Medical board committee recommends special faculty permit for Loma Linda living-donor liver surgeon

The Medical Board of California special faculty permit review committee recommended approval of a special faculty permit for Dr. Somnath Chaddapati to join Loma Linda University Medical Center as surgical director of the living-donor liver transplant program.

Dr. Sharon Lum, chair of the Department of Surgery at Loma Linda University, presented Chaddapati’s application under California Business and Professions Code section 2168.1, saying the hospital recruited him for his experience with living-donor liver transplants and for a role that would include clinical care, teaching and research.

Lum told the committee that Chaddapati trained in India and completed an American Society of Transplant Surgeons–approved multi-organ transplant fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Lum said Chaddapati has performed about 400 living-donor liver transplants as a primary surgeon and started a robotic living-donor hepatectomy program at his prior hospital. Lum said living-donor liver transplantation is much more common in parts of Asia than in the United States and that adding Chaddapati will expand access to donor livers and help train U.S. surgeons in the technique.

Committee members asked about Chaddapati’s U.S. training; Lum confirmed he completed the ASTS‑approved fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and that he operated independently on kidney transplants and certain anastomoses during that fellowship. No public comments were made on the presentation.

After a closed‑session deliberation, committee chair Jim Helser reported the committee’s recommendation to approve the special faculty permit. Helser said the committee’s recommendations will be presented to the full Medical Board of California at its May meeting.

The committee’s recommendation is advisory to the full board; the transcript and meeting record show no final board action at this meeting.