Maran Ramani, M.D., selected as CMO for Children’s & Women’s Hospital

By Casandra Andrews
candrews@health.southalabama.edu

Manimaran (Maran) Ramani, M.D., M.S.H.A., M.S.H.Q.S., has been appointed to a new role as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital. He currently serves as the division chief of neonatology and medical director for the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and will continue in these roles, in addition to the Children’s & Women’s CMO role. In this new position, he joins the CMO team for USA Health led by system CMO Michael Chang, M.D., F.A.C.S.

This appointment marks an important milestone, as up to now, Children’s & Women’s Hospital has not had a physician executive serving in the CMO role exclusively for the facility. In the position, Ramani will work to better optimize quality, safety, efficiency, and patient-centeredness across the scope of care for children and women.

“In the time he’s been here, Dr. Ramani has demonstrated that he clearly possesses the skillset to be highly effective working with physicians in both the pediatric and women’s health spaces,” said Chang. “The members of the CMO team across USA Health are in a position to serve as physician partners to our hospital CEOs to help manage the explosive growth within USA Health, and he’s remarkably equipped to do that.”

“I am looking forward to working with the incredible team of providers and healthcare staff at Children's & Women's Hospital who are striving every day to provide the highest quality of care,” Ramani said. “I will work hard to identify and remove barriers and challenges our team faces in delivering high-quality health care to women and children in our community.”

Ramani is board certified in general pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine by the American Board of Pediatrics. He completed a fellowship in neonatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and a pediatric residency at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center in Lubbock, Texas.

In addition to medical training, Ramani earned master’s degrees in healthcare administration (MSHA) and hospital quality and safety (MSHQS) from UAB. His experience includes expertise in strategic planning, operational management, people management, healthcare policy, finance, patient quality, and safety. His research interests include global health and neurodevelopmental outcomes of prematurity and birth asphyxia. Previously, he was the associate fellowship program director for the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship and director of the neonatal neuro intensive care unit at UAB.

In July 2022, Ramani was awarded a three-year grant from The Thrasher Research Foundation to conduct a multinational clinical study, known as the Azithromycin Brain neuroprotection for Children (ABC) study, to determine whether a single oral dose of the antibiotic azithromycin can be repurposed to have neuroprotective benefits for infants who suffer a lack of oxygen to the brain before or during birth. The study is ongoing in five countries: India, Pakistan, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guatemala. Through the grant, Ramani is working with a team of physicians and scientists from those countries to improve the health outcomes for infants born in low-resources settings.