Dr Arvind Kasthuri works as Professor of Community Medicine & Mentor- Senior Citizen Health Service (SCHS) at the Department of Community Health, and team leader of the St John’s Geriatric Centre project, St John’s Medical College, Bangalore, India.

Recently, Dr Kasthuri has taken over charge as Chief of Medical Services of St John’s Medical College Hospital.

Dr Kasthuri joined St John’s Medical College in 1993. He has contributed to more than 30 research papers and has been involved in practical Community Health activity as a trainer, evaluator, and resource person to programs in different parts of India including Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand on over 50 occasions.

In the early 2000s, Dr. Kasthuri developed an interest in the health of the Elderly, resulting in the launch of the Senior Citizen Health Service (SCHS) at St. Johns Medical College.

Dr Kasthuri is a recipient of the BM Patil Memorial Oration Award of the Karnataka Association of Community Health and the Venkoba Rao Oration Award of the Indian Academy of Geriatrics on two occasions.

In 2020, the Senior Citizen Health Service won the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) award for “Best Practice” in Community Medicine. St John’s Medical College was awarded the prestigious “Vayoshreshta Samman” award of the Government of India in 2021 based on its work with the Elderly.

Currently, Dr. Kasthuri is the leader of the team for the establishment of the “St John’s Geriatric Centre”, a unique 125-bed, 7-story standalone facility on the St John’s campus planned to deliver care, training, research, and community engagement services to Elders and their caregivers.

Dr. Kasthuri enjoys teaching and igniting young minds, and is the recipient of the Pioneer’s award for “Teacher of the Year” four times at St John’s Medical College.

Off the beaten track, Dr Kasthuri is part of the CAUSE foundation and the Kiara Silver Chorale, promoting musical theatre in Bangalore and Mangalore in support of charitable causes. He has been a part of the annual musical productions of the CAUSE Foundation every year since 1997.

His TedX talk titled “That other thing you do” is available on YouTube and was received enthusiastically.

He is happily married to Kavitha, is father to Varun and Dhruv, and is on a quest to find meaning and peace in life.