Dr Randeep Guleria appointed Delhi AIIMS director

New Delhi, March 2017:
Renowned pulmonologist Dr Randeep Guleria has been appointed as the Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) by the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Dr Guleria, who is the first Indian to get a Doctorate of Medicine in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, has been appointed as Director, AIIMS, for five years. Dr Guleria, who has been working with AIIMS for the last 23 years, will take over as the director and will succeed Dr M C Mishra, who retired in January after serving for over three years.

Dr Guleria, who joined AIIMS in 1992 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, is credited with establishment of India’s first centre for pulmonary medicine and sleep disorder at AIIMS in 2011. The others shortlisted for the post were Professor V K Paul, Head, Department of Paediatrics and Dr Balram Bhargava, Professor, cardiology.

Dr Guleria was the personal physician to former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1998 to 2004 — and has remained so to this day. He has also been asked by the Government of India to see various international dignitaries, including Sushil Koirala, the then Prime Minister of Nepal.
Dr Guleria ‘s father Jagdev Singh Guleria is former dean at AIIMS and was on duty at AIIMS when former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was brought to AIIMS after being shot at by Sikh militants.

Dr Guleria — conferred with the Padma Shri in 2015 by the President of India – is know for his work on respiratory muscle functions, lung cancer, asthma and COPD and has more than 400 publications in International and National journals and 49 chapters in various National and International books. Under Dr Guleria, AIIMS is studying the link between respiratory and cardiovascular conditions and air quality in the national capital.

Internationally, he was an advisor to WHO, Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), Geneva, on “Influenza Vaccination and Immunization” from 2010-13 and has been a consultant to International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, on Radiation Protection in Medicine since 2007. At present, he is a member of May Key Committee in the Government of India. including the Joint Monitoring Committee, to monitor outbreaks of new diseases and to formulate National policy to control antibiotic resistance in India. Indian Express