Sunita D Nasta MD FACP

I always knew I wanted to be a doctor: I loved science and my grandfather was a GP in a village clinic in India. I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I started undergrad with a plan to study immunology. But Medicine became real for me when one of my good friends developed Hodgkin lymphoma in college. She wanted to stay in school so we banded together and helped her to appointments and treatments, visited her in hospital and tutored her in class. Her doctors were amazing: they used science with compassion, the best therapies explained while holding her hand. I still use their example today. I look patients in the eye, honestly talk about the science and the limitations and promise to be their partner on the dark days. The wonderful part is how far we have come from those days: better diagnosis, better treatments, understanding the immune system but we can still do better. We will: one patient at a time.