Today we’d like to introduce you to Radhakrishnan Ramaraj.
Hi Radhakrishnan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My journey has always been guided by one simple belief: patients in every community deserve access to world-class care.
I grew up in India and graduated from Madurai Medical College before moving to the United Kingdom and later the United States to pursue advanced medical training. My path took me through residency in Arizona, cardiology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai/UCLA, and Interventional Cardiology training at Yale University. Along the way, I became board-certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Interventional Cardiology and had the privilege of working in academic and hospital systems.
But despite those opportunities, I felt called to something different. I saw that many smaller communities lacked access to advanced, minimally invasive cardiovascular and vascular treatments. Patients often had to travel to larger cities for specialized procedures. That gap became my purpose.
In 2016, I opened Champion Health System in Dunn, North Carolina. It started as a single clinic with a clear mission: bring high-level, academic-quality care into a community setting. As patients experienced what we were building, word spread. We expanded to Henderson, then Oxford, and now Raleigh — not as a corporate strategy, but as a response to community need.
A pivotal chapter in our growth came after I pursued advanced training in Japan at the renowned Okuno Clinic, where I learned cutting-edge techniques in musculoskeletal embolization. That experience transformed our service offerings. We introduced Genicular Artery Embolization (GAE) for chronic knee pain — a minimally invasive alternative to knee replacement — along with expanded embolization treatments for joint pain and inflammation. We also continue to grow our vascular and interventional services, including Peripheral Artery Disease treatments, uterine fibroid embolization, advanced vein care, wound care, and comprehensive cardiovascular interventions.
What excites me most is that these innovations are now available locally. Patients no longer have to travel to major academic centers for many of these procedures. They can receive advanced, minimally invasive care right here in North Carolina.
Champion Health System today is more than a network of clinics. It represents a vision — combining global training, academic excellence, and entrepreneurial courage to improve access to care. From Dunn to Raleigh, our growth has always been rooted in service, compassion, and innovation.
And we’re still building.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has definitely not been a smooth road.
When I started Champion Health System in 2016, it was just me — one physician with a vision to bring advanced cardiovascular care to a smaller, underserved community. One of the earliest challenges was recruiting talent. Many physicians and healthcare professionals prefer large cities with bigger hospitals and established systems. Convincing high-quality providers to serve in a rural or economically challenged community was not easy. But I believed deeply that these communities deserved the same level of care as any major metropolitan area.
The early years required significant personal sacrifice. I invested nearly all of the savings I had earned during my years of training and previous work to build the practice. For almost a year, I wasn’t even paying myself minimum wage. Every dollar went back into equipment, staffing, and infrastructure. It was a leap of faith.
Then COVID hit. Like many healthcare practices, our patient volumes dropped dramatically. Financially, it was a very uncertain time. Just as we were navigating that, a hurricane flooded our building. We were unable to operate for nearly two months. No patients meant no revenue — but expenses never stop. It was one of the most stressful periods of my professional life.
There were also systemic challenges. At one point, the local hospital limited patient care opportunities to employed physicians only, which made it difficult for independent practices like ours to grow. Banks became cautious, and our line of credit was not renewed. Access to capital became a real struggle.
Through all of it, my family was my foundation. My wife stood beside me through every difficult decision. My children sacrificed time with me when I was working long hours trying to keep everything afloat. Their belief in the mission kept me going during moments when giving up would have been easier.
Looking back, those challenges shaped us. They forced us to become stronger, more efficient, and more mission-driven. Growth doesn’t come from comfort — it comes from conviction. Every obstacle reinforced why Champion Health System needed to exist.
Today, when I walk into our clinics in Dunn, Henderson, Oxford, and Raleigh, I see more than facilities. I see resilience. I see a dream that survived storms — both literal and figurative.
And that journey has made the success far more meaningful.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Champion Health System DBA- Champion Heart & Vascular Center?
Champion Health System was built on a simple but powerful idea: advanced, minimally invasive care should not be limited to large academic hospitals in major cities.
We are a cardiovascular and vascular specialty practice serving communities across North Carolina — from Dunn to Henderson, Oxford, and now Raleigh. Our focus is interventional, image-guided treatments that allow patients to avoid major surgery whenever possible. We specialize in peripheral artery disease (PAD), advanced vein care, genicular artery embolization (GAE) for chronic knee pain, uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), musculoskeletal embolization for joint pain, wound care, and comprehensive cardiovascular interventions.
What truly sets us apart is that we bring global innovation into a community-based setting.
After training at institutions like Yale and Cedars-Sinai, and further expanding my expertise internationally in Japan in advanced embolization techniques, I wanted to ensure that patients here in North Carolina could access the same cutting-edge procedures — without traveling out of state. Many of our treatments are minimally invasive, outpatient-based, and designed to reduce recovery time, cost, and complications.
Another key difference is that we focus heavily on conditions that are often underdiagnosed or undertreated in smaller communities — especially vascular disease. Peripheral artery disease, chronic limb ischemia, non-healing wounds, and venous disease can drastically affect quality of life. We are known for limb salvage, restoring circulation, and helping patients avoid amputations. That is something we are incredibly proud of.
Brand-wise, what I am most proud of is that Champion Health System represents independence, resilience, and service. We are physician-led, community-rooted, and mission-driven. We survived COVID, natural disasters, financial constraints, and industry pressures — and we continued to grow. That strength is embedded in our culture.
Our brand stands for:
• Access — bringing advanced care to underserved areas
• Innovation — offering minimally invasive alternatives to major surgery
• Compassion — treating patients like family
• Excellence — maintaining academic-level standards in a community setting
I want readers to know that Champion Health System is not just another clinic. It is a commitment to changing how specialty care is delivered — making it more accessible, more patient-centered, and more forward-thinking.
At the end of the day, we are proud that patients who once felt they had no options now have hope — close to home.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
One thing that might surprise people is how much risk and uncertainty were behind what looks like steady growth.
From the outside, people see multiple clinics, advanced procedures, and expansion into Raleigh. What they don’t see is that in the beginning, I was reinvesting nearly everything I had earned into building Champion Health System. For almost a year, I wasn’t even paying myself minimum wage. I was simply trying to keep the vision alive.
Another surprising thing is that despite my background in interventional cardiology — which is fast-paced and high intensity — I’m deeply drawn to long-term, relationship-based care. I remember patients’ stories. I think about their families. Many of them come from underserved communities, and their trust means everything to me. That personal connection drives me more than any title or recognition.
People may also assume that because I trained at major academic institutions and have been involved in research and national societies, I would have stayed in a large metropolitan system. The surprising truth is that I intentionally chose the harder path — building something independent in smaller communities — because I felt it mattered more.
And perhaps most importantly, I am still a student. Even after years in practice, I traveled internationally to Japan to learn new embolization techniques so I could bring innovative joint pain treatments back to North Carolina. I believe growth never stops.
At the core, beyond the physician and entrepreneur, I am someone who simply believes that if you see a gap in care, you don’t complain about it — you build something to fix it.
Pricing:
- N/A- We take insurances
Contact Info:
- Website: https://championhealthsystem.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/championhealthsystem
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/championhealthsystem
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/80311564/admin/dashboard/
- Twitter: https://x.com/champion_hvc
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@championhealthsystem
