Ranjana Srivastava

Dr Ranjana Srivastava is a medical oncologist, Fulbright scholar, award-winning author and a columnist for The Guardian. After an upbringing in Bihar, India, and the United States, she graduated from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, with first-class honours. Ranjana is the winner of the Monash University Distinguished Alumni award and practices in the Australian public hospital system.Ranjana has written widely on the subject of medicine and humanity and ethics. She publishes frequently in the New England Journal of Medicine and her work has also appeared in The Lancet, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, Time, The Week, The Age and several other publications including Australia's Best Science Writing. She has won the Cancer Council Victoria award for outstanding writing as well as the Gus Nossal Prize for Global Health writing.Her first book, Tell Me the Truth: Conversations with My Patients about Life and Death, was short listed for a major literary award. Her second book, Dying for a Chat: The Communication Breakdown Between Doctors and Patients, won the Australian Human Rights Commission Literature Prize. Ranjana's interest in explaining and demystifying medicine to the general public has led to a regular presence on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation network. Her roles as a medical volunteer have included working with the Asylum SeekerResource Centre in Melbourne, with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta and in post-tsunami Maldives.Ranjana lives in Melbourne with her family.