Ohio State University
Kartik is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, maternal-fetal medicine specialist, and PhD epidemiologist. At The Ohio State University (OSU), he holds dual faculty appointments in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Epidemiology. At the OSU Wexner Medical Center, he is the Director of the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program, one of the oldest and largest integrated diabetes and prenatal care programs in the U.S that provides care to >800 pregnant people each year with type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. He sees pregnant patients with diabetes every week as part of this clinic.
In the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Kartik leads the Perinatal Epidemiology Program focused on addressing the impact of social determinants on diabetes in pregnancy. Currently, Dr. Venkatesh is the PI of three large studies: 1) NIH’s ECHO Ohio prospective longitudinal cohort examining the impact of maternal cardiometabolic health in pregnancy on long-term child neurodevelopment (UG3); 2) AHRQ’s ACHIEVE RCT studying the impact of continuous glucose monitoring, mobile applications, and addressing social needs on glycemic control for Medicaid-insured pregnant individuals with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes (R01); 3) PCORI’s DECIDE, a comparative effectiveness, patient-centered RCT, defining whether metformin is non-inferior to insulin for prevention of adverse pregnancy outcomes and safe through 2 years of postpartum follow-up among >1500 individuals with gestational diabetes and their exposed infants at 20 U.S. centers led by OSU (large grant).
Kartik has published nearly 150 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts focused on diabetes in pregnancy, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and perinatal infectious diseases. He has methodological expertise in clinical trials, prospective cohorts, and clinical prediction models. As a physician-scientist, Kartik’s overarching goal is to improve pregnancy outcomes for individuals living with diabetes who experience a high burden of adverse social determinants using innovative approaches that integrate clinical trials, perinatal epidemiology, and precision medicine.