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Srikanth Vallurupalli, M.D.
Cardiologist Srikanth Vallurupalli, M.D., Named UAMS Director of Cardiovascular Medicine
| Srikanth Vallurupalli, M.D., a nationally recognized cardiologist and multimodality cardiac imager, has been named the director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and associate director of UAMS’ cardiovascular clinical services.
Vallurupalli is an associate professor in the division, which is part of the Department of Internal Medicine. Since 2020, he has directed the UAMS cardiovascular medicine fellowship program and the UAMS noninvasive cardiac laboratory. He helped launch and is the inaugural program director of the UAMS structural imaging fellowship, which is enrolling its first fellow this year. Prior to 2020, he established the valve disease program and served as the medical director of the Little Rock VA noninvasive lab and its home-based cardiac rehab program.
“Dr. Vallurupalli brings an outstanding record of clinical excellence, academic leadership, and service to this role,” said Jorge Saucedo, M.D., MBA, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine in the UAMS College of Medicine. “Since joining UAMS as a fellow in 2015, he has made transformative contributions across clinical care, education, research, and community engagement. In 2020, he played a key role in launching the structural echocardiography program at UAMS, providing advanced imaging evaluation and procedural guidance for state-of-the-art transcatheter cardiac interventions.
“Dr. Vallurupalli has also been instrumental in expanding cardiology and echocardiography outreach programs and in improving access to high-quality cardiovascular care for patients across rural Arkansas,” Saucedo continued. “He is, in short, a great clinician, a fantastic educator and is liked by everybody. He understands the needs of the community and will help elevate cardiovascular medicine in Arkansas.”
Vallurupalli received his medical degree in 2001 from the Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research in Pondicherry, India. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, serving as chief medical resident. He then served as an assistant professor of internal medicine at Southern Illinois University in Springfield, Illinois. He completed his fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at UAMS in 2015, serving as chief cardiology fellow.
Vallurupalli is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, nuclear medicine and echocardiography. He has published or contributed to more than 130 articles related to heart failure and other cardiovascular issues and has been a part of several grant-funded research projects on topics such as patient centered outcomes, rural health innovations, and specific heart issues. He has won numerous teaching awards and mentored several cardiologists who practice in Arkansas. He serves as the president of the Board of Directors of the Central Arkansas American Heart Association.
He replaces Paul Mounsey, M.D., Ph.D., as the division chair. Mounsey, a nationally recognized leader in electrophysiology, continues to see patients at UAMS.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,553 students and 1,015 medical residents and fellows. It is the state’s largest public employer with about 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###