Dr Abhijit Chowdhury

An aspiring Clinical Epidemiologist and a passionate Medical Educator with a lifelong motto to help patients and contribute to the development of the medical workforce globally.

Affiliations:

Dr Abhijit Chowdhury is a penultimate-year PhD candidate in Clinical Epidemiology & Medical Statistics at the University of Newcastle Australia (UON). He is an Associate Lecturer in Medical Education (2019-2022; Feb 2023-Current) at the UON Callaghan and Central Coast campuses. In these capacities, he worked with the Centre For Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Hunter Medical Research Institute) and the Joint Medical Program (JMP Phase: 01, UON). In the 2022-23 academic year, Abhijit was a Lecturer in Medical Education at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.

PhD Project:

Abhijit's doctoral project examined the impact of depression, anxiety and antidepressant medications on the risk of osteoporosis and fractures among adult Australians.

Previous epidemiological research showed a higher risk of osteoporosis and/or fracture among people with depression/anxiety than people without depression/anxiety. Studies also suggested that serotonergic antidepressants can impact bone density negatively. Different biological and behavioural factors have been implicated in the relationship between depression/anxiety/antidepressant medications and osteoporosis/fracture, yet inconclusive.

To understand this relationship in the Australian context and add more to the current evidence base, Abhijit analysed the health data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health and the Hunter Community Study, two Australia-based cohort studies.

You can learn about Abhijit's research here-

CRCA Early Career Researcher Showcase 2018

Sydney ResBaz 2018 Lightning Talk (Macquarie University)

As part of the PhD program, Abhijit completed four courses in Epidemiology, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics with two distinctions (75% or over marks) and two high distinctions (85% or over marks). These courses formed a strong foundation for his research work during his PhD. During the PhD confirmation process in 2017, all of Abhijit's confirmation panellists remarked his presentation as 'outstanding', demonstrating his sound understanding of the research project.

In 2019, Abhijit's PhD project results were accepted for presentation at six Australian conferences. He presented the results at the 2019 Australian Society for Medical Research Satellite Scientific Meeting and Australian Public Health Conference 2019.

In 2023, Abhijit presented his research at the UON HDR Student Festival. His presentation ranked top among twenty-two oral exhibits in the Clinical Care, Health Behaviour, or Implementation Science category.

Teaching at UON:

As an Associate Lecturer at UON, Abhijit facilitated face-to-face and online clinical skills sessions and problem-based learning tutorials (PBL) for year one, two and three medical students. He also assessed the objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) for UON Phase: 01 students; assessed the multiple skills assessment interviews for JMP admission; wrote examination items (MCQ), and marked assignments.

Abhijit is highly skilled in online teaching using Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate and Skype. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he facilitated two hundred hours of online clinical skills sessions/assessments/PBL tutorials (March 2020 to August 2021) for the JMP year two and one students.

In 2020, Abhijit was a guest lecturer for the Research for Medical Professionals Part A course. In 2021, Abhijit joined the newly established Central Coast Clinical School as a clinical skills tutor.

Teaching and Learning Internship at UON:

In 2017, Abhijit was one of the five UON School of Medicine and Public Health Teaching and Learning Internship awardees. As a part of the internship, throughout 2018, he attended three courses on university teaching, assessment, and clinical teaching and supervision. During the internship, he joined The Academy of Clinical Educators.

As a Teaching and Learning Intern, Abhijit tutored the year-three General Practice and Subspecialties courses. He also supervised five year-three medical students placed overseas for the Health Equity Selectives course.

During this internship, Abhijit's extensive learning experience ultimately paved the way to join as a UON academic in 2019.

Research Supervision Experience:

Abhijit got his first taste as a research supervisor during the Teaching and Learning Internship. In 2021, he was a statistical supervisor for four year-four JMP medical students for the MD research project "Does the MD make a difference to Professional Identity?" In 2024, Abhijit co-supervises four year-three JMP students for their MD research project.

Other Experience:

Abhijit is a strong supporter of inclusion and diversity. He is an ALLY at UON. In 2022, he was selected as a member of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee for the UON College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing.

Abhijit was a Peer Mentor at UON. He has been mentoring medical students since 2005 and has accumulated broad experience as a student mentor.

Before moving to Australia to pursue a PhD, Abhijit was a Lecturer of Pathology at the Chattogram Maa-O-Shishu Hospital Medical College Bangladesh. He had postgraduate Internal Medicine and Endocrinology training and practised as a General Practitioner in urban and rural Bangladesh.

Abhijit is contributing to different medical education research projects in Bangladesh. At UON, he was a member of the MERIT Net - Medical Education, Research, Innovation and Teaching Network and collaborated with colleagues in the Health Professional Education Pathway (years four and five) across UON and JMP footprints. MERIT Net transformed to ACHIEVE - Academy for Health Interprofessional Education and Vibrant Excellence, and Abhijit is a member of ACHIEVE Innovative Teaching & Learning Research Subgroup.

Since 2018, Abhijit has been a conjoint research fellow with the Centre for Global Health Research, Diabetic Association of Bangladesh. Abhijit is a Hunter Medical Research Institute (Population Health Program) affiliate and a Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour member.

Prizes, Grants and Scholarships at UON:

Abhijit is an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship and the University of Newcastle Research Scholarship recipient. Since 2015, as a PhD candidate, he has been awarded nine UON scholarships/prizes/small grants (total ~ $133,000). In 2019, he won the faculty heat of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition and represented the faculty in the university final. You can enjoy his 3MT final performance here-

 "Does Your Mood Affect Your Bones?"

Kindness, empathy, and a helping attitude lie at the core of Abhijit's teaching and mentoring philosophy. Patient care and teaching are his passions. In his free time, Abhijit loves to play chess and learns about history, archeology, paleontology, international relations, cosmology and astronomy.