❮ Back to Researchers

Prabhat Jha

Officer, Order of Canada; D.Phil., MD

Scientist

Email: prabhat.jha@utoronto.ca
Tel: 416-864-6042
Twitter: @countthedead

Research Programs

Labs

Centre for Global Health Research ❯

Biography

I am the lead investigator of the Million Death Study in India which quantifies the causes of premature mortality in over three million homes from 1997-2014. We have expanded nationwide mortality studies to Sierra Leone and other countries. I also lead national COVID antibody studies in Canada (the Ab-C Study) and elsewhere.  In addition to authoring several influential publications on tobacco control, including two that helped enable a global treaty on tobacco control, now signed by over 180 countries, I am editor for the Disease Control Priorities, which examines solutions to major global health challenges. The Centre for Global Health Research focuses on cause of death statistics, application of geospatial and other statistical methods to mortality data, disease control, tobacco control and economics.

Recent Publications

  1. Suraweera, W, Amarasekera, S, Vijayakumar, L, Seshadri, SR, Brown, P, Karunarathne, A et al.. Trends and risk factors for suicide mortality in India from 2001-2019: National mortality study. PLOS Glob Public Health. 2026;6 (1):e0005547. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0005547. PubMed PMID:41511970 PubMed Central PMC12788641.
  2. Carshon-Marsh, R, Wen, R, Ng, TKS, Kamadod, R, Bogoch, I, Bondy, SJ et al.. Comparison of verbal autopsy using a large language model to biologically confirmed causes of death for malaria and other communicable diseases among children in six sub-Saharan African countries. Malar J. 2026; :. doi: 10.1186/s12936-025-05774-z. PubMed PMID:41495828 .
  3. Wen, R, Assalif, AT, Lee, AS, Kamadod, R, Behdinan, A, Carshon-Marsh, R et al.. Computer assisted verbal autopsy: comparing large language models to physicians for assigning causes to 6939 deaths in Sierra Leone from 2019-2022. BMC Med. 2025;24 (1):49. doi: 10.1186/s12916-025-04584-z. PubMed PMID:41437360 PubMed Central PMC12849170.
  4. Htun, NSN, Phommasone, K, Perrone, C, Phyo, AP, Sen, A, Vanna, M et al.. Causes of death in rural southeast Asia by electronic verbal autopsy: a population-based observational study. Lancet Glob Health. 2025;13 (12):e2051-e2060. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(25)00362-6. PubMed PMID:41240946 .
  5. Paraje, G, Muñoz, MF, Wu, D, Jha, P. Tobacco kills: stronger excise taxes would save lives. BMJ. 2025;390 :e085608. doi: 10.1136/bmj-2025-085608. PubMed PMID:40940083 PubMed Central PMC12444781.
  6. Youkee, D, Soley-Bori, M, Deen, GF, Jha, P, Assalif, A, Wolfe, C et al.. Estimating annual deaths from stroke in adults under 70 years of age in Freetown Sierra Leone: A comparative analysis of a hospital-based stroke register and a population-based verbal autopsy study. Int J Stroke. 2026;21 (1):120-128. doi: 10.1177/17474930251367517. PubMed PMID:40762290 PubMed Central PMC12743122.
  7. Mir, H, Eisenberg, MJ, Benowitz, NL, Cowley, E, Heshmati, J, Jha, P et al.. Canadian Cardiovascular Society Clinical Practice Update on Contemporary Approaches to Smoking Cessation. Can J Cardiol. 2025;41 (5):797-812. doi: 10.1016/j.cjca.2024.12.037. PubMed PMID:40340054 .
  8. Norheim, OF, Chang, AY, Bolongaita, S, Barraza-Lloréns, M, Fawole, A, Gebremedhin, LT et al.. Halving premature death and improving quality of life at all ages: cross-country analyses of past trends and future directions. Lancet. 2024;404 (10470):2437-2446. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)02417-6. PubMed PMID:39581203 PubMed Central PMC11667436.
  9. Santucci, C, Mignozzi, S, Alicandro, G, Pizzato, M, Malvezzi, M, Negri, E et al.. Trends in cancer mortality under age 50 in 15 upper-middle and high-income countries. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2025;117 (4):747-760. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djae288. PubMed PMID:39576674 PubMed Central PMC11972687.
  10. Jamison, DT, Summers, LH, Chang, AY, Karlsson, O, Mao, W, Norheim, OF et al.. Global health 2050: the path to halving premature death by mid-century. Lancet. 2024;404 (10462):1561-1614. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01439-9. PubMed PMID:39419055 PubMed Central PMC12320876.
Search PubMed

Affiliations & Other Activities

  • Scientist, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital
  • Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
  • Endowed Chair in Disease Control, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
  • Research Chair, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto