International Women’s Day 2021: Celebrating One of Our Favorite Women in Leadership

Ramapriya Suresh, MD – Senior Medical Director

As we observe International Women’s Day 2021, celebrating women in leadership, we asked one of our CareAllies leaders – Dr. Ramapriya Suresh – to share some of her experience and perspective with us.

Describe your role at CareAllies in one to two sentences.

I am responsible for utilization management, working to coordinate within the health services teams and provider partners to ensure superior patient outcomes and provider relationships.

How do you bring your unique perspective, culture, and experiences to work at CareAllies – can you give us an example?

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, our entire healthcare community was overwhelmed by its effects. My team and I value our provider partner relationships, and reached out to several providers to verify their well-being and thanked them for being on the front lines. A simple gesture of communicating our appreciation was not only gratifying to our team, but was also acknowledged by our providers. I understand the value of simple, yet genuine communication, which has enriched our team’s relationships with our providers.

What’s one time you went out of your way to make someone feel more included?

I was involved in recruiting a physician for an independent physician association (IPA). The physician was finding it difficult to navigate all the requirements and was reluctant to join the IPA. I took it upon myself to coach her and help her understand the benefits of being in an IPA as an independent physician and the ways to manage the work efficiently. A year later, she is one of the most successful physicians within the IPA and is willing to coach and mentor new physicians.

Have you seen anything uplifting over the last couple of weeks you could share?

The monthly diversity and inclusion meetings organized by the CareAllies health services leadership team have been a breath of fresh air. These meetings have created an open forum for us to listen to, lean on and learn from each other’s unique perspective and values. What started as a commitment to listen to each other has blossomed into knowledge sessions that are personally enriching and emotionally gratifying, ensuring that we always keep these perspectives top of mind with each other and with the providers that we work with.