Pavitra Parimala Krishnamani, MD, MS

Dr. Krishnamani is a faculty member at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Department of Emergency Medicine. Having completed her residency in emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and her fellowship in oncologic emergency medicine at MD Anderson, Dr. Krishnamani chose to pursue a career at the nation’s best cancer care hospital primarily because of her desire to care for and connect with patients at their most vulnerable moments. Her experiences have been shaped through her education as a fellow at both the University of Southern California’s Sidney Harman Academy of Polymathic Study and its Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics. She thrives in her career because of her ability to communicate with patients from various walks of life and build strong bonds with her patients.

Dr. Krishnamani’s career has always been one of service and, throughout her education over the past decade, she has always focused on one question: “How can I give back to my community just a percentage of what I have?” A child of South Asian immigrants, Dr. Krishnamani was raised with principles of community service and was always taught to share her resources, whether this may be time, knowledge, or skills. Having grown up straddling two very different cultures, she earned a master of science degree in global medicine from the Keck School of Medicine of USC before pursuing her MD at Thomas Jefferson University. Her degree in global medicine equipped her to work with refugees in her community throughout medical school, first volunteering at several community clinics and then being selected to serve as a community clinic director. She gained joy from the little interactions she was able to have with various refugee communities in Philadelphia and was welcomed as a friend to many refugee community events. In 2015, she was inducted into the Carson Scholar's "Twenty Under Thirty" Hall of Fame for her work with refugees and migrant populations. She has since spoken about her experiences with refugee health and the importance of seeing patients as people first in forming strong physician-patient relationships built on trust.

Before graduating with her MD, Dr. Krishnamani also completed a fellowship in healthcare innovation at Jefferson's Digital Innovation & Consumer Experience group (DICE). As a fellow at DICE, she practiced clinical design, serving as a liaison between clinical work and innovation at Jefferson. She was a consultant for several large-scale initiatives at DICE, where she provided critical input into the design process to ensure projects enhance both patients' and providers' experiences. Most notably, she co-founded Jefferson's augmented reality/virtual reality Initiative and, in this capacity, leads one of the first studies in the U.S. examining how virtual reality (VR) can affect therapy and education in outpatient cardiac rehabilitation. She also spearheaded the initiative's first venture into product design, exploring how VR can help prepare providers for high-acuity clinical situations. As a core member of several other DICE projects leveraging VR and artificial intelligence, Dr. Krishnamani has been integral in cultivating relationships and activities that help further infuse digital innovation into clinical medicine at Jefferson. This experience taught her how to lead within a clinical enterprise and use her communication skills to design innovative solutions that are focused on patient and clinician needs.

A natural academic and educator, Dr. Krishnamani is a cited author and keynote speaker. She has continued to publish, present, and give interviews on her work in healthcare innovation and global health, speaking at conferences internationally and at several major U.S. universities. Most notably, she presented at Stanford's MedX and the VR & Healthcare Symposium at Harvard in 2018, the Society for Academy Emergency Medicine annual meeting in 2021, and South by Southwest in 2023. She has also published scientific research in collaboration with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University, and the Amen Clinics, and presented research posters at Jefferson, UC Berkeley, and USC. Having previously served on the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and the The New Physician's student editor, Dr. Krishnamani is now a columnist with the American Academy for Emergency Medicine's Common Sense, where she offers first-hand insights into the life of a physician. Dr. Krishnamani continues to humanize her academic endeavors, with patient impact continuing to be at the heart of her research, writing, and presentations.