Sindhura Gandham, MD

Dr. Gandham is a board-certified pediatric hospitalist at Valley Children’s Specialty Medical Group in Madera, California, where she serves as Program Director of the Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) Fellowship and Core Faculty for the Stanford-affiliated Pediatric Residency Program at Valley Children's Hospital. She holds an academic appointment as Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated) in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hospital Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Dr. Gandham earned her medical degree from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, followed by additional clinical training through the Fifth Pathway Program at New York Medical College. She completed her pediatric residency at UCSF Fresno, where she also served as Chief Resident. She is board certified in both General Pediatrics and Pediatric Hospital Medicine by the American Board of Pediatrics.

Dr. Gandham is a recognized leader in graduate medical education and quality improvement. She is the Quality Improvement (QI) Lead for the pediatric residency program and directs both the resident and PHM fellowship QI curricula at Valley Children’s. Her innovative curriculum, See One-Do One-Teach One, provides trainees with a practical, longitudinal framework to understand and lead QI initiatives, resulting in increased scholarly output and real-world improvements in patient care.

In her role as Chair of the Graduate Medical Education Committee’s Subcommittee on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, she partners with the hospital’s QI department and faculty engaged in QI to foster a culture of systems-based learning and continuously refine the trainee QI curriculum based on feedback and evolving institutional and national needs. She has organized the annual Pediatric Hospitalist Conference and led the Hospitalist Lecture Series at Valley Children’s over multiple years, promoting ongoing professional development in faculty.

Dr. Gandham has led and co-led numerous QI projects, including:

• Reducing anesthesia use for PICC line placements
• Improving accuracy of intake and output documentation
• Standardizing evaluation and treatment for Kawasaki Disease and MIS-C

She has contributed to national initiatives through the American Academy of Pediatrics' Value in Inpatient Pediatrics (VIP) Network and the Program Directors in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (PDPQ) Educators Network—a collaboration among ACGME, Project ECHO®, and the Council of Medical Specialty Societies.

Dr. Gandham is currently Vice Chair of the Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Learning Community (QIPS LC) of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors (APPD), where she helps lead national conversations and national collaboration around trainee and faculty education in QI.

She has presented educational and QI-related workshops and abstracts at national meetings including APPD, COMSEP, and the Pediatric Academic Societies Conference, and has co-authored peer-reviewed publications.

Practice Philosophy

"I believe in providing evidenced based care, along with utilizing our knowledge and experience in medicine combined with the patient and families' values and needs to care for their child. I believe in shared decision making with families and collaboration with inter-professional staff to provide the best possible care for the children admitted to our hospital. I also believe that to provide the best possible care for our patients currently and in the future, we have to provide excellent evidence based, quality education to students and residents."

Honors and Awards

2024 - Valley Children's Hospital Medicine Division Award: Excellence in Teaching

2024 - Board of Trustees Meritorious Service Award Valley Children's Healthcare: Research and Scholarly Activity Award

2019 - Best Evidence-Based Faculty Teaching Award

2016 - Hospitalist Education Award

Research

Research interests include Quality Improvement projects both locally and nationally, including: 

Improving Enteral Hydration in Acute Gastroenteritis- A Quality Improvement Project (in progress)

Project Co-leader: Decreasing the use of anesthesia for PICC line placement on the acute care floor (completed 2024)

Project Co-leader: Improving accuracy of intakes and outputs on the acute care floor (completed 2023)

Project Co-leader: Implementing standardization of evaluation and treatment of complete and incomplete Kawasaki Disease at Valley Children's Healthcare sites 

Published Research Includes: 

Perez M, Vinod B, Gandham S. More Than an Itch: An Unusual Cause of Severe Anemia in a 5-Year-Old. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 2022 Jun 23:99228221106630. doi: 10.1177/00099228221106630. PMID: 35746871.

Additional Info

Clinical Assistant Professor (Affiliated) in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hospital Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine

Academic Co-Chief for Hospital Medicine for Valley Children's Pediatric Residency

Volunteer Clinical Instructor UCSF Fresno Pediatric residency program - Department of Medicine - University of California San Francisco

Core Faculty - Valley Children's Pediatric Residency Program

Resident Quality Improvement Curriculum Director - Valley Children's Pediatric Residency Program