Dr Shridhar Ventrapragada graduated from the University of Illinois in 1996 and then attended Tulane Medical School in New Orleans. He graduated Alpha Omega Alpha at Tulane, which is generally given to the top 15% of graduating classes. After medical school, he completed his residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This was followed by a fellowship of specialized training in sinus surgery at the Georgia Sinus and Nasal Institute with Dr Fred Kuhn, who is considered to be one of the top five sinus surgeons in the world.

After a year at the Hammond Clinic, Dr Ventrapragada was recruited to the Lahey Clinic, a world-renowned institution, outside of Boston. There, he specialized in both sinus surgery and the surgical treatment of sleep apnea. A desire to return to the Midwest and use the knowledge from his time at Lahey Clinic led him to establish the Northwest Indiana ENT and Sinus Center.