Dr. Santhanam Lakshminarayanan has been promoted to Division Chief of Rheumatology at UConn Health. He will continue with many of his clinical research endeavors, as well as the directorship of the Rheumatology Fellowship Program, a post he has held for the past several years.
“This Division has a proud and significant history,” says Lakshminarayanan. “I’m looking forward to working in this next phase and seeking ways to serve our mutual mission of elevated standards of care for our patients.”
Lakshminarayanan joined UConn Health in 2002 with an area of expertise focused on scleroderma, gout and systemic rheumatic disease. He conducts clinical trials on scleroderma, Raynaud’s phenomenon, systemic lupus erythematosus, and inflammatory arthritis.
“My vision is to establish new patient early arthritis clinic and autoimmune connective tissue disease clinic,” explains Lakshminarayanan. “The establishment of these disease specific clinics will lead to a Lupus Center, a Scleroderma Center, and Autoimmune Disease in Pregnancy Center, a multispecialty Vasculitis Center to name but a few of the many possibilities.”
Lakshminarayanan also wants to initiate a monthly ultrasound guided procedure clinic which will help attract fellowship candidates.
“All of this will be hard work but I believe we are ready,” says Lakshminarayanan. “We have two new faculty members, Dr. Ranadeep Mandhadi and Dr. Kristin Logee, who will help with these endeavors.”
Dr. Lakshminarayanan is a graduate of The Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, India and earned his M.B.B.S. at the University of Poona, India. He completed his residency and rheumatology fellowship training at the UConn School of Medicine.
He is a member of the International Scleroderma Clinical Trials Consortium and serves on the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) subcommittee for medical student and resident education. He is on the medical advisory board for the Connecticut chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America.
“There is a lot going for us at UConn Health and with new energy and vigor I truly believe we are ready to build a robust clinical enterprise that will become a destination for patients with rheumatic diseases,” adds Lakshminarayanan.
