Featured Researcher – Rajan Thakkar, MD

Rajan K. Thakkar, MD, FACS, is a pediatric surgeon, the Trauma Medical Director, and the co-Director of the Burn Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He is an associate professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and is a principal investigator at the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences Research at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute. His research focuses on pediatric thermal injury.

Dr. Thakkar attended The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He completed his residency at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and completed his fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

What was your path to your current role?

I never thought I was going to be a surgeon scientist. Prior to medical school I was interested in a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency. While in medical school at The Ohio State University, I had two wonderful surgeon mentors: Drs. Steven Steinberg and Donna Caniano. They both inspired me that surgeons don’t have to fit a specific mold as well as introduced me to the exciting field of pediatric surgery.

During my general surgery residency training we received extensive experience in trauma and burn surgery. At the same time, I spent an additional two years at Brown University in a translational research laboratory evaluating the cellular mechanisms involved in sepsis and lung injury. Once I completed my time in Providence, I spent an additional two years at Nationwide Children’s Hospital completing my pediatric general surgery training. It was during these two informative years that I furthered my interest in caring for burn patients. I also formed a mentorship relationship with Dr. Mark Hall, which inspired my passion for translational research. These collective experiences and years in training led to my current role as a pediatric surgeon-scientist caring for pediatric burn patients.

Why did you decide to pursue your work at Nationwide Children’s?

The culture of collaboration and commitment to excellence are just a few reasons that drew me to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. At the same time, The Burn Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of only 44 verified pediatric burn centers in the country. Given the infrastructure for research as well as the mentorship available here, this was a unique opportunity to pursue my clinical and academic career.

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of the job is watching our patients grow into young adults and having the opportunity to update the patients and families on our exciting research. Since we monitor our patients long-term, we follow them all the way into adulthood and that’s an exciting thing to see. Finally, I get to work with an exciting group of collaborators within our burn center. This includes individuals from many different disciplines including nursing, surgeons, psychology, child life, physical and occupational therapy, nutrition, social work, therapeutic recreation, message therapy, a wonderful clinic staff, our advanced practice providers, researchers, as well as many other providers. These individuals are truly invested in providing best outcomes for our patients with burn related injuries.