Fruit Street Health appoints Indian-origin physician as Chief Medical Officer

iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-

Fruit Street Health, a CDC-recognized diabetes prevention program, has appointed an Indian-origin doctor as its Chief Medical Officer.

Dr. Arvind Ravinutala is a board-certified internal medicine physician with over 12 years of experience in healthcare. Fruit Street Health delivers the CDC’s National Diabetes Prevention Program, the in-person with distance learning component delivery type.

This enables participants to participate in Fruit Street’s program, if they choose to, via telehealth and live group video conferencing on Zoom with registered dietitians. Participants can also use a wireless scale and Fitbit that integrate with the app to track weight loss and physical activity. Fruit Street is a public benefit corporation whose mission is to deliver the CDC’s National Diabetes Prevention Program via telehealth and live group video conferencing. Fruit Street is a member of the American Diabetes Association’s Diabetes Prevention Alliance.

Ravinutala graduated from the Keck School of Medicine of USC in 2016 and stayed on to work with the underserved in East Los Angeles during his residency at Adventist Health. He was promoted to hospitalist medical director and also serves as an associate professor at Loma Linda University. He is passionate about using technology to prevent chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.

“As a physician, I am passionate about helping educate patients regarding the risks of type 2 diabetes and how to prevent it. As Chief Medical Officer at Fruit Street, I am extremely excited to work alongside Laurence Girard and the rest of the dedicated Fruit Street team to help fight this global epidemic and prevent the terrible comorbidities and illnesses that I see and treat every day related to type 2 Diabetes,” Ravinutala said.

Laurence Girard, CEO and Founder of Fruit Street Health said, “When I met Dr. Ravinutala, I could immediately sense how passionate he was about Fruit Street’s mission of preventing Type 2 diabetes. He shared stories with me about his own patients needing amputations because of diabetes-related computations and how he wished that none of his patients would ever need an amputation again. I am confident that Dr. Ravinutala will be able to help Fruit Street positively impact patients, especially once we become a Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program Supplier. We have been discussing strategies for how physicians will be able to easily refer their prediabetic Medicare patients to Fruit Street’s diabetes prevention program.”