Biostatistics

Dr. M. V. Govindaswamy, the founder Director along with his colleagues gave the institute a wide multidisciplinary foundation to cover comprehensively all areas of mental health and neuro sciences, in training, service and research.  Realizing the scope of statistical methods in medical research in general and in the development of psychometric and biometric methods in particular the department of Biostatistics was established right from the inception of the institute in the year 1954.

Mr. H. N. Ranganathan was the first statistician to join the department and later Dr. N. Sundararaj was appointed as the first faculty member.  Prof. Sundararaj was deputed by Government of India to go to USA to study the advances in Biometry.  After his return he served the institute till 1967 and later joined the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. 

Dr. V. G. Kaliaperumal succeeded Prof. N. Sundararaj and joined as lecturer in 1971.  He was deputed to Poona University to specialize in Biometry and advanced mathematical statistics and to IISC, Bangalore and IIT, Chennai to get trained in computer programming.  The department has since grown and presently has four faculty members and one research staff and seven PhD research scholars.  The growth of the department reflects our ability to address a broad spectrum of biostatistical issues in Mental health and Neurological research. 

Dr. D. K. Subbakrishna was immediate past Head of the Department, who also functioned as Dean (Basic Sciences) from April 2011 to June 2014. He was instrumental in the curriculum development for PhD Coursework at NIMHANS. 

 The Department aims to provide statistical consultation and service to researchers, to impart training and academic teaching in biostatistical, computational and research methods. The department also involved in the development and application of Biostatistical methods, and to contribute the advancement and application of computer oriented statistical procedures to analyze data pertaining to mental health and neuro sciences. Moreover it is aimed to co-ordinate and to standardize the collection of medical statistics and other relevant information at this institute.