Growing up in my native homeland of India, I always wanted to do something in my life where I could make a difference. I was taught that it was very important for your life to have a plan, and to do something where you could make a positive impact on the lives of others. My school years were a time of research and reflection, as I looked for a way in which I could make this dream become a reality. [Read more →]

I relish the opportunity to help people through medicine. During my ER rotation, a 2 year old boy was brought in after suffering a laceration to his hand. I calmed him by distracting him with my stethoscope, and was able to suture while minimizing the child’s anxiety. Easing this child’s pain and making him feel better gave me a great sense of fulfillment.

My strong interest in how the human body functions and how medicine can be used to improve life initiated my desire to pursue medicine. I was admitted to the seven-year M.D. /M.S. program of China University, a medical scientist training program including four years of medical school study taught in English, one and a half years each for internship and medical research. [Read more →]

It felt strange coming out of the airport. The air was cold, less humid, and smelled different. I finally emerged from the labyrinth that is Dulles Airport, built on the outskirts of Washington D.C.. I was born, raised and spent more than 16 years of my life in Large CIty, India, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1999. As a teenager, the transition from my native culture to a completely unknown place and culture was very dramatic. The change was frustrating in the beginning, but I knew that ultimately it was up to me to adapt to my new environment and build my identity. My accent slowly devolved, my new wardrobe collection evolved, as my name Rajiv, a traditional Hindu name simultaneously simplified into the single letter “R”. [Read more →]

Anesthesiology provides opportunities to display specialized skills by performing a wide range of procedures while having cognitive challenges as well. After medical school I was selected for a two year anesthesiology residency program at Large Medical College, India. During my training, I learned to administer anesthesia for a wide array of cases: pediatric, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, urology, orthopedics and general surgeries.

I am a person who enjoys intellectual work, solving complex problems, and doing things systemically and methodically. The diverse knowledge an internist has, the tremendous number of diseases an internist can treat and the challenge of simultaneously considering disorders in multiple systems in medicine attract me to the field of internal medicine. [Read more →]

To me, the most important aspect of my future career as a physician, is maintaining a sufficiently holistic view of medicine while avoiding too much compartmentalization. I see myself as a doctor who will be able to achieve success through excelling at all aspects of patient care whether it is diagnosis, treatment, emotional care, or interacting with families.

.“BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!” The annoying shrill sound of my pager jolted me from the depths of sleep during my first IM rotation call night. Within moments, my intern and I scurried through the hospital to the three tower nurses station. Ms. Jones, a 37 year old African American female was in respiratory distress. She had undergone a partial thyroidectomy surgery earlier that day. During afternoon rounds, Ms. Jones was alert, responsive, and in no distress. Now it was one o’clock in the morning and the nurse, the intern, and I were the only ones present. Ms. Jones was minimally responsive. [Read more →]

Becoming a mother in medical school has fostered some unconventional, albeit resourceful, moments.There was the time I “wore” my oldest daughter in her baby carrier to the pathology lab after hours so I could study slide specimens while she slept. Or the day I had to use my lunch break during a USMLE exam to pump in a study room. And then there have been the nights on call when I phone my daughters to sing them an off-key lullaby before bed, all the time wondering what the student in the next call room must be thinking of my warbling. [Read more →]

My career evolution, learning experiences, and my interest in musculoskeletal disability have uniquely directed me towards the field of physiatry. Throughout my clinical rotations I learned from patient contact and disease investigation, but yearned to see my role in their daily life after they left the hospital. Unlike any other field of medicine, my PM&R elective delved much deeper into the patient’s biopsychosocial realm, investigating their daily functional abilities, tackling their social welfare issues and making sure the patient was well-equipped to survive, many times on their own. [Read more →]