Ruchi Bhandari, PhD, MPA, MBA

Associate Professor

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Public Health

Department:

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Classification:

Faculty

• PhD, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, 2013
• MPA, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
• MA, University of Rajasthan, India
• MBA, R.A. Podar Institute of Management, University of Rajasthan, India

Select Publications

Peer-reviewed publications (Name with * denotes senior author; student names are underlined)

1. Earl M, Bhandari R*. Assessing the association between cannabis use frequency and heart disease in adults aged under 50: National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2021-2023. Prev Med. 2026 Jan;202:108437. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2025.108437.
2. Bhandari R, Maris NL, Mohamed R. Bilateral valvular involvement in infective endocarditis: A clinically distinct entity? A multicenter retrospective study. PLOS ONE. 2025; 20(11): e0336847. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0336847
3. Abdulhay N, Wiener RC, Wen S, Gibbs B, Bhandari R*. Mental health outcomes associated with electronic cigarette use, combustible tobacco use, and dual use among U.S. adolescents: Insights from the National Youth Tobacco Survey. PLOS Mental Health. 2025.  2(7): e0000370. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000370
4. Bhandari R, Abdulhay N, Smith D, Wiener RC, Fisher M. The rising cost of infective endocarditis in West Virginia. Epidemiology and Infection. 2024 Dec 26;153:e9. doi: 10.1017/S0950268824001869. PMID: 39721738.
5. Bhandari R, Abdulhay N, Alexander T, Rubenstein J, Meyer A, et al. Characterization of patients receiving surgical versus non-surgical treatment for infective endocarditis in West Virginia. PLOS One. 2023 Nov 14;18(11):e0289622. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289622. PMID: 37963173.
6. Chobufo MD, Atti V, Vasudevan A, Bhandari R, Badhwar V, Baddour LM, Balla S. Trends in infective endocarditis mortality in the United States: 1999 to 2020: A cause for alarm. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2023 Dec 19;12(24):e031589. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.123.031589. PMID: 38088249
7. Tang Y, Caswell E, Mohamed R, Wilson N, Osmanovic E, Smith G, Hartley S, Bhandari R*. A systematic review of validity of US survey measures for assessing substance use and substance use disorder. Systematic Reviews. 2024; 13:166. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-024-02536-x.
8. Bhandari R, Alexander T, Annie FH, et al. Steep rise in drug use-associated infective endocarditis in West Virginia: Characteristics and healthcare utilization. PLOS One. 2022 Jul 15;17(7):e0271510. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271510. PMID: 35839224.
9. Bhandari R. HIV preexposure prophylaxis among people with substance use disorder - The road less traveled. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Jul 1;5(7):e2221352. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.21352. PMID: 35819788.
10. Bhandari R, Tiwari S, Alexander T, et al. Sex differences in characteristics of patients with infective endocarditis: A multicenter study. J Clin Med. 2022 Jun 18;11(12):3514. doi: 10.3390/jcm11123514. PMID: 35743584.

• Nominated for Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching, WVU Health Sciences, 2023
• Received Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award by Student Association of Public Health, WVU, April 2023, May 2021.
• Teaching Spotlight highlighting faculty within the HSC who are dedicated to excellence in teaching, Office of Research and Graduate Education. October 21, 2020 - October 28, 2020, July 29, 2020 - August 5, 2020.
• First place award for the oral presentation “Practice patterns and outcomes of injection drug users presenting with tricuspid valve infective endocarditis in West Virginia,” by Johnson J, Reece R, Bhandari R, Khakoo R, at the Annual Meeting of the WV Chapter, American College of Physicians Chapter Meeting, Stonewall Resort, WV, October 2019.
• Second place award for oral presentation "Clinical outcomes and screening rates of infants born to women with active Hepatitis C infection" by Bhandari R, Mistry S, Bryan N at the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute Annual Meeting, Greenbrier, WV,  April 2019.
• First place award for the research poster “Barriers to influenza vaccination in a rural university clinic” by Chen Y-W, Bhandari R, Fisher M at the Annual Meeting of the WV Chapter, American College of Physicians, Roanoke, WV, October 2018.

