Recipient of Young Achievers Award - Liver Transplantation and GI Surgery, Times Health Care 2018, he performed several landmark surgeries - World’s First Composite Vascularised Liver and Posterior Rectus Sheath Transplant in an Adult, Western India’s First Paediatric & Adult Swap Liver Transplant, Mumbai’s First Successful Simultaneous Pancreas and Kidney Transplant - are a few to name.

He specialises in paediatric hepatology, gastroenterology and nutrition and is accredited from General Medical Council (UK). His area of specialisation is pre and post-intensive transplant care management, acute liver failure and liver-based metabolic disorder management. He also has a keen interest in nutritional medicine and has a “Diploma in Nutritional Medicine” from the University of Surrey to his name.

He is the first liver transplant surgeon in Kerala and a well-known expert in liver transplants. He has completed over 820 liver transplants, mostly live donor transplants. He also has expertise in pancreas transplants as well as small bowel transplants.

He is the youngest liver transplant surgeon to complete 1000 liver transplants with the lowest biliary complication rate. He is the first surgeon from the Indian subcontinent to publish a series of laparoscopic Donor Hepatectomy in 'Liver Transplantation'. He was honoured by The International Liver Transplant Society in Chicago in 2015 for his contributions and achievements in the said domain.

His career focuses on the field of organ donation, with a special interest in the preservation and utilisation of high-risk livers. Mr Mergental’s team pioneered viability testing and performed the world-first transplant series with discarded livers using normothermic assessment. He was Principal Investigator in first clinical trials with liver perfusion devices and collaborates closely with the Oxford Group. He published in journals including Nature Communication, Nature, Journal of Hepatology or American Journal of Transplantation, reporting different liver perfusion strategies and the use of machine perfusion to increase utilisation of marginal organs.

He was conferred the “Vanguard Award 2016” by the International Liver Transplant Society (ILTS) for the best published clinical research paper in top peer-reviewed Journals during the entire calendar year 2016. Medanta -The Medicity Hospital is considered to have the highest experience in living donor liver transplantation worldwide (close to 3500 LDLT).

She specialises in paediatric liver and gastrointestinal disorders, including acute and chronic liver disease/failure. Dr. Smita is renowned for her clinical excellence in management of patients and academic contribution to the subject.

She has around two decades of experience in clinical dietetics and is the author of the textbooks - Nutrition & Biochemistry for Nurses by Reed Elsevier (2011, 2015, 2020), Nutrition for Nurses by Reed Elsevier-2019 & Neuro Nutrition Booklet - 2017. She founded Mithaahara, which provides nutrition education for fatty liver and cirrhosis, neuro, bariatric and diabetic patients.

Under her leadership, TRIOMPH (Transplant Recipients of India and Organ failure patients – a Movement to Provide Hope) was launched by MOHAN Foundation in 2020. It is committed to transforming the patients' quality of life through education, support, awareness, and advocacy. Presently, TRIOMPH is a growing group of 500+ patients and caregivers.