Anshul Kumar is an Assistant Professor in the Health Professions Education department at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. His areas of interest include public health, healthcare, education, and international development.
Since March 2020, Anshul has partnered with people from multiple organizations to plan and deliver COVID-19 education programs to low-resource populations in India. This partnership has resulted in the creation of educational modules on how COVID-19 spreads, hand hygiene, mask usage, social distancing, food-related myths, and vaccines. This curriculum has been delivered to students in learning centers in rural parts of Bihar, India.
A large portion of Anshul’s work at MGH Institute relates to quantitative data analysis, spanning both traditional statistical methods (such as regression analysis) and predictive analytics (focusing on the development and application of machine learning methods). In addition to teaching multiple courses on these topics, Anshul is also the lead data scientist in a project to create an early warning system to identify students in health professions programs who might be in need of additional support.
In prior work, Anshul conducted field research within the Indian education system, focusing on the effectiveness of interventions conducted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) within the government school system. He has found that NGO teachers and mainstream government teachers tend to treat students differently, with the latter creating classroom environments that discriminate against students who need the most help. This work has also examined the scalability of educational interventions within education systems, finding that interventions can scale up without necessarily showing evidence of substantial systemic impact or sustainability.
Finally, Anshul has a strong interest in pedagogic innovation and curriculum development. He is particularly enthusiastic about the development and evaluation of methods for teaching quantitative skills within health professions education. He has developed multiple freely available teaching resources and tools which are linked within his CV.
Outside of his academic work, Anshul enjoys playing tennis and pickleball, watching many sports, and listening to comedy.
- BA, Sociology, Economics, College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
- AM, Sociology, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
- PhD, Sociology, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA