I am an associate clinical professor and director of pediatric rehabilitation at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco. I have been at UCSF since completing my combined residency in pediatrics and PM&R at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in 2011. I am also active in global health work particularly in building a rural pediatric rehabilitation program in Karnataka, India.

Like others, I wear many hats. In the hospital, I am a clinician, a “quality-of-life” expert focused on improving the wellbeing of my patients. Academically, I am a medical director, teacher, mentor. With colleagues, I am a concussion expert, research collaborator, transition-of-care advocate, and global health advocate. More recently, I have been an advocate for safe schools reopening amidst our current COVID-19 pandemic. At home, I am a husband, dad, athlete, travel-connoisseur, and amateur musician.

My path is a cliché as it comes – I wanted to find the path to where I felt I could have the most impact and reach people. I looked at many options but medicine always stood out to me as the most direct path. Of course, I did not know about all the paperwork and bureaucracy at that time. But when I still strip everything away and it’s just me and my patient, I know I made the right decision.

I believe PM&R in inherently a field focused on equity – in lifting the voices and quality of life of those differently abled regardless of differences in gender, race, socio-economic background, geography. Disability can impact anyone and we are there to try to lift anyone up after.

I can honestly say that the current challenges in medicine with COVID-19 are likely the most challenging times I have experienced in medicine. We are all feeling burnt out physically, emotionally, politically. It has stretched us focused on patient well-being in ways we never imagined. And we are still in the middle of it…