Surgeon-in-Chief
Stanford Medicine Children's Health
Karthik Balakrishnan MD, MPH, FAAP, FACS is a pediatric otolaryngologist and Susan B. Ford Surgeon-in-Chief at Stanford Children's Health/Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. He specializes in pediatric laryngeal and tracheal reconstruction, airway management, and care of vascular anomalies. His academic interests focus on surgical outcomes, innovative airway surgery, quality and value improvement, cognitive bias and medical error, medical decision-making, and health disparities and healthcare-related justice. He serves in multiple administrative, quality improvement, and diversity/equity leadership roles across Stanford Medicine.