Dr. Piyush Kalakoti is a Scientist-D at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Government of India. Prior to joining ICMR, Dr. Kalakoti co-founded MedResearchX Private Limited, an early-stage Indian healthcare and technology startup headquartered in Mumbai, and was its erstwhile Director and Chief Scientific Officer. During the company’s formative phase, Dr. Kalakoti helped establish its founding vision, scientific culture, and strategic direction; led the early development of its clinical research, digital-health, data-analytics, automation, and applied artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives; and helped define its initial product-development roadmap. MedResearchX™ was established as an integrated healthcare and technology platform spanning research services, digital infrastructure, automation, and AI-enabled solutions. The company subsequently expanded these capabilities into a broader ecosystem of specialist-led services, managed systems, AI agents, and workflow automation designed to support healthcare professionals, researchers, hospitals, healthcare organizations, and academic and research institutions, with a progressive pathway toward scalable software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) products. Dr. Kalakoti previously served as Vice President of Strategy & Growth at SIVA.AI, Inc., a U.S.-based digital-health venture developing SaaS solutions for spine-care navigation, clinical workflow optimization, and patient engagement, with a long-term roadmap toward Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) applications.
A physician-scientist and healthcare entrepreneur, Dr. Kalakoti’s research spans spine and spinal disorders, cerebrovascular disease and stroke, cranial neurosurgery and neuro-oncology, neurotrauma, functional neurosurgery and epilepsy surgery, neuroimaging, surgical outcomes and health services research, clinical trials and multicenter research, and digital health. A native of Mumbai, Dr. Kalakoti earned his medical degree from Rural Medical College in India and began his clinical career as a junior resident in Orthopedics and Trauma. He subsequently completed Postdoctoral Clinical Research Fellowships in Neurosurgery at Louisiana State University and in Orthopedic Spine at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. He attended the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he undertook graduate coursework toward a Master of Public Health (MPH).
Dr. Kalakoti was a Faculty in the Department of Surgery at Yale University School of Medicine [2022-2024]. His most recent academic appointment was at University of Iowa Health Care, where he played a pivotal role in launching the DIRECT clinical trial——a pragmatic, multicenter, open-label, cluster randomized crossover study with cumulative funding totaling $10.84 million. During the trial’s inaugural year, Dr. Kalakoti was instrumental in formulating the Study Protocol and the Manual of Procedures (MOP), which are now being implemented across 20 participating clinical sites in the United States, as well as the trial’s Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) Charter.
Dr. Kalakoti currently serves on the Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee of the North American Spine Society (NASS), having been appointed for three consecutive terms spanning 2019–2028. He co-authored two evidence-based clinical guidelines addressing the diagnosis and treatment of adults with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures and neoplastic vertebral fractures. He has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications, five book chapters, and more than 100 scientific presentations at national and international conferences. He serves as an Associate Editor for Trials and Frontiers in Surgery, and as a peer reviewer for more than a dozen clinical and scientific journals.