By Lizzie Lucas, ND '24
Little did I know that I had gone to exactly the right doctor to find it. I’ve known Dr. Kaushal Nanavati, M.D., since I was 12 years old in 7th grade. His son and I have been best friends since that time, and he’s always been someone I look up to. He currently serves as a family medicine physician, along with being the head of the survivorship program and the Assistant Dean of Wellness at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y. He is passionate about integrative medicine, which combines the therapies classically associated with medicine as well as encouraging lifestyle choices that maximize the patient’s quality of life. Dr. Nanavati might have been as excited as I am that my medical journey was finally able to begin, and graciously offered me the opportunity to shadow him on some of his days in the cancer center located on campus at Upstate Medical University.
I was somewhat familiar with Dr. Nanavati’s integrative work ahead of time, as he had come to my high school to speak to us about taking care of ourselves and living a healthy lifestyle. However, I was a bit confused in terms of how that work applied specifically to cancer treatment, as I more so saw it as a general application to life. The first place that I went with Dr. Nanavati was a multidisciplinary tumor board, where several patient cases were discussed and a plan of treatment was established. At Upstate, patients are seen by up to six doctors at one of these visits, ranging from the medical coordinator to a radiation oncologist to Dr. Nanavati’s integrative piece. At the tumor board, I was able to see for the first time how a course of treatment gets made, and how every individual piece comes together to create a whole system of action. As you can imagine, it’s a lot of information being tossed around at once. It was at the end of one of these tumor board sessions that I noticed a strong element of compassion in Dr. Nanavati’s practice. He gathered a medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, and the head of the breast cancer program to propose an idea. He suggested that, in order to focus on the whole person rather than just the medical data, that a photo of the person be shown and their general life background be told before any discussion of their illness. I immediately recognized the compassion here, as the main goal of this would be to increase the physicians’ awareness of the patient as a human being, which may shape the way they choose to treat them.
When in a patient's room with Dr. Nanavati, another thing I saw was the way that he tries to form a connection with each and every patient. For example, he asks them to tell their life story however they would like to, and before they do, he tells them his own. He ensures that they don’t feel like he is preaching to them or talking down to them, rather that they are equals. He then begins to inform them about integrative medicine, reassuring them throughout the talk that these aren’t orders, rather suggestions in order to help them live their best lives. You can tell as he speaks that he truly does care about the wellbeing of each patient, and that goes beyond their strict treatment plans. After a day where these patients are in a whirlwind of medical terms and daunting therapies, Dr. Nanavati provides them a moment to think about themselves beyond their sickness. He is able to show them that they still exist beyond this diagnosis, and that taking care of their whole self doesn’t have to cease because of it.
Once we leave the patient rooms, Dr. Nanavati always makes sure to debrief me on why he behaved the way he did or spoke the way he did depending on the individual patient and their situation. Something we’ve discussed a lot is that even though the same general discussion happens with each patient, it has to be framed differently based on the person. He always picks up on cultural context or past experiences that may change the way a patient looks at life. One example that stands out is a woman just diagnosed with breast cancer. Dr. Nanavati was discussing stress management with her, and simply based on the way that she was responding (she had lots of energy and talked very quickly) he was able to tell that she had been through some tough times in the past. He brought this up to her, urging her to let these things go from her past and begin to focus on herself. He said that there was no better time for her to start appreciating her life and prioritizing her own health, mental and physical. Just the acknowledgment of what she had been through and the comfort of those words actually moved her to tears (which, naturally, brought tears to my eyes as well.)
Working with Dr. Nanavati this summer has allowed me to see that compassion definitely has a place, and a very important one, in hospital medicine. The connections that he is able to form with patients and the ways that he prioritizes a person-first perspective are things that I hope to emulate in my future career as a physician. The patient always comes first in his practice, whether that be in his interactions with the person directly or with the doctors who take care of them. He not only wants the patient to survive, but he wants them to live a life that is fulfilling and top-quality.
No matter what path in medicine I end up choosing, I now understand the importance of stepping back from symptoms and diagnoses and seeing a person for who they are rather than what they have.