Even though Sapna Gangaputra, MD, MPH considers her path into ophthalmology a non-traditional one, it hasn’t stopped her from achieving excellence in the field.
Dr. Gangaputra is the recipient of the University of Wisconsin Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences (DOVS)’ 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award. She received the honor at a special DOVS Alumni and Friends reception at the American Academy of Ophthalmology conference in Chicago, IL on October 19, 2024.
“Winning this award is overwhelming,” said Dr. Gangaputra, who is the Associate Vice Chair for Clinical Research and Uveitis Division Chief at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN. “I am grateful for everything DOVS invested in my training.”
Dr. Gangaputra graduated from her ophthalmology residency at the University of Wisconsin—Madison in 2016. After that, she completed specialty fellowship training in uveitis and medical retina at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, MD. She specializes in the evaluation and treatment of inflammatory diseases of the eye, with particular focus on the use and monitoring of systemic immunosuppression, diabetic eye disease, and age-related macular degeneration.
Beyond her clinical commitments, Dr. Gangaputra is actively engaged in clinical research. She has authored numerous papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals, presented at national meetings, and contributed chapters to ophthalmology textbooks. She is a distinguished member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and the American Uveitis Society.
She credits the UW ophthalmology residency training for setting her up for success.
“The program was excellent, and it takes a village,” she said. “Now that I’m an attending physician and train ophthalmology residents myself, I understand how much we put into it.”
“I wasn’t a traditional candidate,” she adds. “I was a foreign medical graduate with eight years of research under my belt before I even came into my ophthalmology residency. The University of Wisconsin took a chance on me, and I am so grateful.”
Dr. Gangaputra earned her medical degree at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Belgaum, India, where she practiced ophthalmology prior to relocating to the United States in 2004. She then attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, where she completed a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in public health ophthalmology. She followed that with four years as a post doctorate fellow, where she worked on a uveitis project. After that, she moved to Madison and joined the team of researchers at the Wisconsin Reading Center (WRC).
“At the WRC, I was able to dive more deeply into my uveitis research,” she said. “I wasn’t only involved in chart review like I was in my post-doc fellowship, but was now also examining and interpreting images of uveitis. I was part of the Data and Safety Monitoring Committee, too, so I really got to understand how a uveitis trial runs.”
She stayed at the WRC for 4 years, before moving into the School of Medicine and Public Health for an ophthalmology residency.
“I tried my best to be an empty slate during my residency,” she said. “I wanted every experience to be unique. I learned so much from my glaucoma teachers; I learned so much from the pediatrics faculty, and everybody. And of course, I can’t forget the role that the nurses and technicians played in my life. The technicians taught me how to prepare to see a patient, and in the operating room, it was Doreen [Reilly] who could hand me an instrument before I even asked for it.”
Dr. Gangaptura hopes the next generation of eye care specialists will dedicate their careers to subspecialties like pediatric ophthalmology and uveitis, where there are staffing shortages.
Despite her thriving clinical practice and robust research program, Dr. Gangaputra considers her biggest success to be balancing her busy professional life with her family life. “My biggest achievement has been my son who won a citizenship award that was given to one child in the entire 5th grade,” she said. “The one thing I think about is whether I am being a good parent. Am I giving my son enough time? Am I able to teach him what I need to teach him as a parent? So, my biggest achievement is being able to balance my house, my son, and my work.”
“This award is my answer to all of the people who chose me, who helped me get into residency, who invested in me, who believed in me,” Dr. Gangaputra added. “This is my show of gratitude, that everything they put into me made a difference. I intend to keep returning the favor to the next generation of eye doctors for as long as I’m in academia.”
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