Dr Gajalakshmi has conducted a remarkable prospective study of cause-specific mortality among half a million adults in the city of Chennai, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and will present the 13-year findings (unpublished) for discussion.
She will also present the striking findings from her retrospective study of 50,000 deaths in Chennai, relating the habits of the dead person to their underlying cause of death. For this study, she developed novel methods of verbal autopsy that are now in wide use throughout India to determine causes of adult deaths. Dr Gajalakshmi has collaborated closely with CTSU for 20 years.