Dr. Rahul Raman: A Leading Figure in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine

Dr. Rahul Raman‘s long journey into pediatric medicine began when he left his small town in India at ten to attend boarding school. There, he learned the importance of decision-making and self-sufficiency, the foundation for the hard work he would undertake that would eventually make him a leading figure in Pediatric Critical Care medicine. After medical school, Dr. Raman did his postgraduate work in India in pediatric medicine and wrote his dissertation about children infected with HIV. He also participated in India’s polio eradication effort, which was so successful that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared India polio-free in 2014. This dedication to helping children led Dr. Raman to work in the Pediatric Cardiac ICU in Delhi, India. Confronted with low resources, he “learned to optimize the meager resources for the best possible outcomes.” Recognizing the limitations of the training and resources available in his home country, he moved to the United States to further his education and develop his expertise in his chosen field of medicine.   

Residency and Fellowship

Though children suffering from illness continued to be the focus of his medical career, Dr. Raman’s residency in Brooklyn, New York, was for the underserved and low-income population in the borough. This would become a common denominator in his career as he has often practiced medicine in underserved areas worldwide. He worked in the Maldives as a pediatric consultant in the only hospital in the country at the time. Dr. Raman’s interest in helping sick children led him to train in a 3-year fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care, which was instrumental in preparing him for the next part of his career.   

Career in Iowa

With a wealth of experience and knowledge from his time training in New York and Detroit, he relocated to Iowa, where he worked in one of the three pediatric ICUs in the state. Here, he cared for children who needed surgery to repair congenital heart defects and participated as a member of the MercyOne team in their effort to help medically marginalized community in Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. MercyOne is an Iowa-based healthcare system. The team travelled to Mexico and identified children with congenital heart defects who needed cardiac surgery and arranged for their surgery in Des Moines, Iowa.   

Research Focus

Dr. Raman’s dedication to helping children is reflected in his desire to improve treatments through research. He received the Sarnaik grant for translational research for his work on “exhaled breath condensate,” which he regards as a “promising biomarker for lung disease.” This particular grant supports residents and fellows in their research.   

Collaboration

Dr. Raman is dedicated to “collaborating with other Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) and physicians to be at the forefront of medical care” for children. His goal continues to research rare childhood illnesses and the advancement of medicine in their treatment. He has been part of ‘Collaborative research in pediatric intensive care group’ (CoRE PCICS) and has collaborated on research focusing on Pulmonary Atresia with Intact Ventricular Septum (PA-IVS), a rare and complex congenital heart defect. Their work explores different aspects of its management and outcomes, employing both retrospective and multicenter approaches to gather substantial patient data. Dr. Raman’s research contributions have been recognized through numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at national and international conferences.   

Conclusion

From working in low-resource hospitals in India to being on the frontline of pediatric research, Dr. Raman’s determination to make a difference in the lives of children suffering from illness is a lynchpin of his medical career and success as a physician and researcher.