE) in 2018 and held fellowships at both the Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study and the Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics at USC until 2014. At DICE, Dr. Krishnamani served as a liaison between clinical and innovation work at Jefferson, consulting on several large-scale initiatives within her department to ensure projects enhanced both patient and clinician experiences. Notably, she co-founded DICE's AR VR Initiative, leading its research and product development efforts.

Dr. Krishnamani continues to engage in healthcare innovation, having explored hospital-at-home programming's potential and currently chairs MD Anderson's AI and Digital Health GME Subcommittee. Through her work, she builds and facilitates dialogue around AI and digital health within her organization. Her experience includes serving as a grant reviewer for the NSF and NIH SmartHealth program and evaluating startup pitch competitions. She is authoring a book, "Home is Where the Health Is: How Digital Innovation and Technological Advances are Transforming Healthcare and Wellness," set for publication in late 2025, exploring the impact of technological innovation on health and wellness.

Dr. Krishnamani's prior work in global health spans international and domestic arenas. In India, she consulted on a UNICEF-funded global health project at the Institute for Child Health, designing a project examining neonatal care provided in hospitals during a child's first year of life. She has also engaged with a WHO collaborative center in Italy, collaborating on guidelines for migrant healthcare in Europe overwhelmed by immigration resulting from the Syrian refugee crisis. While abroad, she participated in a panel on the future of global health at Italy's Festival della Salute Global in 2019.

Domestically, Dr. Krishnamani has extensive experience working clinically with resettled refugee populations and leading efforts to provide holistic services empowering refugees to participate actively in their care. At Jefferson, she served as Vice President and later Clinic Director for Refugee Health Partners, coordinating clinics, advocacy efforts, health services, and educational programs for Philadelphia's refugee communities. She is currently engaged in research examining healthcare and cancer care for refugees. Over the years, Dr. Krishnamani has lectured at various universities about refugee health, including the University of Maryland and the University of Delaware. In 2015, she was inducted into the Carson Scholars' "Twenty Under Thirty" Hall of Fame for her work with refugees and migrant populations.