Dedicated to advancing rheumatology education worldwide
On Feb. 2, 2024, distinguished professor of medicine and rheumatology Debashish Danda, MBBS, MD, DM, FRCP, was lost to the world following a tragic motor vehicle accident. Dr. Danda was highly respected both in his home country of India and on the international stage for his contributions to advancing rheumatology education and patient care, and for his broad vision of the global nature of medicine and medical progress.
Through our many interactions with him over the years, we appreciated Dr. Danda as a dedicated scholar and a wonderful host. We are grateful for his dedication to his colleagues, and for his energy and advice to us in the international community in helping create an inclusive environment in which learners at all stages could thrive in their careers. He worked tirelessly to improve the care of patients with rheumatic diseases not only in India, but across the Asia-Pacific region and worldwide.
Dr. Danda completed his bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery (MBBS) at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, India, and his doctor of medicine (MD), specializing in internal medicine, at Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, and a three-year post-doctoral degree (DM) in clinical immunology at Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. He was on the faculty of medicine at the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, India, from 1996 to his retirement in 2023. During this time, he also served a three-year advanced traineeship in rheumatology in Adelaide, Australia. At CMC, he was the founder and, most recently, immediate past chair and professor in the Department of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, and established a highly regarded rheumatology fellowship program.
In rheumatology science, Dr. Danda was especially well known for his contributions to vasculitis and connective tissue diseases. He was an internationally recognized authority on vasculitis and oversaw more than 1,000 patients with Takayasu arteritis, and a similar number of patients with primary Sjögren disease in his clinics. He and his colleagues contributed one of the largest number of patients with Takayasu arteritis and other vasculitides from a single center to the DCVAS-ACR-EULAR database for classification of vasculitis. He authored/coauthored more than 200 scientific publications, including the highly cited Indian Takayasu Arteritis score, a novel disease assessment instrument for Takayasu arteritis. His publications and his numerous book chapters and hundreds of presentations to medical audiences in India and around the world reflect an astonishing breadth of interests. There are very few diseases in rheumatology that his work did not touch.