Karnika is a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at Duke. She attended Indian Institute of Information Technology Allahabad, where she earned an integrated Master in biomedical engineering. She worked as a business intelligence and analytics consultant before joining the BIG IDEAS lab at Duke for her Ph.D. Her research involves using digital health technologies, such as smartwatches, for health monitoring and digital biomarker development. She has worked on examining the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on activity and sleep habits using commercial smartwatches and on exploring intelligent COVID-19 diagnostic testing allocation methods using wearable device data. Karnika is currently working on developing digital biomarkers of glycemic health for remote and cost-effective monitoring of diabetes and prediabetes. In addition, she is working on assessing disparity in the ownership of digital health technologies and understanding factors that affect adoption of digital health tools. Karnika looks forward to connecting with the Margolis community and learning more about policy solutions to improve healthcare outcomes using digital health strategies.
