Girish N. Rao is a Professor of Epidemiology of the Centre for Public Health at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore, India. His focus is on Public Health Management and Administration, as well as the Mental, Neurological, and Substance Use Disorders modules for the Masters in Public Health course. He is a key stakeholder for the District Public Health Observatory of the Centre for Public Health at NIMHANS in the district of Kolar. Dr. Rao is also currently the Co-Principal Investigator for several large scale research endeavors of eminence in India: three National Mental Health Surveys, two longitudinal cohort studies on dementia, and the Karnataka Brain Health Initiative, a comprehensive program across Karnataka for neurological disorders.
Dr. Rao’s key areas of research include geriatric mental health, maternal mental health, alcohol epidemiology, health economics and community mental health. His work focuses on health systems from a public health perspective, leading to operational and translational research. His research activities range from leading independent research or being a co-investigator to guiding student research at both undergraduate, postgraduate, super-specialty and doctorate levels. An avid researcher, he has worked with sample sizes ranging from fewer than 100 to nearly 50,000 individuals, employing a variety of study designs from simple cross-sectional studies to mixed-method approaches.