Salmaan Keshavjee, MD, PhD, ScM

Educational History

Dr. Keshavjee received his ScM from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1993, his PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University in 1998 and his MD from Stanford University in 2001. He completed his clinician-scientist residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Social Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2005. In addition to his appointment with the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Dr. Keshavjee serves on the faculty of the Division of Global Health Equity (DGHE) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is also an attending physician in the Department of Medicine at BWH. He is an affiliate and Steering Committee member at the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Courses Taught

Dr. Keshavjee has taught Introduction to Social Medicine (ISM 750) in the DGHSM at Harvard Medical School and Case Studies in Global Health (SW25) at Harvard College.

Research Interests

Dr. Keshavjee’s research spans four areas: (1) multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment and policy; (2) health-sector reform and access to health care and medical technology in transitional societies, with a special focus on countries of the former Soviet Union (Central Asia and the Russian Federation); (3) the role of non-governmental organizations in globalization and the formation of trans-border civil society; and (4) modernity, social institutions, civil society, and health in the Middle East and Central Asia. In addition to being an active clinician, his methodological expertise is in ethnography, participant-observation, and qualitative interview techniques. Dr. Keshavjee has led efforts in Tomsk, Siberia, which is the first systematic effort to treat MDR-TB in the Russian Federation in accordance with international clinical practice standards; between 2006 and 2008 he led the effort to treat MDR-TB/HIV co-infection in Lesotho, which was the first of its kind in this Sub-Saharan African country.

Current Projects

Dr. Keshavjee is an associate professor in the Departments of Global Health and Social Medicine and of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He also serves as a physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He conducted doctoral research in medical anthropology at Harvard University on the health transition in post-Soviet Tajikistan. He has worked with the Division of Global Health Equity and Partners In Health on the implementation of a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment program in Tomsk, Russia. Between 2000 and 2008, Dr. Keshavjee set up a program to treat patients co-infected with HIV and MDR-TB in Lesotho. Between 2007 and 2010, Dr. Keshavjee served as the chair of the Green Light Committee Initiative, a Stop TB Partnership/WHO initiative which helps countries gain access to high-quality second-line anti-TB drugs so they can provide treatment for people with MDR-TB in line with the WHO guidelines, the latest scientific evidence, and country experiences. He is currently a member of the Stop TB Partnership’s MDR-TB Working Group Core Group.

