Dr. Ara Suppiah

Founder & CEO, Functional Sports Medicine Institute

Dr. Ara Suppiah is one of the world’s most trusted medical pioneers in professional sports and the founder of the Functional Sports Medicine Institute based on decades of groundbreaking research and discovering how to solve the unmet needs of world-class athletes to achieve maximum health and vitality to enable sustained high performance. 

Dr. Ara is a highly trusted and sought-after personal physician on the PGA, LPGA Tour, ATP and WTA Tour, a practicing ER Physician, Chief Medical Analyst on NBC Sports Golf Channel, medical contributor to Golf Digest, author and speaker. Dr. Ara’s client list includes a “Who’s Who” in professional golf and tennis including Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Steve Stricker, Ian Poulter, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Lydia Ko and Anna Nordqvist, as well as rising US tennis stars Jennifer Brady, Danielle Collins, Reilly Opelka and Mackie Mckenzie and US Olympic hopeful Chari Hawkins. He is the chief medical officer for Orreco, a bioanalytical company that utilizes machine learning to interpret laboratory data and predict likelihood of injury in athletes. He has served as the team physician for both the European and US Ryder Cup teams. 

Dr. Ara single-handedly pioneered his Functional Sports Medicine model using a holistic, proprietary approach by leveraging the sciences of functional medicine, allopathic medicine and Eastern medical philosophies to limit the amount of inflammation within athletes’ bodies. In this process, he has proven the critical importance of lab work and wearable data interpretation as the foundation of a strategic training and supplementation plan for athletes.

A lifelong athlete, Dr. Ara is on a mission to change the way people think about working with athletes. As a result, he is sharing his learnings in the first-in-class, CME-accredited online Functional Sports Medicine Masterclass designed to empower those who work with pro and amateur athletes to strategically enhance their health and performance. Dr. Ara believes that one doesn’t need to be a physician to analyze lab work results to develop a training and dietary plan for athletes. Dr. Ara’s Functional Sports Medicine™ Masterclass levels the playing field by providing non-physicians additional credibility and a competitive edge to retain and gain athlete clients.

Born in Malaysia, Dr. Ara was awarded a merit-based scholarship to study Medicine at Liverpool University in the United Kingdom. Having practiced medicine all around the world, Dr Ara is one of a handful physicians worldwide who has taken on the daunting task of studying three sciences- functional medicine, allopathic medicine and Eastern medical philosophies. Dr. Ara holds a total of six medical degrees and is formally trained in Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Critical care, Sports Medicine, Acupuncture and Functional Medicine. He serves as advisory board member of several US based commercial companies and in March 2021, was appointed as head of research for Peak Living for the Chopra Foundation.