Reddy Dhanireddy, MBBS, FAAP
Ramasubbareddy Dhanireddy, MBBS, FAAP
Dr. Dhanireddy graduated from Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India in
1974. He then completed: (1) Residency in Pediatrics at Louisiana State University Medical
Center, Lafayette, and New Orleans, LA (1976-78); (2) Fellowship in Neonatology at
Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC (1978-80); and (3) Medical Staff Research Fellowship at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD),
Bethesda, MD (1982-84). He was a faculty member at Georgetown and an Adjunct Scientist at NICHD (1984-1999) and was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1998. He was a Professor and Chief of Neonatology Division at LSUHSC-Shreveport for six years before joining UTHSC in 2005 as Sheldon Korones Endowed Professor and Chief of Neonatology, a position he held till
December 2017. In 2017 the Chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) named him a University Distinguished Professor for his “many accomplishments and contributions during years of distinguished service”. He also served as the Interim Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from September 2021-March 2022.
Dr. Dhanireddy has published extensively with over 90 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and over 150 presentations at national and international meetings. ResearchGate ranks him among the top 5% of researchers listed by that organization. He was among the first to report on human milk use and infections and retinopathy in the premature newborns and is quoted extensively in that field. He was one of the original investigators in the use of pulmonary surfactant, Exosurf, in newborns with immature lungs that lead to FDA approving Exosurf for clinical use in 1990. This has resulted in substantial reduction in neonatal mortality and infant mortality worldwide.
While in Memphis he passionately led many quality improvement initiatives that resulted in significant reduction in neonatal mortality and infant mortality in Memphis and Shelby County. He improved human milk use in preterm black infants from 15 to over 90%. He also led several quality improvement initiatives throughout the State of Tennessee as Medical Director and founding member of the Tennessee Initiative for Perinatal Quality Care, a statewide organization involved in improving neonatal and perinatal care. For his community involvement and enthusiastic advocacy for maternal and newborn health, Memphis Business Journal selected him as one of the Healthcare Heroes Finalists in 2009, 2016 and 2018.
While at University of Tennessee, in addition to leading the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Regional Medical Center (a busy county hospital with many high-risk preterm babies), he was also the Director of another NICU at the Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and grew it from six beds to sixty bed level IV unit in five years. Today Le Bonheur Children’s NICU is recognized as one of the top NICUs in the Country by U.S. News and World Report and has been for several years in a row.
Dr. Dhanireddy trained over 50 fellows in Neonatology during his career at three different universities and has been consistently rated as an excellent clinician, teacher, and mentor. In addition to mentoring neonatology fellows, he has mentored many medical students, PhD candidates, postdocs, and faculty members. He is also a national senior mentor for the Academic Pediatrics Association’s New Century Scholars Resident Mentoring Program. In 2018 the Department of Pediatrics faculty at UTHSC recognized Dr. Dhanireddy as the best clinician for his contributions in improving newborn clinical care.
He is consistently listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Top
Doctors in America, and Best Doctors in America. In 2018 he was recognized by Marquis Who’s Who with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed on less than 5% of Marquis Who’s Who listees.
In addition to his clinical and research contributions in the United States, Dr. Dhanireddy is actively involved in improving newborn care in India. He has been a visiting professor at many Indian Medical Colleges including premier institutions like All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and Postgraduate Institute of India, Chandigarh. Since 2017, he has been an honorary professor and consultant at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS) in Sewagram, Maharashtra. He visits MGIMS two to three times year and conducts weekly Zoom conferences with the MGIMS faculty. He mentors the PG students with their thesis work. His QI activities at MGIMS have led to significant improvements in neonatal morbidity and mortality at that institution and optimization of antimicrobial use. He continues to invest his time weekly during the pandemic with the MGIMS faculty and trainees.
Even with his busy academic career, he served the United States of America as an officer in the Air Force Reserve for 21 years including Desert Shield and Desert Strom. He worked at the three-star Air Force Surgeon General Office in Pentagon for seven years as a Colonel, where he oversaw human research Air Force-wide and authored several regulations in the conduct of human research in the Air Force. He was awarded the Legion of Merit and three Meritorious Service Medals for his exemplary service in the Air Force. Dr. Dhanireddy was an executive member of the Reserve Officer Association of America (ROA) as its National Surgeon and in that role, he interacted with Congressional staff advocating on issues that concern Reserve Officers and advised ROA on military health matters.
Dr. Dhanireddy has been involved with American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), initially as President of Kurnool Medical College Alumni of North America and currently as one of the Deputy Editors for the Journal of the AAPI. He was awarded the AAPI Most
Distinguished Physician Award in July 2021. Dr. Dhanireddy is an elected member of the
American Pediatric Society, Society for Pediatric Research and the Alpha Omega Alpha and an Honorary Distinguished Fellow of the Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.
Financial relationships
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Type of financial relationship:There are no financial relationships to disclose.Date added:06/09/2022Date updated:06/09/2022