Akila Viswanathan, MD, MPH

Akila Viswanathan, M.D., M.P.H., is the director for the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, and a professor of radiation oncology, gynecology/obstetrics and oncology for Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  

Dr. Viswanathan leads the department emphasizing excellence in clinical care, research and education.  She has expertise with gynecologic cancers and their treatment, including cervical and uterine cancers and image-guided brachytherapy. She has developed numerous clinical innovations and initiated several system-wide integration efforts at all sites, including Green Spring Station, Bayview, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Suburban's Rockledge site, and Sibley Memorial Hospital for the Johns Hopkins Department of Radiation Oncology.

Dr. Viswanathan earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, her medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, followed by her Masters in Public Health and Masters in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed a residency in radiation oncology at the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy at Harvard Medical School, where she served as chief resident. 

She has had research grant funding through the National Cancer Institute K07, R21 and R01 programs to support efforts in gynecologic cancers, specifically looking at the identification of gynecologic tumors at the time of brachytherapy under magnetic resonance imaging.  The research team has developed several novel clinical innovations.

Dr. Viswanathan has been named one of America's Top Doctors by Newsweek, Who’s who in America, and a Super Doctor by the Washington Post magazine.

Dr. Viswanathan served as President and Chair of the Board of the American Brachytherapy Society; Chair of Education Committee for American Society for Radiation Oncology; and, on the Gynecologic Cancer Steering Committee and the uterine cancer task force for the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Akila Viswanathan has published more than 200 articles and chapters, and lectures nationally and internationally. She is the Editor-in-Chief for Seminars in Radiation Oncology.  She is on the editorial board of Gynecologic Oncology and Brachytherapy, and is an editor of several textbooks including Gynecologic Radiation Therapy: Novel Approaches to Image-Guidance and Management, Radiation Therapy Techniques for Gynecologic Cancers, and Gunderson and Tepper's Clinical Radiation Oncology.

Make A Gift