Dr Ruben Ramakrishnan

Technical Officer (Health Promotion & Determinants)
WHO Country Office for Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore

Dr. Ruben Ramakrishnan is a Public Health Medicine Specialist currently serving as Technical Officer for Health Promotion and Determinants at the WHO Country Office for Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore. He brings over a decade of experience in public health practice, health systems strengthening, and national programme implementation, with a strong focus on non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control.

Prior to joining WHO, Dr. Ruben served with the Ministry of Health Malaysia in key national and district-level roles, including the Disease Control Division and District Health Offices. His work has spanned surveillance and disease burden analysis of NCDs, development of evidence-based national policies and strategic plans, management of national disease registries, and coordination of large-scale screening and prevention programmes. He has also led stakeholder engagement, community outreach, and quality assurance initiatives to strengthen public health programme delivery.

Dr. Ruben is appointed as a Committee Member of the National Experts Technical Working Group for Obesity under the Ministry of Health Malaysia (2025–2027). He actively champions the recognition of obesity as a chronic disease in Malaysia, advocating for policy reforms and integrated, life-course approaches to obesity prevention and management.

He holds a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of Malaya, and a Doctor of Medicine (M.D) from Kursk State Medical University, Russia. His professional interests include health promotion, health policy advocacy, and advancing multisectoral actions to improve population health outcomes.