My research focuses on diagnosis and clinical reasoning, especially diagnostic health disparities. I am writing a book for Johns Hopkins University Press, The Doctor and the Detective: A Cultural History of Diagnosis. My work grapples with these questions: how do doctors think and what stories do they tell about themselves? What happens to the diagnostic process in the face of new technologies? How do we address diagnostic error and bias, which harm thousands of patients each year?

I am passionate about connecting health and the humanities and applying this framework to clinical and public health issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic. My innovation in the medical humanities has resulted in numerous research publications, grants, and international recognition including a U.S. Rhodes Scholarship, The Isis Poetry Prize (given by Oxford’s oldest literary magazine), and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. I have won awards from the Academy of Communication in Healthcare and the Association of American Medical Colleges, and appeared on media such as Voice of America, Science News, and The History Channel.

I earned my DPhil (PhD) in English Literature from the University of Oxford, MD from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed an Internal Medicine residency at Duke before returning to Johns Hopkins for fellowship in General Internal Medicine and History of Medicine. Since 2020, I have been on faculty at Georgetown where I founded and direct the university’s Medical Humanities Initiative.

I was born in Bombay, India, and am a proud “Mumbaikar” and immigrant. My childhood was spent in England and most of my young adulthood in the Southern United States. I adore all things theatre, swimming, curating playlists, and my weekly trips to the DC public library.