Behind the Blue

LEXINGTON, Ky. (February 5, 2026) – From College of Medicine research labs to the halls of UK HealthCare, Lindsay Ragsdale, M.D., has spent much of her career here at the University of Kentucky. Now the chief medical officer for Golisano Children's at UK, she oversees a growing team of specialists and subspecialists dedicated to providing the most complex care for the children of Kentucky. In this episode of "Behind the Blue," Ragsdale discusses her career at UK, the role of palliative care, the growth of the children's hospital and her own son's experience as a pediatric cardiology patient. As a "Woman of Impact" nominee for the American Heart Association's current fundraising campaign, she also highlights how AHA helps fund an important initiative overseen by a Golisano team – Project ADAM in Kentucky. Below are highlights from the conversation, and you can listen to the full episode through the media player at the top of the page. Building a foundation of pediatric palliative care A Tennessee native, Ragsdale attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and came to UK for medical school and residency. She began her medical journey as a researcher, working in the UK College of Medicine's Department of Physiology and studying potential ways to prevent damage from heart attacks. "[Research] was really a helpful thing for me to test out; I love being curious about questions," she said. "'Why is this happening? Can we prove it?' So it was really the basis for my scientific mind, but I love people. And I think being in the lab really proved to me that I love teamwork, I love building teams, and I really wanted to get into clinical medicine."   Ultimately, Ragsdale chose to go into pediatric palliative care — a branch of medicine that focuses on pain relief, symptom management and quality of life for young patients with serious illnesses. After practicing at children's hospitals in Pennsylvania, Ragsdale was recruited back to UK HealthCare. At the time, a palliative care program for the children's hospital didn't exist, so developing this specialty for UK was a priority. "We really built this from the ground-up along the way," she said. "Our team is interdisciplinary - we have other physicians, a nurse practitioner, bereavement coordinator, pharmacist, nurse, and chaplain that all collaborate on patient care. And we have been able to establish an entire new field at the Children's Hospital. It's a different kind of medicine… We're kind of the creative thinkers, thinking outside the box about how we can help in multiple domains of life." While the average person might equate palliative care with end-of-life care, Ragsdale stressed that their role is not the same as hospice, and her team's goal is to help both patients and families deal with all aspects of a serious illness. "Palliative care can get involved at any point in the illness - even at diagnosis, really anywhere along the way where it's impacting their life," she said. "For us, we want to get involved and understand what makes a family feel whole and connected and grounded, and we can do that anytime along the illness. So don't be afraid if you hear palliative care coming in. Say, 'Yes, we want them!' They're the additional team that you would want on your side if you're really facing a lot of scary, serious things." The growth of UK Golisano Children's Opened in 1997, UK Golisano Children's (formerly Kentucky Children's Hospital) began as a single floor of the original UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital. Today, it's grown into a full hospital-within-a-hospital, with more than 200 pediatric physicians, more than 200 beds [AP1]  [LR2] and three specialized intensive care units. A significant part of this growth is recruiting more physicians with the ability to care for complex health problems in children.  "In the past we might've had one subspecialist in this one field; now we are adding multiple layers of subspecialties," Ragsdale said. "So when I say complexity, it's not that we just have pediatric surgery. We have surgeons that are interested in subspecialties of pediatric surgery. We have really been able to meet the needs of the children in Kentucky so they don't have to leave the state." Ragsdale was named chief medical officer for UK Golisano Children's in 2021 [AP3]  [LR4] . Even despite the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the children's hospital has continued to grow. "In a time in the past five years where some of the regional hospitals have not been able to maintain their pediatric inpatient teams, we have been able to grow and expand," she said. "I give a lot of credit to the leaders of UK HealthCare to seeing the Children's Hospital and being able to allow us to grow and flourish like we have." A 'Woman of Impact' and Project ADAM This year, Ragsdale was nominated to participate in the American Heart Association's Woman of Impact campaign, with the goal of raising awareness of heart disease and funds to support research, care and advocacy through the AHA. Ragsdale's platform for this campaign is personal — her son, Caston, was born with a congenital heart defect and was treated in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the very place she worked: UK Golisano Children's. "I worked the day that we had him; I did not expect it," she said. "We had a healthy pregnancy and had no signs that anything was going to happen. And he came out and really had trouble breathing right at birth and had pulmonary hypertension… And then we discovered he had a VSD [ventricular septal defect] — a hole in his heart. And all of this happening at once." Being on the other side of the physician-patient relationship gave her a new outlook on what the families of her own patients are going through, she said.  "I definitely feel empathy and a lot of love for families who go through things like this, because it can be traumatic," Ragsdale said. "I have just been really thankful to UK and to the NICU, to the cardiac team. They took amazing care of him. And now he's thriving, he's in school, he's doing great." Ragsdale's son is now nine years old, and the experience has given her an additional awareness of the importance of protecting children with heart issues. That includes the availability of automated external defibrillators, or AEDs. The AHA provides funding for Project ADAM, a national program that provides schools and other organizations with AEDs and specialized training for staff and students to act if someone experiences sudden cardiac arrest.  "Each organization that reaches out and says, 'We want to be Heart Safe,' it's at no cost to them," she said. "So that is really where the funding goes for Project ADAM. It's to pay for the infrastructure and the equipment needed to make sure that these organizations have what they need."  Project ADAM in Kentucky is overseen by a team from UK Golisano Children's, including Shaun Mohan, M.D., Tanya Edwards and Mindy Seeberger. When schools and organizations express interest in joining the program, this team oversees those efforts, including developing a response plan and running hands-only CPR and AED drills. "I think the important thing for families and organizations to think about is to have a plan, and that's really what Project Adam is here for," Ragsdale said. "Really, this is an extension of that cardiac care that we give with surgeries and treatments on the inpatient side. We want to make sure that the community sites are protected as well. I want my son to go to a school that it's heart safe, that has an AED, that has a plan. And I'm sure the same for you. If you have kids in your life or family members that are at risk, you want them to be at a place where if there's a crucial emergency, they have what they need." The AHA "Woman of Impact" campaign begins Friday, Feb. 6 at 9 a.m. ET and ends Thursday, April 9 at 9 p.m. ET. Visit Dr. Ragsdale's donor page on the AHA site to learn more about the campaign and donate.  'Behind the Blue' is available via a variety of podcast providers, including Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify. Subscribe to receive new episodes each week, featuring UK's latest medical breakthroughs, research, artists, writers and the most important news impacting the university. 'Behind the Blue' is a production of the University of Kentucky. Transcripts for most episodes are now embedded in the audio file and can be accessed in many podcast apps during playback. Transcripts for older episodes remain available on the show's blog page.  To discover how the University of Kentucky is advancing our Commonwealth, click here. This interview has been edited for time and clarity.