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. [ad#bannermain-plain] [Read more →]

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.
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.“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 →]

It is often impossible to predict where life will take you. While a senior at the University of MidWest, I never expected my life to take me to a place where I’d learn the realities of poverty and disease. As a rural health care volunteer in northern India, without portable machines or diagnostic equipment, I experienced medicine and surgery at its roots: my hands and ears were my most valuable tools. I gave children vaccinations, assisted with births, administered epidurals and helped end stage cancer sufferers with pain management. [Read more →]

Throughout my years in medical school, I have noticed some interesting parallels between chess, my childhood passion, and the practice of medicine. Chess is beautifully artistic, yet remarkably precise in its strategic demands. This balance is also an integral part of practicing medicine that a career in radiology can provide. Having to use my mind’s eye to craft an intricate game plan is also similar to approaching a radiographic study: systematic, but with a keen sense of curiosity. [ad#bannermain] [Read more →]

The realization that specializing in Internal Medicine was my goal came about during my Internal Medicine rotation, during my Internship year in South Africa. A month into my rotation, my supervisor had to go on leave and I was left to care for the ward patients and to take calls on my own. The department head was available for consultation and support, but having been thrown into the deep end, my confidence increased tremendously. [Read more →]

As a bridge between biomedical research and clinical medicine, pathology is the key to correct diagnosing disease and therefore has tremendous impact on patient management. It is an intellectually challenging yet rewarding specialty. With advancements in biomedical research, pathology is expanding rapidly and gaining strength in deciphering the etiology of diseases. [ad#bannermain-plain] [Read more →]