Research

My research interests include ways to clinically evaluate weight management programs, improve the clinical practice of metabolic medicine by innovating EHR care pathway and facilitate education of obesity and lifestyle medicine among physicians. I have received few grants including MASH Care Pathway Educational Grant, Kaiser Grant and Food as Medicine Essentials Grants. I am actively exploring innovative ideas to incorporate digital health tools in metabolic medicine. I have published the clinical evaluation of weight management programs in many peer reviewed journals and have co-authored many narrative reviews in obesity and lifestyle medicine topics. Below is the list of selected peer review publications.

Peer Reviewed Publications

1. Sannidhi D, Abeles R, Andrew W, Bonnet JP, Vitale K, Niranjan V, Gulati M, Pauly K, Moran R, Alexander L, et al. Lifestyle Medicine for Obesity in the Era of Highly Effective Anti-Obesity Treatment. Nutrients. 2025; 17(14):2382. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17142382

2. Niranjan Varalakshmi, Wu H, Niranjan A, Using machine learning to predict the attendance of patients for follow-up visits in a lifestyle-medicine based obesity clinic. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (AJLM)Volume 19 issue 1 suppl March 2025.

3. Ramesh P.R, Krishnan P, Prabhu S, Srinivasan V, Niranjan Varalakshmi, Diagnosis and Management of Metabolic Dysfunction- Associated Steatotic Liver Disease in South Asians- A Clinical Review, Obesity Pillars, Oct 2024, doi.org/10.1016/j.obpill.2024.100142

4. Niranjan Varalakshmi, Ozimek Jennifer Case Report of a Female Western India Vegetarian with Obesity, Obesity Pillars, Oct 2024, doi.org/10.1016/j.obpill.2024.100137

5. Niranjan Varalakshmi Why I love being a PCP- Poem published in Society of General Internal Medicine Forum February 2023 (SGIM Forum – SGIM Forum Newsletter)  

6. Bays Harold Edward, Shrestha Amardeep, Niranjan Varalakshmi, Khanna Monu, Kambhamettu Lalitha, Obesity Pillars roundtable: Obesity and South Asians, Obesity Pillars, Vol 1, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obpill.2021.100006   

7. Zeng F, Shames B, Appel E, Niranjan Varalakshmi, Mortensen E, Maheshwari. N, Bilateral sciatic hernias in an elderly woman successfully managed with robotic surgery: A case report and literature review, International Journal of Surgery Case Reports, Volume 86, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijscr.2021.106333

8. Niranjan Varalakshmi, Sliwinska A, Chen F, Ramanan S, Maheshwari N, Wu H. Lessons learnt from a single physician-led weight loss program in primary care setting. Int J Clin Pract, 16 Sept 2021 75: e14535. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijcp.14535

9. Niranjan Varalakshmi -Innovative way to create physician supervised weight loss program in primary care office setting –Abstracts from the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine -Journal General Internal Medicine 34, 99–867 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-05007-5   

10. Venkatachalam, Varalakshmi, D’Attilio, Karen, Lewis, Ann, Acevedo, Myrtha. Anticoagulation in Ambulatory Care: An Evidence-Based Review of the Literature. Prof Case Manag.12(2):106-111, 2007. doi:10.1097/01.PCAMA.0000265345.47268.bd

11. Venkatachalam Varalakshmi, Web Based Interactive Dermatological and Fundoscopic curriculum for Internal Medicine Residents. Scientific Abstracts J Gen Intern Med 21,188-189,2006 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00469.x

12. Venkatachalam, Varalakshmi. Educating the next generations on Diabetes Care- How are we doing? – A Report on Quality Assessment of Diabetes Mellitus in an Ambulatory practice of a teaching hospital. Journal of General Internal Medicine volume 19, 147 2004 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.S1006_1.x 

13. Venkatachalam, Varalakshmi A tale of Two Tumors J Gen Intern Med.17 Suppl 1:27-76 2002. doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.17.s1.9.x (Page 76) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1495151/pdf/jgi_abs.pdf  

14. Venkatachalam, Varalakshmi. Destiny More than Geography- Connecticut Medicine. Oct; 68(9): 588. 2004 PMID: 15532440

15. Venkatachalam Varalakshmi, Idowu A, Jeevan S. Spinal tumor: a diagnostic lesson. J Accident Emergency Medicine. May15 (3):199. 1998 doi: 10.1136/emj.15.3.199. PMID: 9639190