Staff Profile

Educational Qualification

M.A., M.Phil., MPS, Ph.D.

Personal Statement

As a scientist and synergizing 25 years of health economic research expertise and leadership, I head the Department of Health Economics at the ICMR-National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis in Chennai. My research areas include diverse socio-economic, behavioural and epidemiological research and intervention projects in the context of improving population health. I serve as the coordinator of the Regional Resource Hub for Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) and have led numerous projects as principal investigator and co-investigator. I have contributed over 146 publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals. My core interests include disease burden estimation and its translation into policy relevant evidence, where I have made significant contributions to research dissemination and policy application from ICMR-NIRT.

Research Focus

•Health Economics: Economic impact due to TB and other diseases

•Health Technology Assessment: economic evaluation of new health interventions

•To estimate the households experiencing catastrophic costs due to TB

•Interventions: Strategies to reduce catastrophic expenditure

Ongoing projects as Principal investigator

1. Regional Resource Hub at ICMR-NIRT for Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn)
2. Cost comparison analysis of RT-LAMP for additional Tuberculosis case detection in India
3. Cost comparison analysis of RT-PCR based diagnostic tools (Quantiplus, GeneNAT, PathoDetect, UniAmp & MeriNat) for additional Tuberculosis case detection in India.
4. Cost effectiveness of Nicotine replacement therapy, Bupropion and Varenicline vs Placebo for smoking cessation in people who smoke tobacco.
5. Costing of Health Services in India (CHSI- 2.0).
6. Technical Resource Centre for evidence synthesis under Centre for Evidence Based Guidelines, Department of Health Research
a. Clinical Use of Empirical Antibiotics for Septic Arthritis & Osteomyelitis and Their Bacterial Isolates & Susceptibility Patterns in India: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
b. Clinical Symptoms and Signs Necessitating the Use of Antibiotics in Acute Diarrhoea among Children and Adults: A Systematic Review
c. Lifestyle Interventions to Prevent or Delay the Onset of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome among Adolescent Girls: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
d. Effects of Bariatric Surgery on Reproductive, Metabolic, and Gynaecological Outcomes in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Significant Publications

1 R Rajeswari, R Balasubramaian, M Muniyandi, S Geetharamani, X Therasa, P Venkatesan. Socio-economic impact of tuberculosis on patients and family in India. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 1999 3(10):869-877.
2 Rajeswari R, Muniyandi M, Balasubramanian R, Narayanan PR. Perceptions of tuberculosis patients about their physical, mental and social well being: a field report from south India. Social Science & Medicine 2005; 60: 1845–1853.
3 M Muniyandi, R Ramachandran, PG Gopi, V Chandrasekaran, R Subramani, K Sadacharam, P Kumaran, T Santha, F Wares, PR Narayanan. The prevalence of tuberculosis in different economic strata: a community survey from south India. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2007; 11(9): 1042-1045.
4 M Muniyandi, Rjeswari R, R Balasubramanian, Nirupa C, PG Gopi, Jaggarajamma K, Sheela F, PR Narayanan. Evaluation of post-treatment health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among tuberculosis patients. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2007; 11(8): 887-892
5 M Muniyandi, Rajeswari Ramachandran. Socioeconomic inequalities of tuberculosis in India. Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy [Editorial] 2008; 9(10): 1-6.
6 M Muniyandi, Rajeswari Ramachandran, Rani Balasubramanian, PR Narayanan. Socio-economic dimensions of tuberculosis control: Review of studies over two decades from Tuberculosis Research Center. Journal of Communicable Diseases 2006; 38(3): 204-215
7 M Muniyandi, Rajeswari Ramachandran, Rani Balasubramanian. Costs to patients with tuberculosis treated under DOTS programme in south India. Indian Journal of Tuberculosis 2005; 52: 188-196.
8 M Muniyandi, Beena E Thomas, N Karikalan, T Kannan, K Rajendran, B Saravanan, Vikram Vohra, Tuoyo Okorosobo, Knut Lönnroth, Srikanth Prasad Tripathy. Association of Tuberculosis With Household Catastrophic Expenditure in South India. JAMA Network Open 2020; 3(2): e1920973
9 M Muniyandi, VG Rao, J Bhat, R Yadav, RK Sharma, MK Bhondeley. Health literacy on tuberculosis amongst vulnerable segment of population: special reference to Saharia tribe in central India. Indian J Med Res 2015; 141: 640-647
10 M Muniyandi, Beena E Thomas, N Karikalan, T Kannan, K Rajendran, C K Dolla, B Saravanan, A S Tholkappian, Srikanth Prasad Tripathy, Soumya Swaminathan. Catastrophic costs due to tuberculosis in South India: comparison between active and passive case finding. Transactions of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 2020; 1–8

Research Profiles