I began my career as a dermatologist and trichologist in India and practiced for 10 years, focused on consulting patients in front of me. I treated rashes, hair loss, and autoimmune skin diseases with the best medicines I had— often immunosuppressants— and for a while, that felt like enough. But over time, I started to notice something deeper behind so many of my patients’ conditions: long hours, constant stress, unspoken anxiety, and a quiet heaviness in their lives.
It became clear that the real “disease” wasn’t only in the skin or immune system. It was in the way we live and work—in workplaces that ignore mental health, in communities that normalize burnout, in systems that react to illness instead of preventing it. I began to feel that simply changing creams or injections was like putting a bandage on a much bigger wound.
That is why I chose to step into public health. As an MPH student, I am learning how to turn my clinic experience into data, evidence, and advocacy. I don’t want to only help one person at a time; I want to help build environments where fewer people get sick in the first place—where work and mental health are protected, and where prevention is valued as much as treatment.
Today, I still carry my identity as a doctor, but my lens is wider. I see every patient’s story as part of a larger pattern that can be changed. Moving into public health is my way of honoring those patients by working for a future in which healthy skin, healthy minds, and healthy workplaces are part of everyday life, not a privilege.
My journey into public health has just started, and I already know this is where I’m meant to be. I’ve begun taking small but meaningful steps beyond the clinic—like giving seminars that raise awareness about “Toxic Cosmetology Products” and “The Impact of Screen Time and Depression,” and these efforts are my first stepping stones toward protecting mental health and promoting well-being at the community level.
