Sparks Health System hires chief medical information officer, cardiologist

Sparks Health System in recent days has announced the hiring of a new chief medical information officer and another interventional cardiologist.

Dr. Sashikanth “Sashi” Kodali, is the new chief medical information officer and is board certified in internal medicine and clinical informatics, a recently recognized subspecialty by American Board of Medical Specialties. He also holds certifications in quality improvement.

Kodali completed a post baccalaureate in clinical informatics from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and completed a fellowship in clinical transformation from Geisinger Health System. He has been involved in clinical research, published in peer reviewed journals and a recipient of research grants. He has served in a variety of leadership roles as a physician informaticist over the past nine years, while also practicing as a hospitalist.

Prior to coming to Sparks, Kodali served as a medical director of informatics at Vidant Health System in North Carolina. Previously, he worked as a medical director in the Clinical Innovation Department at Geisinger Health System. 

In his new role at Sparks, Kodali will work with Sparks’ information systems team and work as a hospitalist physician at Sparks Regional Medical Center.

“We are spending more and more time interacting with health information technology,” Kodali said. “How well we use it has become a key determinant of our own efficiency and the effectiveness of our care delivery teams.”

Kodali is married with two young sons. His wife, Dr. Ramya Suryadevara, recently joined the Cardiology Center at Sparks as an interventional cardiologist.

Suryadevara was trained in interventional cardiology at Vidant Medical Center at East Carolina University in North Carolina. She completed a general cardiology fellowship at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa. She then completed her internal medicine residency at St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospital Center at Columbia University in New York.

During her studies in interventional cardiology, her father suffered a massive heart attack.

“Unfortunately, during my final year of medical school, my father had a massive heart attack,” she said. “He was in the cardiac intensive care unit for almost 10 days. I saw the cardiologist who worked tremendously to make him better and get back to a normal life. That reinforced my interest in cardiology and in wanting to make the same difference in someone else’s life.”