Ravi Nayak, M.D, Appointed Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine

After a national search, Ravi Nayak, M.D., will become chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and SSM Health SLUCare Physician Group.

Nayak is the James B. and Ethel D. Miller Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine and has served as interim chair of the internal medicine department since November 2017. He has been faculty of SLU School of Medicine since 2004 and the director of the adult cystic fibrosis program since 2005.

He has been a member of the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Center Committee since 2018. He has directed the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine since 2011 and served as the program director for the pulmonary disease/critical care fellowship program from 2011 to 2019.

As interim chair, Nayak has successfully recruited numerous key departmental leaders to Saint Louis University, including six division directors, five section chiefs and 10 program directors. He created a new division of palliative care and hospice medicine, expanded 24/7 hospital medicine teams and medical ICU service, and increased the department's clinical footprint.

The department has integrated critical care and hospital medicine services at Saint Mary’s Hospital to increase access to high value care starting this month. Under Nayak’s leadership, from 2017 to 2023, the internal medicine department faculty increased from 115 to 150. 

Nayak holds multiple recent grant awards from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and has served as principal investigator, co-investigator or sub-investigator on more than 30 clinical trials throughout his career. Under his leadership, the internal medicine department has 20 funded investigators and has increased research expenditures since 2018.
 
Nayak completed his medical education at Karnatak Medical College, Hubli, and residency in internal medicine at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore in India. He pursued his internal medicine residency and pulmonary disease/critical care fellowship at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. 
 
As chair, Nayak will continue to grow the clinical, educational, and research missions of the department and will strengthen collaboration across the School of Medicine and SSM Health.