Dr. Rao joined the University of Iowa on November 15, 2022. He received his BA from Johns Hopkins University in 2001. He completed his Physician Scientist (MD/PhD) training at Washington University School of Medicine in 2014; (Doctor of Medicine conferred May 2014, Doctor of Philosophy conferred May 2013). Dr. Rao completed pediatric residency training at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and completed postdoctoral research fellow training at the same institution in 2017. He completed pediatric critical care fellowship training at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in 2020. He has been serving as a Clinical Scholar in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Stanford University since 2020. During this time, he was mentored in a transplant immunology lab and provided clinical service in the PICU. He is board certified in pediatrics and board certified in pediatric critical care medicine.

Dr. Rao serves the division of Critical Care as a physician scientist. He will attend on both of the PICU inpatient teams, share on-call responsibilities, participate in teaching and educational activities within the department and to help continue the development of the Critical Care program in the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics. His initial responsibilities will be primarily research focused with additional responsibilities in academic time, clinical service, and teaching. His current research interests include how critical illness influences immune function in children and how these changes in immune function can be modulated to improve patient outcomes.