Raj S. Ambay, MD, DDS, is a double board-certified plastic surgeon, combat veteran and executive business leader.
Dr. Ambay is the founder of Ambay Plastic Surgery and Transformations Surgery Center, two companies dedicated to improving the health and quality of life of active duty military, veterans, and the local community. The unique focus is to coordinate and provide highly specialized complex reconstructive surgical care. In 2011, as a surgeon at James A. Haley VA, Dr. Ambay performed the first microvascular reconstructive surgery. His passion is to help wounded warriors regain control after sustaining injuries in combat. In 2014, Dr. Ambay was awarded the American Society of Plastic Surgeons Presidents Award for outstanding contributions to the specialty of reconstructive plastic surgery.
Dr. Ambay is also the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and Chief Medical Informatics Officer (CMIO) for Tista Corporation in Rockville Maryland and Nine Line Medical in Tampa, FL. In that role, he is the Senior SME for a number of federal contracts that deal with digital health, Artificial Intelligence, health data informatics, and strategic planning at AHRQ, CMS, OIG, HHS and a senior advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General. Prior to that role, Dr. Ambay was the CMO for IDL Solutions, a Virginia based Health IT firm that was acquired by CACI.
Dr. Ambay’s past board positions include Commercial Ventures Advisory boards of Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland (The Alliance), Optum Corp, Alpha Nodus and Zoic Capital. Other Board positions include being elected nationally as a Trustee of the American Medical Association, member of the American Dental Association Dental Quality Alliance, and member of Board of Directors, National Board of Medical Examiners®.
As a Colonel in the United States Army Reserve, and the Chief Surgeon of multiple Forward Surgical Teams and Special Operation Surgical Teams in Iraq and Afghanistan, Dr. Ambay has provided damage control surgery in some of the most hostile and austere environments for Special Operations Forces, and members of the counterintelligence community. In 2014, while in Afghanistan he was injured by a rocket-propelled grenade. Today, with lasting injuries, Dr. Ambay has experienced the military health system, the VA and private health systems as both patient and surgeon.
Dr. Ambay is board-certified in plastic surgery. He received training in general surgery from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and completed his residency in plastic surgery at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has also completed a National Institute of Health Physician-Scientist research fellowship and a second fellowship in microvascular surgery at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He has two doctorates, a Medical Doctor (MD), and a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS).
Dr. Ambay is an active member of numerous national medical societies, local business organizations, community and military service organizations. He has delivered more than 700 speeches serving as a keynote speaker for community events, business conferences and college commencement ceremonies.
He is married to Aparna Ambay, MD, MBA, MPH, and they have one daughter who attends Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa.