The department is headed by Dr. V. Mohan, MD, FRCP (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Ireland), Ph.D, DSc, D.Sc (Hon. Causa), FNASc, whose interests in diabetology span over three decades.

Visual disability from diabetes is a significant public health problem and the need of the hour is to assess the burden of different aspects of eye problems seen in diabetes. With this in view the Ocular Research Unit at the MDRF was established in 1996 to study the retinal diseases seen in diabetes.

The department under the guidance of Dr. Guha Pradeepa plays a very important role in the development of scientific research through liaison with other departments by assisting in proposal writing to obtain national and international grants to carryout collaborative research 

The department under the guidance of Dr. Guha Pradeepa plays a very important role in the development of scientific research through liaison with other departments by assisting in proposal writing to obtain national and international grants to carryout collaborative research of International standards and formulation of reports of projects. 

Physical inactivity is one of the major modifiable risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and obesity and is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality causing an estimated 3.2 million deaths globally. 

The Department of Data Management & Biostatistics was founded in 2006 to particularly cater to the needs of the large scale epidemiological studies launched by the Department of Epidemiology.