Rajni Rao, MD
Clinical Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

ACADEMIC INTERESTS: Dr. Rao has been an active leader in medical education, and has served as the course co-director for the cardiovascular curriculum for first-year medical students and the site leader of the innovative UCSF SOM Action Research Program pilot which helped inform today's Bridges Curriculum. She is also the faculty liaison for cardiovascular clerkships in the UCSF School of Medicine Parnassus campus, and teaches the end of the year CODA course to help prepare graduating students to handle cardiac emergencies during their residency.

ADMINISTRATIVE ROLES: Clinical Practice Chief and Ambulatory Clinical Chief of Cardiology 2012-2020.

ADMINISTRATIVE INTERESTS: As Clinical Chief, Dr. Rao helped design and build three new clinics in San Francisco and the East Bay, helped create the cardiology facets of the electronic health record at UCSF including designing risk calculators, billing tools, and resulting of tests to patients. She has implemented Lean management into the ambulatory clinics, has worked to improve patient experience, physician and staff experience. Dr. Rao created a pharmacist-run physical and virtual team based program for hypertension management to achieve high quality care with evidence based goals in a manner that optimizes patient engagement. She also helped found the Cardiology Outpatient Recovery (COR) program to address the special needs of Transitions of Care for cardiac patients being discharged from the hospital. Dr. Rao has worked with strategic partners to improve operational collaboration, and with various payers and Population Health programs to create high quality, cost-effective cardiac care.

• Comparison of computed tomography angiography and transesophageal echocardiography for evaluating aortic arch disease.
  Journal of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases : the official journal of National Stroke Association 2010 Barazangi N, Wintermark M, Lease K, Rao R, Smith W, Josephson SA
• Atypical ECG Characteristics of Atrial Flutter as an Exclusion to Ablation—A Missed Opportunity.
  Heart Lung and Circulation 2009 Stephen A. Joseph, Yanfei Yang, Ramford K. Ng, Sanjiv M. Narayan, Paul Varosy, Uday Kumar, Rajni Rao, Mintu Turakhia, Edmund C. Keung, Nitish Badhwar, Byron K. Lee, Zian H. Tseng, Randall J. Lee, …
• Cardiology. Crawford MH, DiMarco JP, Paulus WJ, ed
  Special problems in myocardial ischemia: the diagnosis of coronary artery disease in pre-noncardiac organ transplant patients 2009 Rao RK, Tunuguntula A
• Comparision of computed tomography angiography to transesophageal echocardiography for evaluation of aortic arch atheroma calcification. American Stroke Association Scientific Sessions
  Comparision of computed tomography angiography to transesophageal echocardiography for evaluation of aortic arch atheroma calcification. American Stroke Association Scientific Sessions 2009 Barzangi N, Wintermark M, Lease K, Rao RK, Smith W, Josephson S.A.
• Current Diagnosis and Treatment in Cardiology
  Pulmonary embolic disease 2008 Rao, R
• Dyssynchrony, Left Ventricular Size, and Gender Predict Echocardiographic Response to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in the DECREASE-HF Study.
  Journal of Cardiac Failure 2007 Elyse Foster, Rajni Rao, David De Lurgio, Adam Hoyhtya, Kyle Brunner, Michael Husby, Jill Schafer
• Reduced ventricular volumes and improved systolic function with cardiac resynchronization therapy: a randomized trial comparing simultaneous biventricular pacing, sequential biventricular pacing, and left ventricular pacing.
  Circulation 2007 Rao RK, Kumar UN, Schafer J, Viloria E, De Lurgio D, Foster E
• 356: Reduced number and function of circulating endothelial progenitor cells in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
  The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation 2007 R.K. Rao, J. Ye, W.M. Real, M. Springer, W. Grossman, T. de Marco, Y. Yeghiazarians
• Reduced number and function of crculating endothelial progenitor cells in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension
  Reduced number and function of crculating endothelial progenitor cells in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension 2007 Rao RK, Ye J, Real WM, Springer M, Grossman W, De Marco T, Yeghiazarians Y
• Heberden's Angina-Pathophysiology and Treatment.
  Indian heart journal 2006 Rao RK, Chatterjee K
• The 12-lead electrocardiogram in supraventricular tachycardia.
  Cardiology clinics 2006 Kumar UN, Rao RK, Scheinman MM
• Reduced ventricular volumes and improved systolic performance with cardiac resynchronization therapy: simultaneous biventricular vs. sequential biventricular vs. left univentricular pacing. American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions, Atlanta 2006. Abstract #969-123
  Reduced ventricular volumes and improved systolic performance with cardiac resynchronization therapy: simultaneous biventricular vs. sequential biventricular vs. left univentricular pacing. American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions, Atlanta 2006. Abstract #969-123. 2006 Rao RK, Viloria E, Schafer J, De Lurgio D, Foster E
• Hospital Physician
  Ectopic ACTH syndrome resulting in nocardiosis and acute respiratory failure 2003 Beinart G, Rao RK, Hollander H
• A systematic review of the effects of physician specialty on the treatment of coronary disease and heart failure in the United States.
  The American journal of medicine 2000 Go AS, Rao RK, Dauterman KW, Massie BM
• The association of fetal sex with the rate of cesarean section.
  American journal of obstetrics and gynecology 1997 Lieberman E, Lang JM, Cohen AP, Frigoletto FD, Acker D, Rao R
• A stressful situation & an aching heart. Society of General Internal Medicine Conference. Poster Presentation, Toronto, April 2007
  A stressful situation & an aching heart. Society of General Internal Medicine Conference. Poster Presentation, Toronto, April 2007. Singh HS, Gaggar A, Rao R, Boyle AJ
• American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Chicago, 2006. Abstract #2931. Poster competition finalist
  Echocardiographic changes after cardiac resynchronization therapy are not associated with changes in clinical measures Rao RK, Kumar UN, Schafer J, De Lurgio D, Foster E
• Equilibrium radionuclide angiogram derived measures of dyssynchrony predict clinical outcomes in patients receiving cardiac resynchronization therapy. Heart Rhythm Society Scientific Sessions, San Francisco, 2008. Abstract #6683
  Equilibrium radionuclide angiogram derived measures of dyssynchrony predict clinical outcomes in patients receiving cardiac resynchronization therapy. Heart Rhythm Society Scientific Sessions, San Francisco, 2008. Abstract #6683. Badhwar N, Green D, O’connell JW, Lee BK, Tseng ZH, Marcus GM, Lee RJ, Rao R, et al.