Madhava Ram Balakrishnan
Revive Foundation India
Madhava Ram Balakrishnan
Dr Madhava Ram Balakrishnan is a medical epidemiologist and global health specialist currently serving at the World Health Organization, where he works on pharmacovigilance and vaccine safety. With over two decades of experience, he has supported national immunization programmes and regulatory authorities in designing and strengthening surveillance systems, with a focus on adverse events following immunization and maternal immunization safety.
He has led the development of global guidance, tools and training for vaccine safety, including innovative digital platforms for case investigation, causality assessment and data integration. His work emphasizes harmonized systems, evidence-based decision-making and capacity-building across countries.
In parallel, Dr Balakrishnan has advanced community-based initiatives on healthy ageing through the Revive Foundation, a not-for-profit trust established in 2008. The Foundation focuses on promoting dignity, intergenerational engagement and sustainable models of elder care. Early initiatives included the “Aaniver” programme, which fostered connections between older adults, students and communities through participatory activities and health promotion.
He has also co-led a large-scale cross-sectional survey of older persons in Coimbatore (n = 2,232), applying multistage stratified sampling to assess demographic, health, social and economic determinants of well-being. The study identified key challenges including financial dependency, limited health insurance coverage and social isolation, informing policy-relevant recommendations for age-friendly urban planning and community-based care .
Dr Balakrishnan has contributed to positioning Kochi as an age-friendly city within the WHO Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities, facilitating collaboration between municipal authorities, technical experts and global stakeholders. His current work integrates ageing, climate resilience and community systems, with a strong emphasis on practical, scalable solutions.
His professional interests lie at the intersection of surveillance systems, healthy ageing, and community-centred innovation, with a commitment to translating global evidence into locally relevant action.
FURTHER INFORMATION
| Countries | India; International; |
|---|---|
| Topics | Access to care; Age-friendliness; Ageing in place; Artificial Intelligence; Attitudes and Expectations about Long-Term Care; Care innovations; Digital Technology; Economics of LTC; Home/domiciliary care; Living alone; Loneliness among older people; |
| Methods | Artificial Intelligence; Case studies; Causal inference in Long-Term Care; Data science and LTC research; Focus groups; Guidelines development; |
| Role | Research; |
| Interest Groups | Ageing and Place; Climate Change and LTC; Economics of Long-Term Care; Innovation in Long-Term Care; Qualitative Research; Technology and Long-Term Care; |
| http://www.linkedin.com/in/drmadhavaram | |
| Research interests | 1. Vaccine safety and pharmacovigilance systems
2. Digital health and data systems for surveillance
3. Maternal and neonatal safety in immunization
4. Ageing, community health and long-term care models
5. Age-friendly environments and urban health
6. Health systems strengthening and policy translation
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| Key publications | Assessment of causality of individual adverse events following immunization (AEFI): A WHO tool for global use. Vaccine, Volume 31, |