Dr. Pratap Kumar is a medical doctor, neuroscientist and health economist. He studied medicine in the Goa Medical College, India and practiced in Goa and Bangalore both in rural healthcare settings as well as a resident doctor in neurology. He obtained an MPhil in Neurophysiology from NIMHANS, India’s premier institution for neuroscience, where he published research on the interactions between sleep and seizure mechanisms.
Dr. Kumar obtained a PhD in Neuroinformatics from the Inst. of Neuroinformatics, University/ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Free University in Berlin, Germany. His doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on the anatomical, physiological and molecular bases of communication between neurons in the somatosensory cortex. He obtained an MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics) from the London School of Economics and has worked as a health economist in the pharmaceutical industry.
He moved to Kenya in 2012 to found Health-E-Net, a social enterprise aiming to make remote consultations accessible to all patients and healthcare providers. He also founded the Centre for Innovation, Research and Advisory Services – Health at the Inst. of Healthcare Management in Strathmore Business School. He has received numerous awards, most recently the ‘Stars in Global Health’ award from Grand Challenges Canada.