As a family physician and sociologist, I work to advance health through clinical care, scholarship, and community-partnered change efforts. I'm an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. I'm also a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and a fellow with the Health and Political Economy Project at the New School's Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy.
My research investigates the socioeconomic systems that shape health for patients and communities and builds strategies for health justice. My current work examines the political economy of healthcare financing and ownership — including the risks of predatory inclusion in privatized Medicare and private equity's expansion into addiction treatment. I earned my doctorate in sociology from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge scholar. My thesis centered on the political economy of finance capitalism, drug pricing, and access to medicines, explored through the case study of curative hepatitis C treatments. This research is the subject of my book published by University of California Press (2023), Capitalizing a Cure: How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines.
My family roots — I'm the grandson of a physician and a village health worker from rural West Bengal, India—inspired my path to becoming a doctor. I currently care for patients in primary and hospital care settings. I earned my medical degree from Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine as a Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellow. I completed my residency training at Boston University-Boston Medical Center, where I cared for my primary care patients at Codman Square Health Center, a community health center in Dorchester, Boston. I subsequently completed a post-doctoral fellowship as a Veterans Affairs Scholar in the National Clinician Scholars Program at Yale University.
Previously, I co-founded and served as Executive Director of GlobeMed, a network of students on university campuses partnered with communities around the world to tackle poverty and health inequity. This formative work taught me about the power of solidarity-based efforts in local and global communities. Additionally, my experience as a medical fellow with the Fellowships at Auschwitz in the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) grounds me in the value of historical reflection and ethical praxis in clinical care and leadership. I enjoy poetry and narrative medicine, and I wrote a children's book, Sonali, with South African artist Frank Lunar.
I live with my wife Maya, daughter Talia, and our cat Zaz in Philadelphia.
with my maternal grandfather (Dadu), a rural family doctor, in West Bengal, India (2010)
Robben Island, South Africa (2012)