Dr. K.K.Deepak

Dr  K K Deepak, Professor of Physiology, AIIMS New Delhi (2021)

Born in  a small village, Antri (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh in a modest family  in 1958,  I was brought up in  an  environment of struggle and hard work  with  great values of honesty and integrity. As a teacher my father’s ambition was to see his offsprings as doctors or engineers, and he inculcated in us ideals, ethics and a strict sense of discipline. It   gave me ample time and opportunity to indulge in self study and sense of commitment. As a child and teenager, the stories of scientific innovations always inspired me and I was a regular reader of magazines published by CSIR, NRDC and other scientific organisations. The rationale behind Scientific facts always fascinated me. In 1970, at the age of twelve I won a modelling competition where I made a replica of the Gramophone.

Fortunately, I was selected in the first attempt in MP Pre-Medical Test and all set to do MBBS from Gandhi Medical College (GMC), Bhopal.  While I was in first year of MBBS  pursuing Physiology, I had several innovative ideas that excited me. I wished to pursue them.  One day I wanted to go to the Journal Section of my college library and was denied entry on the pretext that it was meant only for PGs. That was the turning point and it has further fired my desire to pursue Physiology. I completed my MBBS and  as  was the norm, my family had high expectations from me as a practicing doctor in my hometown. However, the scientist in me was not satisfied. When the time came to choose a path after MBBS Degree I had two choices- Pursue MD Physiology at AIIMS (by then I had cleared the AIIMS Entrance Exam) or pursue PG in clinical subjects (which I got at GMC Bhopal).  I preferred Physiology, which was the dream of the scientist within me. Thus, I did not appear for counselling at GMC Bhopal. Several of my classmates as well as my family virtually voiced against me for choosing Physiology as my career. However, I was determined, I knew what my aim was and I walked all the way to AIIMS to explore new horizons in 1981.

Since then, I have not looked back after overcoming teething problems at AIIMS, I completed MD in 1984. I joined Senior Demonstratorship and PhD simultaneously. After completion of senior demonstratorship and a brief Pool Officer position of nearly a little over a month, I joined as Faculty at AIIMS, New Delhi in Oct 1987, when I was still pursuing PhD. AIIMS is an institution which gives ample opportunity to do research and it gives a platform to sharpen your various skills. I exploited this opportunity and contributed in the field of medical education, interdisciplinary research, biomedical engineering along with my passion for Physiology.

Way back in 1986, a patient with sweating disturbances (hyperhidrosis) was referred to the then HOD, Prof GS Chhina. I was senior Demonstrator then. My HOD called me and asked me what I could do in this case. That was the time the idea clicked in my mind that Autonomic Function Testing can be done in our department. Actually, that was the time when I conceived the idea of starting the AFT lab in the department.

Just within a  few years of incubation and some hard trouble shootings, I could establish an  Autonomic Function Lab at AIIMS in 1989, the first ever such lab in the country. The patients for Autonomic Function testing were referred from various departments to our lab and our AFT lab started getting popular and recognized. The lab attracted students for training, and soon produced trained faculty who occupied chairs  at National level and SAARC level.  The then head of the department Late Prof SK Manchanda  and other colleagues  gave a continued cooperation and support  for smooth steering  from time to time (namely Dr SC Mahapatra, Dr KP Kochhar and Dr Raj K Yadav).  Then onward, we marched ahead progressively with the huge support from colleagues from clinical departments. It has been a smooth and enjoyable journey of deciphering concept, exploring physiological phenomena and indulging in technological innovations.   At the time when I wanted to pursue Autonomic Functions with more vigour, a surprising offer came from the Director AIIMS to serve as Sub-Dean Exam in 2001. It was again a tough time to decide- whether I would be  able to  nurture the tiny budding lab into  adulthood.  I thought that more work and a different kind of engagement may train me “How to deal with more work and responsibility in a better way”. I was right. I took the huge responsibility of  Sub-Deanship of Exams at AIIMS. At the same time as a strategic move, I gave full freedom to students working in AFT lab.  This free control gave a real boost to Autonomic work output.  Later, I was lucky to have a very cooperative colleague, Dr Ashok K Jaryal who joined the AFT lab at that time.  With the two of us, as pressure absorbers, our students excelled, we thrived, trainees and students joined  and  flourished.  We did create an ecosystem to nurture not only Autonomic, but also accelerated vascular physiology  and nurtured the birth of Intra-Operative Neuro-Monitoring (IONM) and Clinical Gastro-intestinal Physiology. Later our own brilliant student Dr Dinu S Chandran joined us a faculty. He is an asset in advancing what we have been pursuing for over 2 decades. Currently, we have a state-of-art lab facility and expertise in these fields  comparable to any advanced set up in world.  Since inception we have been exponentially growing. We have had more than 195 full length refereed research papers published in indexed journals in the field of autonomic and vascular functions. In total the research work of our group has been abstracted in more than 500 scientific communications including abstracts and chapters.  The lab houses more than 21000 human AFT records. Through networking, I was able to train and transfer the knowledge to large number of colleagues in our country and SAARC countries, thus creating a huge ‘Autonomic Tree’, which has strong roots.

I have been interested in Medical Education right from my early career as junior resident. Through Centre for Medical Education and Technology (CMET),  I am still pursuing it, publishing regularly and actively imparting to Health Professional development.

Besides this, my research has been in the field of Yoga, Biofeedback and Biomedical Engineering. I have been working in the field of Biomedical Engineering for more than two decades. I have worked in collaboration with IIT Delhi, IIT Roorki, NIT Jalandhar, Bhabha BARC, Mumbai, IIITM Gwalior and IIT Madras. I have worked at several platforms of medical and technological interfaces involving Biomedical engineering which has application to Space sciences too. A decade beginning 2012, we pursued Space Physiology in a vigorous way. I do enjoy to synthesize the autonomic, vascular and yoga and space physiology.

I have been involved in the corporate activities in Physiology for a long time. I took over the position of Secretary Delhi chapter of APPI and continued for nearly 10 years.  Then in 2011, I did serve as Organizing Secretary to organize the astonishingly successful Annual conference of APPI.  During 2012 I was elected as Executive editor, which I am still continuing. As head of the department, I  promoted and supported  the academic growth.  I also served as nodal officer of National Knowledge Network for UG/PG education in the country. I did contributed to e-PG Pathshala of UGC.  I have been member of IBRO since 90s and I was selected as youngest scientists from India to travel under IBRO-UNESCO fellowship for scientific exposure in physiology labs in Australia. 

I made significant contributions to the process and method of Examinations in India since 2001, when I was given responsibility of Sub-Dean, Exams.  Currently, since October 2020,   I am steering the Exam Section at  AIIMS, Delhi as Dean Examinations.  Our work for smooth conduct of exams during difficult Covid outbreak time was much appreciated.

At home front, I am really blessed with a contended and brilliant family.  My wife Dr Archana Jain is a  PhD in English and has served as lecturer in English. After retirement, she is currently a guest faculty  teaching English at College of Nursing, AIIMS,  New Delhi.    We have one daughter who completed her BTech from IIT Madras and pursued  PhD from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Boston,   USA. She is a proud inventor of 13 US patents.  Our son-in law works at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)  USA. I have a grandson, a cute little boy of 4 and is a bundle of joy for the whole family. I always believe that “happiness at home brings success at work”. On a happy note, I can say that I am reasonably satisfied for what I have contributed but the sky is the limit for me. My hunger for research and innovative zeal still thrust me to move forward.