DR

Debjani Ram Purakayastha

Department of Health Research, Indian Council of Medical Research, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, RG Kar Medical College

ORCID iD 0000-0003-0120-7612
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About

My work areas have been in RCTs, Program management, Infectious disease epidemiology, Geriatrics, Health Economics, Data management and analysis, Medical monitoring, Scientific writing. Currently I am developing my skill on Evidence based Guideline development methods. I have keen interest on Ethical and statutory Compliance and Health system research.

I completed my M.B.B.S from R. G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata in 1999. I have worked in clinical medicine in several government and private set up for few years and interacted and understood closely the health need of common people and the gap between health need of community and available health provision.

I got interested in the field of public health and pursued Diploma in Public Health from the prestigious institute of AIIH&PH, Kolkata (2006-2008).

I joined West Bengal Voluntary Health Association (WBVHA) as public health officer (208-2009) where I was part of "Basic health care program" , a primary health care project funded by MEMISA, Belgium in the remote villages of Sundarbans and Darjeeling. As public health officer I had to monitor and evaluate the work of the field NGOs, train the staff and village volunteers on health topics and increase awareness on available government health services.

I wanted to expand my career in medical research and joined AIIMS, New Delhi in 2009 as a Senior Research Officer in Community Medicine department. During my tenure of 9 years in AIIMS, I worked in clinical trials, Population cohorts based on the villages of Faridabad district of Haryana. I worked in a vaccine trial (2009-2012) jointly conducted by AIIMS, CDC, USA and University of Alabama titled “Direct and Indirect Protection by Influenza Vaccine given to Children in India (Phase-I & II)” . From 2012-2017 , I was part of a respiratory surveillance system based on a cohort of children and elderly in a study titled “Epidemiological Study of Respiratory Pathogens in Acute Respiratory Tract Infection Among Children and Elderly in India".

I have completed my PhD from Community Medicine, AIIMS in 2016. The topic of my PhD thesis was “Economic evaluation of Influenza Immunization of Under Five Children in India”. This was a very inclusive topic with each objective laid down in detail. As part of the thesis, I did a systematic review and meta-analysis to obtain the burden of Influenza. As part of the research, I collected primary data on expenditure towards hospitalisation, estimated incremental expenditure to be incurred by government if the influenza vaccine is introduced as a part of the national immunisation programme and have done a projection study using mathematical modelling to reach the final outcome of economic evaluation.
I was involved in capacity of Clinical Research Coordinator in a multisite RCT titled “Zinc as an adjunct for the treatment of very severe disease in infants younger than 2 months” based in hospitals of Delhi and Kathmandu jointly conducted by Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) and GLOBVAC & CISMAC, Norway during 2017-2021.

I have joined as Scientist D in the department of Epidemiology , ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) in it's regional institute , Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna in July, 2021. I have been part of a few multisite epidemiological studies and clinical trials.
I have joined the ICMR-HQ in new Delhi in February 2023. During February 2023 -July 2025 I have worked in Clinical trial unit followed by Communicable disease division. During this period I was majorly involved in a national health research priority project of ICMR titled "Accelerating Efforts to end TB in India" in line with NTEP that looked into implementation of a study in 32 districts across India.
Since July, 2025 , I am working in Centre for Evidence based guidelines in Department of health Research , MoHFW.

I have 17 publications in peer Reviewed national and international journal . I have disseminated my research work in the form of posters and oral presentations in several national and international seminars.
I have hands-on experience on statistical software of STATA, SPSS, Epi-info.
I'm a recipient of PATH and OPTION VII award for contribution in influenza research.

Employment

  • Department of Health Research Scientist D
    2025 - Present
  • Indian Council of Medical Research Scientist D
    2023 - 2025
  • Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences Scientist D
    2021 - 2023
  • Translational Health Science and Technology Institute Clinical Research Coordinator
    2017 - 2021
  • All India Institute of Medical Sciences Senior Research Officer
    2009 - 2017

Education

  • All India Institute of Medical Sciences PhD
    2010 - 2016
  • All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health Diploma in Public health (DPH)
    2006 - 2008
  • RG Kar Medical College MBBS
    1994 - 1999

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications (20)