From Public Health to Dentistry
Tulane helped Dr. Kaushal Shah see the bigger picture.
When Dr. Kaushal Shah came to Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, he already had a dental degree from India. What he wanted was a broader understanding of health care.
“I just wanted to know healthcare beyond just treating individual patients,” he said. “I wanted to know how to prevent it at the public health level.”
Shah chose Tulane because of its public health program and the opportunity to work with faculty researchers. He studied epidemiology at Tulane, gaining the research skills he still uses today as a dentist and clinical director.
“Epidemiology is the science behind evidence-based healthcare,” he said. “I wanted to think like a researcher. I didn’t want to just read the published data. I wanted to know how to use this in my day-to-day practice.”
As a research assistant on the Bogalusa Heart Study, Shah helped collect and analyze data for one of the nation's longest-running cardiovascular studies. He also remembers Tulane for its collaborative environment. “Everybody wanted to see each other’s success,” he said.
“Public health shifted my focus toward prevention, health education and evidence-based care.”
— Dr. Kaushal Shah
Living in New Orleans also shaped his understanding of health care. Seeing how transportation, education, insurance and nutrition affect health outcomes reinforced his belief that “prevention and improving access to care are just as important as treatment.”
After Tulane, Shah earned his Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from Boston University before working at a federally qualified health center in Missouri, serving underserved communities. Today, he is clinical director for five dental practices in North Dallas while continuing to care for patients.
“My job is to support the dentists, help them with complex cases and make sure we maintain quality across all five clinics,” he said.
Shah credits his public health education with changing the way he practices dentistry. “Public health shifted my focus toward prevention, health education and evidence-based care.”
He sees dentistry as an important part of public health.
“Oral health has a direct link to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and pregnancy outcomes,” he said. “It’s all connected.”
Looking back, Shah says Tulane continues to influence his work every day.
“It helped me think critically, evaluate evidence and always ask why,” he said. “Everything that I’m here today definitely has a huge impact from Tulane.”
