Stanford University School of Medicine
Rishi Mediratta, MD, MSc, MA
Pediatrician, educator, and global child health innovator dedicated to expanding access to high-quality care and training the next generation of healthcare leaders.
Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford. Pediatric Hospitalist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, El Camino Hospital, California Pacific Medical Center, and Watsonville Community Hospital. Marshall Scholar. Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health.
About
Dr. Rishi Mediratta is a pediatrician, educator, and global child health innovator dedicated to expanding access to high-quality care and training the next generation of healthcare leaders.
He attended Johns Hopkins, majoring in public health. After graduation, he spent a year in Ethiopia working on initiatives with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, expanding the Ethiopian Orphan Health Foundation, and consulting for the World Bank. As a Marshall Scholar, he earned an M.A. in Medical Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies and an M.Sc. in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He attended medical school and completed pediatrics residency at Stanford School of Medicine.
Today Dr. Mediratta leads education and research initiatives focused on remote neonatal resuscitation, quality improvement in childhood pneumonia, and AI-driven innovations in child health. He is a co-founder of Cracking Med School Admissions (CMSA), a Stanford physician-led advising practice for medical school applicants, and co-author of the book of the same name. Through CMSA he has advised thousands of aspiring physicians.
Research
Reducing neonatal and child mortality through hospital and community-based interventions, with a sustained focus on Ethiopia.
Neonatal Mortality Score
Created and validated at the University of Gondar NICU, the Score predicts in-hospital neonatal mortality from four bedside parameters: mental status, level of respiratory distress, birth weight, and gestational age.
Remote resuscitation training
A randomized controlled trial in Ethiopia comparing remote and in-person pre-service neonatal resuscitation training, with implications for scaling provider education.
Community health workers
Two-day video-based curricula trained 200 nurses, midwives, and community health workers in Gondar on neonatal danger signs. Knowledge gains were sustained at six months.
AI for child health
AI-driven tools that extend the reach of skilled clinicians, support diagnosis, and improve outcomes in resource-limited child health settings.
Selected Publications
- Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition.
- Derivation and validation of a prognostic score for neonatal mortality in Ethiopia: a case-control study.
- Overnight admissions to a neonatal intensive care unit in Ethiopia are not associated with increased mortality.
- Remote versus in-person pre-service neonatal resuscitation training: a noninferiority RCT in Ethiopia.
- Changes in preterm birth and stillbirth during COVID-19 lockdowns.
- Risk factors and case management of acute diarrhoea in North Gondar Zone, Ethiopia.
Teaching
Past, Present, and Future: Lessons from COVID‑19
PEDS 220 at Stanford. Created in March 2020 as the pandemic surged, the course enrolled 200 students and was audited by 300 more in its first quarter. Profiled in the Wall Street Journal, with an average evaluation of 4.3 out of 5.
Directed Reading and Research
PEDS 199. Mentors undergraduates on global child health, neonatal mortality, and AI-driven clinical innovation.
Mentorship and admissions
Dr. Mediratta has co-founded two complementary platforms with Dr. Rachel Rizal to demystify the path into medicine: a full-spectrum advising practice for medical school applicants, and a dedicated preparation tool for the CASPer exam.
Cracking Med School Admissions
A Stanford physician-led advising practice for medical school applicants. One-on-one advising, personal statement coaching, interview prep, and dedicated support for first-generation applicants. Co-authored book now in its second edition.
Casper Edge
A test-preparation platform for the CASPer exam, the situational judgment test required by many medical schools. Instructional courses, a 100+ scenario bank, full-length practice tests, and personalized feedback on communication, ethics, empathy, and judgment.
Ethiopian Orphan Health Foundation
As an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Mediratta founded the Ethiopian Orphan Health Foundation to provide community-based health care and education to 91 orphans near Gondar, Ethiopia.
“Throughout college and during my first gap year before medical school, I founded the Ethiopian Orphan Health Foundation.” Rishi Mediratta
Contact
For research collaborations, media, or speaking inquiries.