Dr. Jitendra Nath Pande (J.N. Pande; 14 June 1941 – 23 May 2020) was a pioneering Indian pulmonologist, clinician and medical educator. He served as Professor and Head of the Department of Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and is remembered as one of the founders of modern respiratory medicine and critical care in northern India. He was posthumously awarded the Padma Shri in 2021.

Born on 14 June 1941 in Shikohabad, Uttar Pradesh, to Madan Mohan Pande (a school teacher) and Kamla Devi Pande, he joined AIIMS as an undergraduate medical student in 1958. He completed his MBBS in 1963 (topping his class) and MD in Medicine in 1966 from the same institution. He later trained in pulmonary physiology at Hammersmith Hospital, London; fibre-optic bronchoscopy at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm; and clinical epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, USA.

Dr. Pande joined the faculty at AIIMS and rose to become one of the youngest Professors of Medicine. He headed the Department of Medicine from 1993 until his retirement in 2003. He established one of India’s first medical intensive care units at AIIMS and performed the country’s first fibre-optic bronchoscopy. His research spanned high-altitude physiology, lung mechanics, exercise physiology, interstitial lung disease and the health effects of air pollution.

A landmark 1997–98 study led by his team on outdoor air pollution and emergency-room visits in Delhi was cited by the Supreme Court of India in its judgement that led to the ban on diesel buses in the capital. He also served as Director of the Clinical Epidemiology Unit and Chief of the SRB Centre of Clinical Pharmacology at AIIMS. He was personal physician to the President of India and treated many public figures.

Known as an “encyclopaedia of medicine,” he was a brilliant diagnostician, a stickler for punctuality and a teacher who inspired generations of doctors. Even after retirement he continued to see around 50 patients a day at the Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science and Research in New Delhi until shortly before his death.

“Look at the patient, not just the reports,” he would tell his students. “The history and clinical examination still hold the answers.”

Dr. J.N. Pande died on 23 May 2020 in New Delhi after contracting COVID-19. In 2021 the Government of India honoured him posthumously with the Padma Shri for his lifetime contributions to medicine, education and public health.