Tell us about yourself.
I grew up in the suburbs of New Delhi, India and completed by medical school from Calicut Medical College, Kerala in India. I moved to United States in 2008 to pursue Internal Medicine Residency training at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York where I also completed Critical Care Medicine fellowship in 2012, and then moved to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York where I completed fellowship in Pulmonary Medicine in 2014. I am currently board certified in Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine. I joined Emory in February 2016 to serve as Clinician Educator in the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine.
Why did you go into medicine?
I grew up in a humble middle-class business family from a small town in India but my parents had strong values for education. I decided to be a physician as I was fascinated by the opportunity to serve the community, be an educator, and also have a decent living. I was inspired by my paternal uncle who was a great clinician educator, and an inspiring human being. He practiced in a small town in India but commanded great respect in the community. I still remember that the entire city was shut down as a token of respect when he died of pancreatic cancer around 25 years ago. I realized if I can be 10% of what he did for patients as a clinician, and as an educator for the trainees and the institution, then it will be life well lived.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
I enjoy learning skills and that serves as a fundamental bedrock of my passion to be an educator, facilitator and a mentor. I enjoy learning from everyone and feel pride in helping my colleagues and trainees in advancement of their career. I am grateful to my parents, teachers/mentors and almighty who helped me to realize this noble passion to serve as a clinician educator. My areas of interest include bedside teaching, small group team-based learning modules, and use of simulation vs traditional methods in the procedural training. I also enjoy and strongly believe in the art of good mentoring as it is very important for the success of an individual. As rightly said by William Arthur Ward, one of America’s well-known inspirational writer & poet, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires”.
Dogs or cats or something else?
I love pets as they are the best friends but currently don’t have one!
I am interested in assessing the role of spiritual practices like yoga, meditation, pranayama, Tai Chi in the practice of modern medicine. Currently, we do teach and evaluate our trainees to be cognizant of patient’s religious/spiritual beliefs, and socioeconomic background in the practice of medicine. We cannot afford to neglect the positive effects of these spiritual practices and others in the maintenance of good health and also in the healing process from illnesses. After all, we must understand that healing is more than just saving lives.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I enjoy traveling, watching inspiring documentaries of real-life human valor & grit, and love cooking traditional Indian food. I also like to spend time with friends and family and most recently have started exploring how spirituality can ease the human suffering and be incorporated in the daily practice of evidence-based medicine.
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