Background
Dr. Agarwal holds a joint appointment in the Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health and is the Research Director for the Johns Hopkins Global mHealth Initiative. Broadly, she is interested in research to understand interventions that can advance maternal and child health outcomes. Dr. Agarwal's current research work seeks to understand how clinical decision support systems, especially when used by community health workers can advance adherence to clinical protocols and improve primary health care outcomes in communities. Recognizing the extensive use of online health forums and patient "chatrooms" to access health information and social support, she is working to develop natural language processing backed conversational agents to support families through their reproductive journeys.
Dr. Agarwal has previously worked as a researcher with FHI360, MEASURE Evaluation and Population Council. She has served as a technical advisor to several global health agencies including World Health Organization, USAID, and GSMA. She has led a series of systematic Cochrane reviews that have been leveraged by the WHO to develop global guidelines on the use of digital tools to strengthen health services.