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The humane face of medicine

Sonia Chopra

When Sindhu Srinivas was eight years old, she won an essay contest run by the New York-based Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

The subject of the essay was "India and Jawarharlal Nehru," and her entry impressed the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi enough to invite Srinivas and her family to her personal residence to New Delhi for a half-an-hour visit.

Srinivas, who was born and raised in New Jersey, still vividly recalls passing the entrance of the house, which was flooded by the poor, the homeless, the sick and the hungry.

"The glimpses of poverty were very striking all throughout that trip and many others to India. It made my mind swirl with all of the potential solutions for such a large trouble," she says.

Years later, the 26-year-old medical student and current president and spokesperson of American Medical Students Association (AMSA) is confident of making an impact in the field of healthcare. Her one-year full-time, paid and elected position expires in May, but her passion for universal healthcare remains unabated.

"This has been the most phenomenal year in my life. I dedicated all my energy towards important social and health issues and learned a great deal about being a leader," says Srinivas, who was previously the national vice-president and region II trustee for AMSA (www.amsa.org).

"Large number of uninsured patients crowd the emergency rooms and doctors offices when they have a medical emergency and cannot afford to pay. There is no incentive for the uninsured to receive ongoing care in this country and that is a tragedy. If all people receive preventive care it will save many lives and a lot of money for our nation in the long-run," she says.

Her commitment and dedication to her work won Srinivas a place in the Shakti calendar 2001 -- a collection of twelve women -- originally from the Indian subcontinent. Artistic images capture the shakti of South Asian American women who are passionate about their lives, and are symbols of strength, power and inner beauty.

Two years ago, she enrolled as a medical volunteer at the Sharada Dhanvantri Charitable Hospital, Karnataka through the Swasthya Community Health Partnership, a program geared at training public health nurses to provide care and education in their community.

Formed in 1997, the group believes that if the under-served populations are given the tools, they will be able to have health care choices and make informed decisions.

Last year, Srinivas traveled to Sringeri in Karnataka and provided care in the local hospital and local villages, besides teaching local women how to link resources, build a network and learn basic health care management.

She hopes to continue making trips to India to work with underprivileged women in rural areas as well as work with under-served urban populations here in the United States.

In fact, she will be travelling to India this month to do some sightseeing with her fiancé David Grande, 27, a former AMSA president, to show him Karnataka, Jaipur, Bangalore and Mysore. The couple will marry in October.

Srinivas, who strongly encourages the development of physician leaders and community health care advocates, feels that the role of the physician extends beyond that of providing treatments.

"As doctors, we have a responsibility to advocate for our patients and that to me includes ensuring that all people in this country have access to health care," she says.

In June, she will begin her residency in obstetrics/gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania this summer.

"I enjoy working with female patients and taking care of the whole person. I also particularly enjoy working with adolescents, who sometimes get neglected or don't feel comfortable talking to doctors about their needs," she adds.

Her parents, both in their fifties live in New Jersey. Her father Kikeri Srinivas is a civil engineer and her mother Uma works in a credit union. Her brother Shekar is a junior at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Based in Reston, Virginia, AMSA was established fifty-one years ago. It is the nation's largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States.

Today, it is a student-governed, national organization committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training. With a membership of 35,000 medical and pre-medical students, interns and residents across the country, AMSA's focus is on improving medical training for the nation's health.

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