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Indian doc to lead children's hospital at Stanford

Som Chivukula

For nearly a decade, Vadiyala Mohan Reddy has been widely recognised as one of the pre-eminent paediatric cardiac surgeons in the world.

At the University of California, San Francisco, Reddy has been the associate professor of surgery and director of paediatric cardiac surgery since 1992. Along with Frank Hanley, professor and chief of cardiothoracic surgery, Reddy helped build the school's paediatric services to rate among the best in the country. A US News & World Report recently rated UCSF's paediatric services as the best in northern California.

Though they were able to achieve a lot of success professionally, the doctors were not able to build a world-class heart facility at UCSF.

But beginning this November, they will have that opportunity. Both will be switching schools to lead the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University. Hanley will become director of the new Children's Heart Centre and Reddy will be the division chief for heart surgical services.

"Both of us have been here for a while (UCSF)," Reddy, 42, noted. "We decided to move since the Packard Hospital has a new heart unit and it has the potential to become one of the best in the world."

Reddy said he would like to bring the UCSF tradition of recruiting the best surgeons to Stanford. "We want to build the programme by recruiting and training the best," he said.

Philip Pizzo, dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, feels the presence of Hanley and Reddy will boost the programme and enable it to compete with the top-rated Boston Children's Hospital, affiliated with the Harvard University.

"My goal for Packard Children's Hospital is to rival it," he told the San Francisco Chronicle.

His views were echoed by Packard president and CEO Christopher Dawes.

"Combined with our existing world-class team, Hanley and Reddy's wealth of knowledge and experience establishes the children's heart surgery programme at Packard as a national leader in the treatment of paediatric conditions," Dawes said.

"We are very excited to have them join our faculty and expand the breadth and capacity of the services offered to paediatric patients in our Children's Heart Centre."

Reddy said he was ready for the challenge since he had dedicated the last decade of his life to providing children's care.

Reddy received his medical degree from Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal and trained at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He served as senior resident at The Children's Hospital in Boston for two years. In 1992, Reddy joined UCSF as a fellow and then became an associate professor.

He lives in San Francisco with his wife Anita.

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