Dr Anamika Jithoo

Dr Anamika Jithoo is a Clinical Research Fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute with research interest in all aspects of COPD epidemiology.

Anamika qualified in clinical medicine in South Africa and worked in emergency and internal medicine, intensive care, cardiology, respiratory medicine and paediatrics before branching out into a research career, starting with conducting clinical trials in asthma and COPD. She then undertook epidemiological studies, the second of which was the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) Study, a global COPD prevalence and risk factor survey with a standardised methodology.

She was awarded a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree with distinction, majoring in epidemiology and biostatistics. She was also the recipient of the SATS GSK Research Scholarship during her doctoral studies which brought her to London, where she worked with Professor Peter Burney at King’s College London. Her PhD examined the prevalence and risk factors for respiratory symptoms and COPD in a population based study.

She now works with the Global Coordinating Centre for BOLD (http://www.boldstudy.org/), funded by the Wellcome Trust. She is experienced in teaching spirometry, and has developed a reading system for the quality assessment of spirometry. Dr Jithoo also collaborates with the Department of Health and the WHO Global Burden of Disease Project.

Dr Jithoo is a member of the European Respiratory Society and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and has been invited to present her work at international conferences. She also does some postgraduate teaching.

Apart from work she is a keen singer, and performs in the classical, music theatre and other genres.