Biography
Dr Suryasnata Rath is the Network Director – Operations at LVPEI with an additional charge of LVPEI@Home service at all locations in the network. Trained as an ophthalmic plastic surgeon, Dr Rath works as faculty in the Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery, Facial Aesthetics and Ocular Oncology service at LVPEI’s Mithu Tulsi Chanrai campus in Bhubaneswar. Before assuming a network-wide responsibility, he served as the Campus Director, Taraprasad Das Chair of Ophthalmology (2018-21) at the Chanrai campus. Following his basic medical training in Odisha, Dr Rath underwent long-term fellowships at the Kallam Anji Reddy campus in Hyderabad. He joined as a fresh faculty recruit at Bhubaneswar from the day of its inception on July 3, 2006, contributing to the establishment of the ophthalmic plastic service here. His international training in oculoplasty (2011-12) with Professor Peter J. Dolman at the University of British Columbia, Canada, helped establish a comprehensive thyroid eye disease (TED) clinic at Bhubaneswar. Over the last decade, the thyroid eye clinic has made significant strides by providing multi-modal care to a large number of TED patients. His collaborations helped develop a multi-disciplinary TED team with endocrinologists, rheumatologists, internal medicine, radiation oncologists and anaesthesiologists. His efforts helped establish the Chanrai campus as a major referral centre offering cutting-edge rehabilitative orbital and eyelid surgery, radiation and newer biologics for TED.
Dr Rath is on the executive board of the International Thyroid Eye Disease Society (ITEDS) and the editor of the textbook ‘Surgery in Thyroid Eye Disease: A Conceptual Approach’ by Springer. He has authored 80 indexed publications and is a reviewer in several peer-reviewed journals. As a principal investigator, he has studied the role of infections in the etiopathogenesis of ocular adnexal lymphoma, funded by the Department of Biotechnology. He delved into the realm of innovation after receiving the BIRAC BIG grant in 2017-18. He is a recipient of several awards and recognitions including the “Best Free Paper” award at the annual All India Ophthalmological Society meetings in the segments of Ocular Pathology in 2017, Orbit and Oculoplasty in 2025 and delivered the prestigious Professor Biswambar Rajguru oration in 2024. Under his able leadership, LVPEI@Home – offering quality eye care to elderly individuals at their doorstep, expanded to 8 locations within the LVPEI network, becoming a third arm for eye care delivery to all those who cannot reach us.
Dr Rath lives in Bhubaneswar with his wife, Swagata, an intensivist at AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, and their daughter, Ira. Beyond his clinical and academic work, he has a keen interest in wildlife