Current Group Members

Director AIIMS Rishikesh, Site Director, South Asian Cochrane Network Coordinator, SAARC Telemedicine Network, PGIMER, Chandigarh

Dr. Meenu Singh was working as  Professor of Pediatrics and Head Pediatric Pulmonology, Asthma and Allergy Clinics, at Advanced Pediatric Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh. She has been a gold medalist throughout her academics. She is a pioneer of evidence based medicine in India. She is one of the editors in the ARI group. She is site director of South Asian Cochrane Network and is the member of the steering group. She is one of the editors in the Airways group. She is the Incharge of ICMR Advanced Centre for Evidence Based Child Health. She is also the In-charge of SAARC telemedicine network and Head of the Telemedicine in PGIMER. Her research has been published in various national and international journals of her repute. She is also heading many research projects in PGIMER and running a collaborative project with BRNS; BARC; Mumbai. This centre is an outcome of her sincere efforts in the field of Evidence Based Child Health.

Head Pediatric Pulmonology Division & Principal Investigator, ICMR ACEBCH, PGIMER, Chandigarh

Prof. Joseph L. Mathew is Head of the Pediatric Pulmonology Division at PGIMER Chandigarh, India. He currently leads the Advanced Centre for Evidence Based Child Health (ACEBCH) at Chandigarh. He is a national and international leader of the Evidence Based Healthcare movement, focusing on translating research evidence to health-care practice in developing countries. He is active within the Guidelines International Network (GIN), Cochrane, and Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi).

Dr. Mathew is a member of the GIN Board of Trustees, and the Founder Chair of the GIN Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) Working Group (2015-2021). He is a founding member of the South Asian Cochrane Network Centre (recently designated as Cochrane India). He has contributed significantly towards capacity building efforts for evidence-informed decision-making through the SIGNET Capacity and Capability Building programme. He also developed the KNOW ESSENTIALS tool for evidence-informed decision-making in resource-limited settings.

Dr. Mathew’s main focus is the implementation of international/ global evidence to local resource-constrained settings in developing countries. He is one of the Principal Applicants of the global COVID-19 RecMap project led by McMaster University, Canada (https://covid19.recmap.org); and a Steering Group member of the ‘Covid Management Guidelines India Group’ Project (https://indiacovidguidelines.org).

Professor of Neonatology in the McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and Additional Professor of Pediatrics, PGIMER, Chandigarh

Dr. Sourabh Dutta, MBBS and MD (Pediatrics) from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi PhD (Neonatology) from Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh Awarded FRCPC in Pediatrics and FRCPC in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine by Royal College of Physicians of Canada, in November 2011 Currently . Authored over 80 peer-reviewed articles in indexed journals.

Director Principal Dr. BRAIMS

Dr. Bhavneet Bharti is a pediatrician was working as Professor in the Dept of Pediatrics PGIMER, Chandigarh. She has also done masters in Hospital and Healthcare Administration. She has done training in statistics from Punjab University, Chandigarh. She has done diplomate in environment and child health from WHO & American Academy of pediatricians. She has many national and international publications in various indexed and non-indexed journals. Her research specializations include Acute respiratory Infections, Child Nutrition, School & community health, Sleep disorders in children and epidemiology & immunization.

Professor, MD Physician, MD Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, PGIMER

Dr. Samir Malhotra is working as Professor of Pharmacology in PGIMER, Chandigarh. Is a member of many pharmacological societies like British Pharmacological Society, American College of Clinical Pharmacology , Life Member Indian Pharmacological Society, Indian Society of Physiology and Pharmacology, Life member International Society for Heart Research, Indian Section, Member of the Science Advisory Board, U.K. He is in the editorial committee of various journals and has many national and international publications to his credit. Has a keen interest in Evidence Based Health care.

Professor, Department of Pharmacology, PGIMER

Currently working as Professor in Department of Pharmacology. She is a Clinical Pharmacologist. She has two Cochrane reviews published to her credit. She has been author of some books and has chapters published in various other books. She has over 40 publications in indexed in pubmed and over 13 publications in non-indexed journals. She is a life member of many scientific societies. She has won many awards for paper presentations at various conferences (national & international).

Professor in Neonatal unit of Paediatrics department, PGIMER

Dr. S. Venkataseshan is working as a Professor in Neonatal unit of Paediatrics department of PGIMER. His research interests are primarily in severe sepsis, perinatal asphyxia and cardiovascular hemodynamic. His research work has received many awards. Recently has been awarded Asian Society of Pediatric Reasearch (ASPR) Best Research Award as a co-investigator in the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting held at Denver, Colarado, USA, May 2011. He has many publications in indexed journals to his credit. He is member of many research societies like Asian Society of Pediatric Research, National Neonatology Forum and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics and also Member of the Equipment Committee and Neonatal Database & Regional Networking Committee of the National Neonatology Forum.

