Vasum Peiris, MD, MPH, FAAP, FACC, FASE
Chief Medical Officer
Pediatrics and Special Populations Center for Devices and Radiological Health
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
As Chief Medical Officer for Pediatrics and Special Populations at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Vasum provides clinical and executive leadership on Center policies and initiatives associated with medical devices intended for use in pediatric and special populations. He is the Center’s senior clinical expert on pediatrics and pediatric medical device issues. He serves as a systems architect to facilitate internal and external innovation and synergy that enhances the ability of the Agency to optimally meet the medical device needs of historically underserved populations.
Prior to joining the FDA, Vasum was the Joon Park MD Endowed Chair in Medical Excellence and Chief of Pediatric and Adult Congenital Cardiology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC), the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and University Medical Center (UMC), with appointments in both the Departments of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. In addition to providing critical care and outpatient services, he served as the Medical Director of the Pediatric and Adult Congenital Imaging Laboratory and Medical Director of the Pediatric and Adult Congenital Cardio-Respiratory Exercise Laboratory at TTUHSC/UMC. He provided senior leadership in the development of the TTUHSC Clinical Research Institute, promoting patient-oriented translational and outcomes research. Vasum was inaugural faculty of the Department of Public Health, assisting in development of the curricula and program offering unique training in rural health.
Vasum is an accomplished author and researcher. He has been awarded First Prize-Young Investigator Award by the Section on Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He has been supported by the Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) Honor Medical Society, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Federation for Aging Research and the Harvard Medical Scholars Program. He has been awarded an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship.
Vasum is triple board certified: Pediatrics and Pediatric Cardiology by the American Board of Pediatrics and Adult Congenital Cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Society of Echocardiography.
Vasum completed residency at the Yale School of Medicine/Yale-New Haven Hospital. He completed fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiovascular Research at Harvard Medical School/Children’s Hospital Boston with senior fellowship training in Congenital Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging at Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School. Prior to completing his Medical Doctorate at The University of Vermont College of Medicine, he earned his Master of Public Health ‘with distinction’ at the Yale School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. Vasum earned his undergraduate degree in the honors major of Ethics, Politics and Economics at Yale University.