Select Publications

  • Keshavjee S, Weiser S, Kleinman A. “Medicine Betrayed: Hemophilia Patients and HIV in the U.S.,” Social Science and Medicine 2001; 53(8):1081-94.
  • Keshavjee S, “Medicine and Money: The Ethical Transformation in Medical Practice.” Medical Education 2004; 38(3):271-75.,
  • Keshavjee S. “Bleeding Babies in Badakhshan: Symbolism, Materialism, and the Political Economy of Traditional Medicine in Post-Soviet Tajikistan.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 2006; 20(1):72-93.
  • Shin SS, Pasechnikov AD, Gelmanova IY, Peremitin GG, Strelis AK, Andreev G, Golubchikova VT, Tonkel TP, Yanova GV, Nikiforov M, Yedilbayev A, Mukherjee JS, Furin JJ, Barry DJ, Farmer PE, Rich ML, Keshavjee S. “Treatment Outcomes in an Integrated Civilian and Prison Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis Treatment Program in Russia.” International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2006; 10(4): 402-8.
  • Farmer PE, Nizeye B, Stulac S, Keshavjee S. “Structural Violence and Clinical Medicine.” PLOS Medicine 2006, 3(10):1686-91.
  • Gelmanova IY, Keshavjee S, Golubchikova VT, Berezina VI, Strelis AK, Yanova GV, Atwood S, Murray M. Barriers to successful tuberculosis treatment in Tomsk, Russia; non-adherence, default, and the acquisition of multi-drug resistance. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2007, Sep;85(9):703-711.
  • Shin SS, Pasechnikov AD, Gelmanova IY, Peremitin GG, Strelis AK, Mishustin S, Barnashov A, Karpeichik Y, Andreev YG, Golubchikova VT, Tonkel TP, Yanova GV, Yedilbayev A, Rich ML, Mukherjee JS, Furin JJ, Atwood S, Farmer PE, Keshavjee S. Adverse reactions among patients being treated for MDR-TB in Tomsk, Russia. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2007 Nov;11(12):1314-1320.
  • Keshavjee S, Seung K, Satti H, Furin J, Farmer P, Kim JY, Becerra M. Building capacity for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment: health systems strengthening in Lesotho. Innovations. 2007 Fall; 2(4):87-106.
  • Keshavjee S, Gelmanova I, Pasechnikov A, Mushustin S, Andreev Y, Yedilbayev A, Furin J, Mukherjee JS, Rich M, Nardell E, Farmer PE, Kim JY, Shin SS. Treating multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Tomsk, Russia: Developing programs that address the linkage between poverty and disease. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2008 1136:1-11.
  • Furin J, Behforouz H, Shin SS, Mukherjee JS, Bayona J, Farmer PE, Kim JY, Keshavjee S. Expanding global HIV Treatment: Case Studies from the Field. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2008 1136:12-20.
  • Keshavjee S, Gelmanova IY, Kim JY, Mishustin SP, Strelis AK, Andreev YG, Mukherjee JS, Pasechnikov AD, Atwood S, Rich ML, Furin JJ, Nardell EA, Farmer PE, Shin SS. Extensively drug resistant tuberculosis: Lessons from MDR-TB treatment scale-up in Tomsk, Russia. Lancet. 2008; 372(9639):1403-1409.
  • Keshavjee S, Seung KJ, et al. “Stemming the Tide of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis: Major Barriers to Addressing the Growing Epidemic”. Institute of Medicine, National Academies, Washington DC, November 2008.
  • Amon J, Girard F, Keshavjee S. Limitations on human rights in the context of drug-resistant tuberculosis: A reply to Boggio et al. Health and Human Rights, An International Journal, 11/1 (2009), Perspectives, http://hhrjournal.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/amon.pdf
  • Seung KJ, Omatayo D, Keshavjee S, Furin J, Farmer P, Satti H. Early Outcomes of MDR-TB Treatment in a High HIV-Prevalence Setting in Southern Africa. PLoS ONE, 2009; 4(9):e7186(1-7).
  • Keshavjee S and Farmer PE. Time to put boots on the ground: making universal access to MDR-TB treatment a reality. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2010, 14(10):1222–1225.
  • Keshavjee S, Girard F, Harrington M, and Farmer PE. Time for a bold new vision at the Stop TB Partnership. Lancet, October 16, 2010, 376:1283-4.
  • Keshavjee S and Farmer PE. Picking up the Pace – Scale-up of MDR Tuberculosis Treatment Programs. New England Journal of Medicine, November 4, 2010, 369(19):1781-1784.
  • Shin SS, Keshavjee S, Gelmanova IY, Atwood S, Franke MF, Mishustin SP, Strelis AK, Andreev YG, Pasechnikov AD, Barnashov A, Tonkel TP, Cohen T. Development of Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB) During MDR-TB Treatment. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2010;182(3):426-32.
  • Cox H, Ford N, Keshavjee S, McDermid C, von Schoen-Angerer T, Mitnick C, Goemaere E. Rational use of moxifloxacin for tuberculosis treatment. Lancet Infect Dis. 2011 Apr; 11(4): 259-60.
  • Keshavjee S, Gelmanova IY, Shin SS, Mishustin SP, Andreev YG, Atwood S, Furin JJ, Miller A. "Hepatotoxicity during treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; occurrence, management, and outcome." Int J Tuberc Lung Dis., 2012; E-publication ahead of print issue.
  • Floyd K, Hutubessy R, Lkiiman K, Centis R, Khurieva N, Jakobowiak W, Danilovits M, Peremitin G, Keshavjee S, Migliori GB. "Cost and cost-effectiveness of MDR-TB treatment in Estonia and Russian Federation." European Respiratory Journal, 2012: E-publication ahead of print issue.
  • Keshavjee S, Harrington M, Gonsalves G, Chesire L, Farmer PE. "Time for zero deaths from tuberculosis. Lancet 2011; 378(9801): 14490-50