Abhishek Deshpande, MD, PhD, FIDSA

Abhishek Deshpande, MD, PhD, FIDSA, serves as Director, Medical Student Research Projects at Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. In this role, he oversees the development of medical student research activities, connects students with resources and opportunities to pursue research, and provides mentorship and support throughout their research process. In addition to this role, he holds an appointment as Associate Professor.

Prior to joining the School, Dr. Deshpande was an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He also served as a Senior Investigator in the Center for Value-based Care Research within the Departments of Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Deshpande earned his medical degree from Kasturba Medical College at Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India. He completed a doctorate of philosophy in cellular and molecular biology through the joint Kent State University/Cleveland Clinic program and completed postdoctoral fellowships in neuroscience and infectious diseases at the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University, respectively.

Since 2015, Dr. Deshpande’s research has been continuously funded by the federal government, most recently as Principal Investigator of a large multicenter cluster randomized controlled trial aimed at improving antimicrobial stewardship in patients with community-acquired pneumonia. His research focuses on improving the diagnosis and treatment of community-acquired pneumonia and preventing health care-associated infections, particularly Clostridioides difficile infection.

Dr. Deshpande has authored over 160 peer-reviewed publications, scientific presentations, and book chapters in medicine and health services research. He has served as a standing member of the Health Care Research Training Study Section at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and currently serves on study sections for the National Institutes of Health. He is an elected Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine.

An experienced educator, Dr. Deshpande received the Excellence in Research Education award for his work as Course Director for Epidemiology at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He has coauthored numerous papers with medical students and served as a thesis advisor on their research projects.