Ragavendra R. Baliga

Ragavendra R. Baliga, FACC, FACP, FRCP (Edin) is a Professor of Medicine at The Ohio State University School of Medicine in Columbus, Ohio. He is a consulting editor of Heart Failure Clinics of North America, an indexed medical journal along with James B. Young, MD, Executive Dean, Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. This is journal is known for editorials championing novel and esoteric mechanisms pertaining to cardiac function including ‘The Heart as the Concertina Pump’ and suggesting that stiffness of the great arteries contribute to cardiorenal syndrome. The most provocative editorial is a recent one that discusses the role of implantable cardiac defibrillators in sudden death. He is also Vice-Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, at The Ohio State University of Medical Center.
Using pioneering positron emission tomography techniques at the MRC Cyclotron Center at Hammersmith Hospital, London along with Prof J.S. Kooner, Dr Stuart Rosen and Prof Paulo Camici, he demonstrated that angina occurring after a meal is due to "intramyocardial steal", wherein blood is redistributed from ischemic areas of the myocardium to the normally supplied myocardial in order to maintain overall myocardial blood flow. This mechanistic paper was published in the journal "Circulation". Another paper published in the" American Journal of Cardiology" investigating the role of meal components showed that the carbohydrates contribute significantly to the pathogenesis of post-prandial angina. He also worked with Professor Christopher Mathias, FRCP, St. Mary’s Medical School and Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine and Prof Hans L. Frankel, FRCP, National Spinal Injuries Center, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Ayelsbury.
While at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School he worked with Thomas Woodward Smith, MD, Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Ralph A Kelly, MD. At that time he worked as a part of a team to tease out the intracellular cell signaling pathways in response to a paracrine growth factor Neuregulin-1 in the cardiac myocyte. This research shed light on the effects of trastuzumab/Herceptin (a medication used in the treatment of breast cancer) on the heart and was published in the "American Journal of Physiology" and "Journal of Biochemistry".
Baliga has written or edited a number of books but is best known for his book "250 Cases in Clinical Medicine", initially published by Balliere Tindall as 200 Cases in Clinical Medicine in June 1993, and later by W.B. Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier. He wrote this book at the age of 32. The book remains popular among medical students. His subsequent books include "Self-assessment in Clinical Medicine", Saunders, although in its 3rd edition and 500 MCQs for the MRCP Part I, 1997 also by Saunders. A more recent book, "Practical Cardiology", co-edited with Kim A Eagle, MD, and published by Lippincott Wilkins, is more popular.
Early career.
Baliga received an MBBS, from St. John's Medical College, Bangalore in 1984 and post-doctoral degree Doctor of Medicine, from Bangalore Medical College/Bangalore University in 1988. In 1988 along with Prof Anura Kurpad, MD he was founding editor of St. John’s Journal of Medicine which was subsequently edited by Prof Ashley D’Cruz, MBBS, MS, MCH and Prof Sunitha Simon Kurpad, MD. After a hiatus this journal has been resurrected and now rechristened "St. John’s Medical Journal".
He then migrated to the UK in 1988 and worked with Prof Hans Frankel, FRCP and Prof Christopher J Mathias, FRCP at the National Spinal Injuries Center affiliated with Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury, Oxford Regional Health Authority and St. Mary’s Medical School, Paddington, London. The research he conducted shed light on the post-prandial cardiovascular hemodynamics in quadriplegics. Between 1990-1992 he worked at Clinical Tutor at University of Aberdeen, and Registrar with Prof James Petrie, FRCP who later on became President of Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Prof Peter Brunt, FRCP, Prof John Webster, FRCP and Prof Nigel Benjamin, FRCP. From Scotland he moved the Hammersmith Hospital and Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London where he worked with Prof J.Kooner, FRCP and Prof Paolo Camici, FRCP at the MRC Cyclotron Center. He was involved with research pertaining to premature coronary artery disease in those hailing from the Indian sub-continent and he also investigated post-prandial hemodynamics.
He subsequently migrated to the US to work at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he was tutor on the New Pathway for Harvard medical students. He also worked with Prof Andrew Selwyn, FRCP, Professor of Harvard Medical School. His subsequent experience included working with Dr Wilson S. Colucci, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Cardiology at Boston University Medical Center and with Dr Clyde Yancy, MD and Dr Mark Drazner, MD at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Metaphrastic works.
Statin Prescribing Guide has been translated into Polish. Management of Heart Failure translated to Italian
Honors and awards.
Honoris Causa