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 Clinical Epidemiology & Medical Statistics doctoral candidate at the University of Newcastle Australia (UON). He is an Associate Lecturer in Medical Education at UON Callaghan and Gosford campuses. He worked with the Centre For Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Hunter Medical Research Institute) and the Joint Medical Program (JMP phase one, UON) in these capacities.

In 2022-23, Abhijit was a Lecturer in Medical Education at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. As a lecturer, he made a major contribution to implementing team-based learning in Griffith's new postgraduate Doctor of Medicine curriculum.

Doctoral 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 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.

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

Abhijit presented results from his doctoral research at the Australian Society for Medical Research Satellite Scientific Meetings (2019, 2024), Australian Public Health Conferences (2019, 2024), Preventive Health Conference (2025) and UON HDR Student Festivals (2023, 2024).

You can learn about Abhijit's research here-

CRCA Early Career Researcher Showcase 2018

Sydney ResBaz 2018 Lightning Talk (Macquarie University)

Undergraduate 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 JMP students. He is part of the teaching team for the Clinical Sciences, Scholarship and Practice courses.

Abhijit extensively assessed JMP objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) for UON phase one students, conducted multiple skills assessment interviews for JMP admission, wrote examination items (MCQ), and marked research assignments. In 2020, he was a guest lecturer for the Research for Medical Professionals Part A course.

Teaching and Learning Internship at UON:

In 2017, Abhijit was one of the School of Medicine and Public Health Higher Degree Research 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 and 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. The extensive learning during the internship ultimately led him to join UON as an academic in 2019.

Undergraduate Supervision at UON:

In 2018, Abhijit got his first taste as an undergraduate supervisor during the teaching and learning internship. In 2021, he was a statistical supervisor for four JMP students for the MD research project "Does the MD make a difference to Professional Identity?" In 2024-2025, Abhijit is a co-supervisor of four JMP students for their MD research project.

Other Experience:

Abhijit strongly supports inclusion and diversity and is an ALLY at UON. In 2022, he was selected as a postgraduate student 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 mentored medical students since 2005 and has accumulated broad experience as a student mentor. Before moving to Australia to pursue a PhD, he was a pathology lecturer at the Chattogram Maa-O-Shishu Hospital Medical College Bangladesh. He also had postgraduate hospital training in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology.

Abhijit was a member of UON 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 was a member of the ACHIEVE Innovative Teaching & Learning Research Subgroup. He is a Hunter Medical Research Institute (Population Health Program) affiliate and a Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour member.