DIM Spotlight: Pranay Sinha, MD

Introducing Pranay Sinha, MD, former resident of Yale Department of Internal Medicine. Sinha completed residency training in 2017.

Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at Boston University. After finishing residency, I was recruited to BU for an Infectious Diseases fellowship and to study the impact of undernutrition on the TB epidemic in India under the mentorship of Dr. Natasha Hochberg and Dr. Bob Horsburgh. Through my work, I am trying to ensure that global efforts don't forget about the social determinants that keep TB entrenched among the most underserved populations in the world. During my fellowship and postdoctoral training, I gained some skills in epidemiology and health economics as I participate in and lead TB research initiatives in India, Benin, and Togo currently.

My patients, most of all. We serve a very diverse and global population at Boston Medical Center. My patients share such incredible stories of fortitude and sacrifice with me every day. I feel like I'm practicing tropical medicine while living in New England. I also love my research, as it gives me a chance to think holistically about a disease that has woven itself into human society and influenced everything from fashion to architecture. Undernutrition is the leading risk factor for TB worldwide and it increases TB incidence and TB severity. Despite being a modifiable risk factor, there is little action on it. The global conversation on TB elimination is dominated by the biomedical discourse. William Osler called TB "a social disease with a medical aspect." TB research also gives me opportunities to travel often and learn from incredible people across the world. I have found TB researchers, clinicians, and activists to be a rare breed—they are fierce advocates with sharp minds and tender hearts.

Yale was a wonderful place for me to learn my trade from teachers who were both kind and brilliant. I was encouraged to strive for clinical excellence without jeopardizing my mental health or capacity for compassion. Dr. Mark Siegel, Dr. Jack Hughes, Dr. Andre Sofair, Dr. Dana Dunne, Dr. Tom Duffy, and Dr. Lynn Fiellin were awesome inspirations who were immensely generous with their time. When I work with residents at Boston Medical Center, I constantly channel my clinical mentors at Yale. "As good as any and nicer than most"is a watchword I have carried with me since my days in New Haven. Under the guidance of writers like Dr. Barry Zaret, Dr. Anna Reisman, and Dr. Lisa Sanders, I learned to advocate through my writing and understood the ethos appeal of my medical training. Advocacy is a massive part of my role as a TB researcher and Infectious Diseases physician. Yale was also the place where my career as a TB researcher began under the patient mentorship of Dr. Sheela Shenoi and Dr. Gerald Friedland. The research-in-residency program and the Global Health & Equity distinction, along with the Johnson and Johnson program, kept my global health spark alive during residency. Most importantly, perhaps, I had the good fortune of meeting Dr. Anne Liu—who remains the kindest and most generous person I know. She took pity on me and married me in an act of injudicious selflessness and has been the bedrock of my life these past seven years.

Rigorous, loving, family.

I think I always understood intellectually that we can make change through research and passionate advocacy, but it felt like something that happened to other people. I was worried about wasting away as an academic with a large publication record, but no tangible change to his name. I have been pleasantly surprised by how false that assumption is in medicine and public health! My medical school mentor, Dr. Richard Guerrant, urged me to measure things if I want to change them. Thanks to my current mentors, I began doing so for undernutrition and TB. In a few short years, I now have the pleasure of addressing global audiences including government officials with the power to make the necessary changes. While progress seems slow on any given day, I am constantly amazed and energized when I see how far we have come.

Walking home past the Harkness tower on a warm June morning after completing my first night shift as an intern.

Dr. Michael Nanna said, "Every patient needs a doctor." He taught me by example never to palm off the responsibility for patients to other physicians.

A med school degree does not confer infallibility. Don’t feel the pressure of needing to know everything when you graduate med school and certainly don’t pretend to do so

In my hospitalist year, my wife and I traveled to six continents in six months.

The DIM spotlight is a feature as part of the DIM Digest, highlighting alumni, former trainees, and faculty of the Department of Internal Medicine.