GOLD Speakers

Suman Rao, PN, MD, DM

• Speaker Type: 2026 Main Presentations
• Country: India

Biography:

Dr. Suman Rao is a Professor of Neonatology at St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore, South India. She is also a consultant in the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent, and Aging at the WHO. She has worked for over 20 years to improve outcomes of small and sick newborns and has done pioneering research in Kangaroo mother care and developmentally supportive care in India. She is a national trainer for Neonatal resuscitation and has led the initiatives to mentor Special Newborn Care Units and reduce neonatal mortality. She is keen on low-cost innovations and has helped to develop low-cost remote monitoring of newborns, therapeutic hypothermia devices and CPAP devices. She has been part of WHO projects on immediate KMC, ACTION, and Scale up KMC implementation research. She teaches medical and nursing students and supports their budding research interests.