Rate My Professor Rashmi Rao

Dr. Rao's clinical and research interests center on high-risk pregnancy, rare diseases of pregnancy affecting both mother and fetus, maternal malignancy, and maternal mental health. She leads a research group focused on these areas, including the NIH-funded Pregnancy in Osteogenesis Imperfecta Registry and the COVID-19 Outcomes in Mother-Infant Pairs (COMP) study. Her contributions include clinical trials such as the randomized controlled trial of prophylactic unfractionated heparin in antepartum hospitalizations and postpartum visits at 2 and 6 weeks. Key publications encompass "Emergency department use among postpartum women with mental health disorders" (American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology MFM, 2021), "Prophylactic Unfractionated Heparin in Antepartum Hospitalizations: A Randomized Controlled Trial" (Obstetrics & Gynecology, 2024), "Neurodevelopmental delay in children exposed to maternal SARS-CoV-2 in-utero" (Scientific Reports, 2024), "The systemic inflammatory landscape of COVID-19 in pregnancy" (Cell Reports Medicine, 2021), and "Biology, care, and outcomes of gestational breast cancers: a review" (Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 2025). She has authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in journals including American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Prenatal Diagnosis. Dr. Rao has received the NIH Rare Disease Clinical Research Training Program Fellowship (2015-2016), Resident Research Award from UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (2013-2014), Super Doctors Southern California (2025, 2026), and Top Doctors by Los Angeles Magazine (2019, 2021, 2024, 2025). She serves as Maternal-Fetal Medicine Fellowship Program Director and collaborates across UCLA Schools of Engineering and Public Health.