Board of Directors

Dr.Sanjay Pujari is Director and chief consultant at the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Pune and a Consultant in HIV Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Poona Hospital and Research Center. He is Head of the Department of HIV Medicine at Ruby Hall Clinic and Grant Medical Foundation. He is Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of South Florida and also serves there as Investigator for the Center for Health and AIDS Research and Training. Dr. Pujari is also Principle Investigator, Pune, for AmFAR's initiative: TREAT Asia (Therapeutics Research Cooperative in Asia). His foundational medical training was at B. J. Medical College and Sassoon General Hospitals in Pune. He earned his M.D. (Internal Medicine) in 1995 following his M.B.B.S. in 1991. Further, he is a Credentialed HIV Physician (2009-2010) at the American Academy of HIV Medicine. He has done an HIV residency program at University of South Florida in Tampa, USA, and a short summer course at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Dr.Atul K Patel is a Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine at the Infectious Diseases Clinic, Vedanta Institute of Medical Sciences and a Director of the department of Infectious Diseases at Sterling Hospital, Ahmedabad. He is also a Visiting Assistant Professor in Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida. USA. He has a special interest in HIV/TB co-infections and his group has done good work on the effectiveness and durability of standard dose efavirenz-based antiretroviral treatment along with rifampicin-based anti-TB treatment in TB co-infected HIV patients. His group is running an effective prevention programme for mother-to-child transmission at the ID Clinic, Ahmedabad. In addition to these he has also done an observational cohort on low dose Indinavir/ritonavir (400/100) plus 2nRTI as second line therapy to NNRTI failure patients.

Dr.Jehangir Sorabjee qualified from the Grant Medical College and Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals with his MBBS in 1981 and did his MD in Internal Medicine at the same institute in 1985. Following a short period of ICU training in Bombay he left for the UK where he spent 5 years working in various hospitals and in the process obtained his MRCP and DTM&H degrees. Having worked at the Hospital for Tropical diseases in London and the Infectious Diseases wing of the Royal Free Hospital in London, Dr Sorabjee developed an interest in Infectious diseases, which continues to be the main thrust of his Internal Medicine practice. After returning to India in 1992 Dr Sorabjee joined the Bombay Hospital as an Honorary Consultant Physician and the Kasturba Infectious Diseases Hospital as an Honorary Physician and Honorary Assistant Professor of Medicine. In 2000 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. He is currently Honorary Physician to the Governor of Maharashtra, Honorary Prof. of Medicine at the Bombay Hospital Institute of Medical Sciences and the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, an international examiner for MRCP(UK) and a member of the Academic Council of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. He has authored numerous academic papers and textbook chapters.

Dr.N.Kumarasamy is the Chief Medical Officer at YRGCARE and directs the clinic which provides medical care for more than 13,000 persons with HIV in Chennai, Southern India. Dr.Kumarasamy is the Site Leader for the YRGCARE Medical Centre-VHS clinical research site of US National Institutes of Health which conducts multisite Therapeutics and prevention clinical Trials. He is the Principal Investigator for the AIDS Clinical Trials Group's (ACTG) International Clinical Trials Unit of Chennai site. Currently he chairs two large, multisite antiretroviral treatment trials, which are conducted in resource-limited settings in Asia, Africa, South America and in Caribbean. Dr.Kumarasamy serves in the Executive committee of AIDS Clinical Trials Group of NIH. He trained in Medicine at Madras Medical College, underwent specialized training and fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Brown University and at Johns Hopkins University in the US and completed his PhD in Infectious Diseases from University of Madras. Dr.Kumarasamy's major research interests are Natural History of HIV disease and the usage of Antiretrovirals in resource limited settings. He is the Principal Investigator for the Chennai HIV Natural History cohort study. He is involved as Clinical Investigator for several on going clinical research projects with University of California at San Diego and Brown University in the USA and had earlier described the Natural History of HIV disease in India and the changing pattern of HIV disease following ART in resource limited settings. He is an investigator in TREAT Asia and is the Principal Investigator for a large HIV Drug resistance survey in Asia. Dr.Kumarasamy is an expert panel member for WHO- ARV Treatment guidelines committee and a Temporary Advisor to World Health Organization. He is a Governing Council member at the International Infectious Diseases Society and the Corresponding Editor for International Journal of Infectious Diseases (IJID).Dr.Kumarasamy has published more than 150 manuscripts in peer reviewed medical journals, presented more than 100 papers in conferences and has contributed to book chapters and Treatment Guidelines. He had been an invited speaker in several National and International conferences and symposiums. He is the organizing chair for the ongoing annual Chennai ART Symposium (CART) and he is a faculty for various physicians training programs in Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine.

Dr.Rajeev Soman is a Consultant Physician, P D at Hinduja National Hospital, Mumbai and Honorary Physician, Shushrusha Citizens' Cooperative Hospital, Dadar, Mumbai. In addition he is Honorary Physician, Lion's Medical Centre, Jain Society, Sion, Mumbai. Dr Soman is Referee, Journal of the Association of Physicians of India, 1994. He has been Associate Editor, Journal of the Association of Physicians of India and Sectional Editor, Infectious Diseases, API Textbook of Medicine, Seventh & Eighth Editions. Soman is a teacher for the National Board of Examiners fellowship in Infectious diseases.

Dr.Diamond Sharma is at present working as a Clinical Consultant & Researcher at the Department of HIV/AIDS and Research Unit, Catholic Medical Centre (CMC), Hospital, Koirengei, Imphal. He was the Visiting Scholar at the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. He has a great interest in Intravenous Drugs Users (IDUs) related HIV/AIDS management with special focus on HIV/HCV co-infection in the North-East. Many research works are underway regarding HIV/HCV co-infection, which is one of the greatest challenges in the North-East.

Dr.K. S. Satish, MD, DNB, MRCP, is a senior chest and HIV specialist practicing at Wockhardts Hospitals, Bangalore, and at his private clinic, Chest and Maternity Centre. Dr Satish got his training in HIV and Pulmonary Medicine at Southampton General and Middlesex Hospital U.K.He is presently clinical director for WHARF (Wockhardts Harvard) and President of Indian Academy of Allergy. He is a regular speaker in HIV training in Karnataka state and has very busy practice.

Dr.Nalin Nag earned his M.B.B.S., M.D. Medicine and D.T.C.D from Delhi University. He also did an honorary fellowship in Internal Medicine from the Mayo Clinic (U.S.A). He has maintained his consultancy practice in South Delhi for more than 20 years. Currently he is working as a Senior Consultant in Internal Medicine, Allergy and Immunology including HIV/AIDS at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi. Dr. Nag has experience working with a number of renowned persons specializing in this field in India and abroad, who have pioneered original research work and clinical trials on antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS. He is managing HIV/AIDS patients, treating opportunistic infections, conducting counseling services for patients and general population. He is a resource and referral physician for a number of N.G.Os working in this field, and has been a participant in various proceedings related to the policies and implementation of the national AIDS programs of NACO (National AIDS Control Organization). He has presented a number of papers in national and international conferences and conducted numerous CME programs on this subject. He appears frequently on media (T.V., radio and print media) on various issues related to HIV/AIDS. He is the national trainer for the "Train the Trainers"program on ART for HIV/AIDS for NACO and CII Australia-India Council. In 2007, he convened a conference on "Best Medical Practices in HIV/AIDS Care" held in New Delhi.