Scientist-D (Medical)

Dr Abhishek Purohit holds a PhD in Dental Public Health from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhopal. His research interests include evidence-based medicine and the epidemiological research. He has several scientific publications in peer-reviewed national and international journals. He currently works as a Scientist-D (Medical) at ICMR-ACEBCH, PGIMER, Chandigarh. He has been actively involved in the field of evidence-based research. He passionately engages in generating newer evidences in health sciences through conduct of systematic reviews and meta-analysis. 

He is also working on multivariate statistical techniques including Structural Equation Modelling using IBM AMOS and the R programming language, fuelled by a keen interest in utilizing advanced statistical methods and tools for research in health and behavioural sciences. He served as a resource person for training healthcare workers on Oral Health Promotion under government-funded projects by the Directorate of Health Services, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, and the National Health Mission, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, as part of the National Oral Health Program at AIIMS, Bhopal. He is certified as a state trainer by NHSRC for “Training of Medical Officers in Oral Care.”

Scientist-D (Medical)

 Dr. Lovely Jain is currently serving as a Scientist-D (Medical) at the ICMR Advanced Centre for Evidence-Based Child Health at PGIMER. She holds a master’s degree in Public Health from PGIMER Chandigarh, where she was honoured with the prestigious gold medal. As a scientist, she plays a crucial role in conducting literature reviews, analysing data, and generating evidence that significantly contributes to informing medical practice and healthcare decision-making. Dr. Jain has been actively involved as a DNB (Diplomate of National Board) coordinator for the State of Haryana, contributing to the ADARSH-IIPH project aimed at addressing the critical shortage of medical specialists in India.

Her expertise extends to work with CARE India, where she processed Sentinel-2 data to investigate the correlation between Kala-Azar and surrounding vegetation (NDVI) and water bodies (MNDWI) using remote sensing data in QGIS and R software. Demonstrating proficiency in data analysis, Dr. Jain is well-versed in utilizing analytical software such as Stata, QGIS, GeoDa, and ATLAS.ti. She has a strong command of secondary data analysis and employed NFHS data for her dissertation. Dr. Jain’s impactful research work is exemplified through the publication of three articles in peer-reviewed journals, further showcasing her invaluable contributions to the field.

Scientist-D (Non-Medical)

Dr. Meenakshi Sachdeva is currently working as Scientist D (Non-Medical) in the Advanced Centre for Evidence Based Child Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh. Her formative years in the field of Immunology began at the University of Miami, USA at the Centre for AIDS Research. She has done PhD in Immunopathology and post-doctoral fellowship from PGIMER, Chandigarh. Her research interests include Immunopathogenesis of Infectious diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C.

She is currently involved in conducting systematic reviews and organizing various workshops as part of capacity building and networking with different Institutes. She is well-versed with various statistical techniques and used sophisticated tools in the Evidence-synthesis process. Dr. Sachdeva has conceptualized and written research projects which were funded by the extramural agencies. She has certifications in the courses on next generation sequencing and Advanced Bioinformatics tools. She has several publications in peer reviewed journals and chapters in books. She has presented her research work in National and International Conferences and has received several awards. She is Life member of Indian Immunology Society and The Cytometry Society, India.

Scientist-C (Medical)

Dr. Meenakshi Malik is a dentist with a postgraduate diploma in public health management. She is a dedicated researcher with a strong interest in clinical research and evidence-based medicine. With over 8 years of experience, she has actively participated in various clinical trials and research projects focused on public health, particularly in the field of maternal and child health. Alongside her primary research experience, she has successfully managed multi-centric research on a larger scale. Her passion for evidence-based medicine and meta-analysis is evident in her active contributions to numerous manuscripts and protocols drafted at the ACEBCH centre.

Dr. Meenakshi Malik commenced her career by engaging in clinical research, conducting field visits, and managing projects funded by prestigious organizations like Wellcome Trust UK, The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine UK, World Health Organization and Indian Council of Medical Research. These initial experiences paved the way for her involvement in projects related to neonatology and child health. With a wealth of experience in both primary and secondary research, Dr. Malik has advanced her skills from the grassroots level to the stage of drafting valuable findings and formulating guidelines.

Master of Library, and Information Science Librarian

Mrs. Pranita Pradhan has done her Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She has been associated with Advanced Centre for Evidence Based Child Health for the last 7 years. She has been involved in conducting systematic reviews, capacity building, delivering literatures, conducting literature search in different medical databases in the field of Evidence based medicine. Attended and delivered lectures in various workshops and conferences at National Level in the field of evidence Based Medicine and more than 20 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals and a book chapter to her credit. She has been invited as a resource person to deliver lecture in various national workshops and conferences in different Institutes.