Professional Service

• Member, Evidentiary Review Committee (formerly Science Board), American Public Health Association, October 2021–October 2027
• Member, Mentoring Committee, Society for Epidemiologic Research, July 2025–June 2028
• Member, Editorial Board, BMC Infectious Diseases, October 2025 – Current
• Member, WVU School of Public Health Faculty Evaluation Committee (formerly Promotion and Tenure Committee), 2022–Current
• Member, WVU Faculty Senate, July 1, 2019–June 30, 2025

Teaching

Courses taught (current and past)

1. PUBH 498 Infectious Disease Epidemiology (Fall)
2. EPID 501 Public Health Epidemiology (online and in-person) (Fall)
3. EPID 712 Quantitative Methods in Epidemiology (Spring)
4. PUBH 611 Epidemiology for Public Health Practice
5. PUBH 423 Introduction to Modern Epidemiologic Research
6. EPID 629 Epidemiology Capstone
7. EPID 696 Graduate Seminar

Directed Student Learning (current and past)

1. Dissertation Committee Chair of 4 students
2. Dissertation Committee member of 4 students

Biostatistics in the School of Public Health (SPH) at West Virginia University (WVU). Her research interests are: rural health, harm reduction, substance use, injection drug use and associated infectious diseases. She is the Principal Investigator (PI) on a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute award to build comparative clinical effectiveness research capacity among patients with substance use disorder. In addition, she is a co-investigator (Co-I) on a large-scale statewide survey designed to collect extensive health data with the goal of directing resources to the disadvantaged WV communities. She has developed an active research program focused on substance use disorder and associated mental and physical health conditions, a significant public health challenge in West Virginia. She was the PI on a project to build the first intra-hospital, multi-site database of patients with infective endocarditis associated with injection drug use in WV.

Dr. Bhandari has developed and taught public health and epidemiology-related courses at the undergraduate, master’s, and PhD levels at West Virginia University and Marshall University for over 10 years. At WVU, she has been the sole instructor for over 40 classes for the undergraduate, master’s, and PhD programs. Prior to joining WVU, she developed and taught 10 undergraduate and graduate courses across the breadth of Public Health content at Marshall University. She received the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award from the School of Public Health, WVU for 2022-2023, and was also nominated for the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Teaching for 2022–2023.

Complete list of publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1LIni-4s3O9kkh/bibliography/public/ or https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=By4E0i4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

I am not accepting doctoral students for the academic year 2027-2028.

• Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Engagement Award. Coalition to Build Patient-Centered CER Capacity for Patients with Substance Use Disorder. January 1, 2025 – December 31, 2026. Role: PI. (Effort: 25%)
• WV DHHR-Bureau for Medical Services Award. Mountain State Assessment of Trends in Community Health (MATCH). July 1, 2022– current. Role: Co-I. (Effort: 25%-30%)
• WV DHHR-Bureau for Medical Services Award. Mountain State Assessment of Trends in Community Health. May 1, 2021–June 30, 2022. Role: Co-PI. (Effort: 25%)
• WV DHHR-Bureau for Medical Services Award ($432,258). Mountain Health Promise Phase 2. Independent assessment of WV's 1915(b) waiver for the specialized managed care plan for children and youth. April 1, 2023–March 29, 2024. Role: Co-I. (Effort: 25%)
• WV DHHR-Bureau for Medical Services Award ($307,260). Mountain Health Promise Phase 1. Independent assessment of WV's 1915(b) waiver for the specialized managed care plan for children and youth. October 1, 2020–April 30, 2021. Role: PI. (Effort: 25%)
• WVCTSI’s pilot grant for Development of a statewide linked database for analysis of clinical and economic patterns of injection drug use-associated infective endocarditis. September 1, 2019–February 28, 2021. Role: PI.
• Research and Scholarship Advancement Grant Award for Assessing risk factors and outcomes of injection drug use patients at WVU’s multidisciplinary Infusion Service. July 1, 2019–June 30, 2021. Role: PI.