Spotlight

Priyanka Bakhtiani, MD

Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology

How long have you worked in Pediatrics?   22 months (but who's counting?)

What is your favorite thing about your job?  I love the incredible everyday interactions: the 2-minute brainstorm-session with a colleague about a challenging case, the hi-five with a patient who worked super-hard to attain an A1c goal, the triage-report prefaced with the patient’s level of adorability by a bubbly MA, the sudden light-bulb research idea from a medical student in the middle of a busy clinic, the sigh of relief when a mom finds out that her child has an easily-treatable diagnosis after-all, the intellectual banter at our weekly conference… It just doesn’t get better than this.

What is your hometown? New Delhi, India.

What is your favorite musical? Wicked.

Tell us about your family: Small, and happy. My husband, Adi, works at St Jude’s, Memphis. He gets a fair amount of time off, so it’s party time when he is here in the 5-0-Lou (and ‘me’ time when he is not).

Will you have pets? Yes. As soon as I prove to myself that I can keep a plant alive.

What are you doing, where are you going, for your next vacation? Hiking and driving in the Canadian Rockies.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? A journalist.

What is one of your proudest accomplishments? Presenting my complex basic science research in an exciting 5-minute TED-talk-format at the opening session of The Obesity Society meeting.

What is your favorite quote? “I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.”

― Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald

What was your first job? Hosting a teen radio show on All India Radio.

What is your favorite ice cream? Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy.