K. Ranga Rama Krishnan, MB ChB

Senior Advisor to the CEO, RUSH University System for Health

Senior Advisor to the CEO, RUSH University System for Health

Ranga Krishnan

Since July 2022, K. Ranga Rama Krishnan, MB ChB, has been senior advisor to Dr. Omar Lateef, the president and CEO of RUSH University System for Health and RUSH University Medical Center. Krishnan previously had been CEO of the RUSH system since May 2019. Prior to becoming CEO, he had been the dean of RUSH Medical College from October 2015 to May 2019.

Krishnan reorganized the college's curriculum to keep it at the forefront of medical education. Among other features, the revised curriculum provides students with prerecorded instructional content. This innovation reduces class time spent on lectures and shifts the emphasis to teams of students collaborating on case studies.

Students also work on state-of-the-art simulators in the Rush Center for Clinical Skills and Simulation. First implemented during the 2017-2018 school year, the revised curriculum helps students develop critical clinical skills earlier, better preparing them to enter residency training after graduation and make an immediate impact on patients.

As system CEO, Krishnan lead innovation of care delivery throughout the system by organizing providers around patients, diseases and conditions rather than by department or division enabling greater multidisciplinary collaboration. This service line approach empowers providers to share expertise — and, ultimately, improve patient care, quality and safety. Sharing resources allows RUSH to operate more efficiently and create an integrated network of care across the system. Krishnan helped establish the liver, cancer, cardiac, neurology and neurosurgery, and mental health service lines.

In addition, Krishnan was instrumental in forging key external partnerships, including one with Tempus — a Chicago-based technology company with expertise in gene sequencing and analysis — to search for potentially relevant genetic patterns in cancer patients who are unlikely to respond to conventional therapies. Krishnan also restructured RUSH's innovation and technology strategy, including the Innovation and Technology Transfer Office, which manages intellectual properties (IP) and assists inventors, authors and other creators of intellectual property at RUSH in the process of IP disclosure, protection, marketing and licensing.

Prior to joining RUSH, Krishnan served for eight years as dean of the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, a joint venture between Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the National University of Singapore. During his tenure, Duke-NUS developed a new teaching method called Team LEAD (Learn, Engage, Apply, Develop), which has since been adopted by other universities and high schools.

Krishnan arrived at Duke University Medical Center in 1981 where he began a residency in psychiatry followed by a fellowship in neurobiology. He joined the Duke faculty in 1985 and was a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences from 1995 to 2015. As chairman of the department from 1998 until 2009, he implemented an innovative continuing-education network while overseeing more than 490 faculty members.

A native of Madras, India, Krishnan received his medical degree from Madras Medical College in 1978, after which he served a rotating internship at Madras Medical College Government General Hospital. Beginning in 1980, he served as senior house officer at Queen Elizabeth Hospital at the University of West Indies in Barbados.

A member of several editorial boards at various scientific journals, Krishnan has written two books on the art of learning. He authored more than 50 textbook chapters and 450 peer-reviewed papers on the subjects of elderly depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s, panic disorder, bipolar disorder in late life and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

A member of the National Academy of Medicine, Krishnan has received numerous honors and awards, including the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry; the Edward Strecker Award from the University of Pennsylvania; the research award for mood disorders, 2015, and the research award for geriatric psychiatry 2009, both from the American College of Psychiatry; the Gerald Klerman Award for research in mood disorders from the Depressive and Bipolar Support Alliance, 2002; and the C. Charles Burlingame Award for his lifetime achievements in psychiatric research and education. For his service to Singapore, he received both the Public Service Medal and the Honorary Citizen Award from the president of Singapore.