Dr. Bhuvaneswari Ramaswamy

Dr. Bhuvaneswari Ramaswamy passed peacefully surrounded by family on July 5th, 2024, in Columbus, OH. 

She was born to T. K. and Lakshmi Venkataraman on June 17th, 1965, in Chennai, India. As a young child, Bhuvana loved music and the performing arts. Her primary passion was Bharatanatyam, a South Indian classical dance, and she performed her Arangetram, a full-length solo recital, at eleven years old. Inspired by her father, she chose to pursue a career in medicine as well, enrolling in Kilpauk Medical College. She graduated in 1987 and completed an internship in internal medicine. During her time at KMC, she met her future husband, Chakravarthi Ramaswamy (Ram). The couple wed in September of 1989. 

She and her husband then moved to the United Kingdom to pursue further medical training, where she completed her house officership and MRCP at the University of Wales College of Medicine. The couple welcomed their first child, Sandhya, in July of 1994. The new family of three then moved to the United States, settling in Brooklyn, New York. They soon expanded to a family of four with the birth of their son Rahul in October 1996. They moved to Nashville two years later for Ram’s nephrology training, and Bhuvana pursued cancer research at Vanderbilt University. After taking five years away from medical practice to care for her young children, Bhuvana obtained an internal medicine residency position at Mount Carmel in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to moving there however, the Ramaswamy family grew even further with the birth of their third child, Abhinav in April 2000. 

Bhuvana then completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the Ohio State University James Cancer Center, where she fell in love with caring for patients with breast cancer. She joined as faculty at OSU in 2006 and worked tirelessly to provide compassionate care for her patients for almost two decades. She was dedicated to driving the field of cancer therapeutics forward, focusing her research on the biology of hormone therapy resistant breast tumors and addressing disparities in breast cancer outcomes. During her own battle with neuroendocrine cancer of the breast, she started the Living Well with Breast Cancer Clinic; a testament to her vigor for life and ability to utilize her experience to identify unmet patient needs, rather than let her illness define her. 

She was awarded full professorship and served as the academic chief of the breast medical oncology section, chairperson of the OSUCCC clinical scientific review committee, and director of the Medical Oncology fellowship program in breast cancer at OSU. She was recognized with several awards during her tenure as an oncologist: named by Forbes as one of the top breast medical oncologists in the nation, Stellar Practitioner for Compassionate Care Recognition award, 2023 Women in Medicine Summit’s #IStandWithHer Resilience award, and the OSU Center for Faculty Advancement Mentoring and Engagement (FAME) Outstanding Mentor Award. 

More than her accolades however, she was known by her family, friends, colleagues, and patients as a compassionate woman who would always go the extra mile for those she cared for. She had a unique ability to instill confidence and motivate those around her, reminding us to fearlessly chase our dreams and achieve what we may not have believed was possible. Her natural charisma, infectious energy, and raw honesty captivated those who had the good fortune of crossing paths with her, inspiring us all to seize the day and fight hard for what is right. Her passing has left an unfillable void in the hearts of her loved ones, the city of Columbus, and the oncology community as a whole. 

She is survived by her husband, Ram; daughter, Sandhya; and sons, Rahul and Abhinav. Memorial services will take place on Wednesday July 10th at 4 pm at Newcomer Funeral Home. 

Rather than purchasing flowers, please consider donating to the Ramaswamy Family Endowed Fund for Breast Cancer Translational Research at the following link:

 https://www.giveto.osu.edu/makeagift/details/483953

To view the services via livestream, please register and click the link directly below.