Allareddy named head of orthodontics
Veerasathpurish (Sath) Allareddy
By William S. Bike
Dr. Veerasathpurish (Sath) Allareddy will become head of UIC College of Dentistry’s orthodontics department July 1.
Allareddy was chosen following a national search by a committee led by Dr. Lyndon Cooper, associate dean for research and head of oral biology.
“This is a proud moment in the college’s history,” said Dean Clark Stanford. “Dr. Allareddy has an incredibly strong history of scholarship and orthodontic teaching, especially concerning craniofacial anomalies.”
Dean Stanford noted that Allareddy “brings a combination of academic rigor, clinical expertise, leadership, management, and business expertise that will be invaluable as a member of the senior leadership of the college. His research addresses multiple areas of public health, and he is a strategic hire to build on the campus’s programs in population health, implementation science, and informatics.”
“In this era of genomics, I want the orthodontics program to prepare our residents to excel in delivering multidisciplinary, personalized, and ‘precision orthodontics’ care,” Allareddy said. “I am confident that the very accomplished orthodontics team will provide a solid platform for our residents to excel. We want our residents to be life-long learners and leaders and to leave an imprint beyond orthodontics.”
Areas of research in which Allareddy is an expert include hospital quality of care, orthodontic clinical outcomes, cleft and craniofacial clinical outcomes, dental education, dental related outcomes in hospital based settings, the role of hospital procedure volume on surgical outcomes, and Class II Division I malocclusions. He has had 10 grants funded during his career.
“One of my interests would be to prepare the Department of Orthodontics to serve as an Oral and Craniofacial Clinical and Translational Research Center of Excellence,” Allareddy said. “As a first step, we are working with Dean Stanford to recruit an outstanding ‘big data analytics’ scientist. The goal is to drive innovation through translational research using big data analytics techniques. We want to position the UIC Department of Orthodontics at the forefront of research, teaching, clinical care, and service.”
Most recently, he was professor and director of clinical research at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry. Allareddy formerly taught at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was director of pre-doctoral orthodontics.
Allareddy wanted to come to the college for several reasons.
“Chicago is a melting pot of cultures and truly represents what America is,” Allareddy said. “Added to that, the historic UIC orthodontics program is one of the oldest and largest programs in the country. Since 1931, close to 800 orthodontists have graduated from the program, and several of them have gone on to become giants in the orthodontics field.”
Allareddy also noted that, “The core strength of the UIC orthodontics program stems from its outstanding faculty members and residents. They are a truly outstanding group and will keep up the long tradition of excellence which is synonymous with the UIC orthodontics program.”
He has more than 20 honors and awards, including two 2018 Research Achievement Awards from the Society of Critical Care Medicine. A reviewer or editorial board member with 30 journals, Allareddy also has been active in organized dentistry with both national and local societies, having served as president of the Iowa branch of the American Association of Dental Research.
The co-author of the book Canine Exposure in Clinical Cases in Periodontology, Allareddy is the author or co-author of more than 160 journal articles and has made more than 225 presentations at regional, national, and international dental meetings. He also has directed seven graduate theses.
Allareddy earned his BDS from Ragas Dental College in Chennai, India; his MBA from the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa; his MHA and Ph.D. from the College of Public Health at Iowa; and his MMSc in Oral Biology from Harvard.
He also performed a residency in orthodontics at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and a fellowship in cleft and craniofacial orthodontics at Harvard and at Boston Children’s Hospital. Allareddy is a diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics.
He noted that when he applied for orthodontic residency positions, “the UIC Orthodontics program was my top choice. I could not get into UIC, so I went to Harvard instead. Since then, I have been following the progress and accomplishments of the UIC orthodontics program and when an opportunity presented to serve as the department head, I could not let this slip by.”
His commitment to healthcare is a deeply personal one. Three months before he was to graduate from his orthodontic residency, he was hospitalized in Boston with malaria and developed black water fever, which has a high mortality rate. Following multi-organ failure, he was on a ventilator for several weeks, and underwent rehabilitation for six months.
“For me to survive, every single activity in the care continuum had to work precisely and timely,” Allareddy explained. “I had the best health care delivered to me and I survived. I survived my illness without any end organ damage.”
So, he noted, “I want every patient of mine to experience the best possible care. This is my driving philosophy. I strongly believe every individual should be entitled to the highest quality healthcare.”
Dr. Budi Kusnoto, who had been serving as interim head of orthodontics, will continue in the department as professor and orthodontics program director.
