Smitha R. Chadaga

Dr. Smitha R. Chadaga is a co- founder of Doctors On Set. She went to medical school at the University of Missouri. From medical school she headed out west to the University of Colorado where she did her internal medicine residency and was chosen to serve as Chief Medical Resident. Home came calling after residency graduation, and Dr. Chadaga moved to Chicago to work as an academic hospitalist. After spending four years in Chicago, Dr. Chadaga returned to Denver to work at Denver Health as an academic hospitalist and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado. At Denver Health she moved up the ranks and was promoted to the director of admissions service and became the Associate Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine. After five years in Denver, Dr. Chadaga moved to Oregon where she is an academic hospitalist at a Level One Trauma Center in Portland, Oregon, an assistant site director of Emanuel and Good Samaritan Hospitals, and an Associate Professor with the University of Oregon Health and Sciences University.

In her 20+ years in medicine Dr. Chadaga has worked with all levels of learners from students to attendings, and in a variety of hospital types including private, county, trauma centers, nonprofit, and veterans. Throughout her career she has seen patients in the clinic, medical ward, intensive care unit, and emergency department, and continues to work with physicians in all specialties, both in and out patient. Her areas of interest, outside of providing excellent patient care, include patient flow and observation care and she has published scholarly articles on these topics.

Dr. Chadaga has had a few brushes with the bright lights of entertainment. While in residency she co-wrote and co-directed the short film Guns which won awards in the Denver/Colorado area. And, her constant perusal of Entertainment Weekly and IMDB led her to be chosen as a contestant for the second (and final) season of VH1s World Series of Pop Culture.