Raman Muthusamy, MD, MAS

Credentialed Name: Venkataraman R. Muthusamy

Medical Director of Endoscopy, UCLA Health
Leon J. Tiber, MD, and David S. Alpert, MD, Chair in Medicine

Dr. Muthusamy is an internationally recognized leader in advanced endoscopic procedures. His clinical research interests focus on the evaluation of existing and new endoscopic technologies for the diagnosis and treatment of digestive disorders. They include endoscopic ablative techniques for Barrett's esophagus with dysplasia and early esophageal adenocarcinoma, clinical applications of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) with a particular focus on EUS-guided tissue acquisition, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with a particular interest in cholangioscopy, stent placement and device reprocessing, and endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR). Dr. Muthusamy also has participated in numerous studies involving the development of quality metrics in endoscopy and methods to improve the efficiency of and safety of endoscopy care, including leading a multi-center evaluation of the first single-use duodenoscope. In total, he has published more than 350 peer-reviewed manuscripts and abstracts and is an editor of Clinical Gastrointestinal Endoscopy textbook.

Dr. Muthusamy is currently a professor of clinical medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, medical director of endoscopy for UCLA Health, and the Leon J. Tiber, MD, and David S. Alpert, MD, Chair in Medicine. Prior to his recruitment to UCLA in 2011, he was a faculty member at the University of California Irvine Medical Center. In addition to his extensive clinical work in interventional endoscopy there, he also served as the director of the GI Fellowship Program at UC Irvine. He has also previously served as director of endoscopic ultrasound at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Muthusamy completed his undergraduate work at Stanford University with distinction and went to medical school at the University of Washington School of Medicine, where he graduated with Honors. His residency was undertaken at Duke University Medical Center where he served as assistant chief resident and traveled abroad to study evidence-based medicine under Dr. David Sackett at Oxford University. He completed his fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of California San Francisco before undertaking his advanced endoscopy fellowship at the University of California Irvine which he completed in 2001. Dr. Muthusamy is board certified in gastroenterology and has been frequently recognized by Best Doctors since 2011.

He is a past-president of the Orange County GI Society and a councilor and the current president of the Southern California Society of Gastroenterology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) and the American Gastroenterology Association (AGA). He serves as one of two ACG Governors for Southern California and is a former member of the ACG Research and Public Relations committee and currently serves on the Educational Affairs committee for the ACG as well as an associate editor for the American Journal of Gastroenterology. He has previously served as co-director of the ASGE’s Improving Quality and Safety in Your Endoscopy Unit course and most recently served on the ASGE Quality Assurance in Endoscopy committee. He has also previously served on the AGA’s Research Awards Panel and is the immediate past chair of the AGA ’s Center for GI Innovation and Technology.