As a neonatologist working in Western New York’s most advanced neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, I care for critically ill preterm and term newborn infants. My expertise includes caring for extremely premature infants and the associated comorbidities that often come with premature birth as well as hypoxic respiratory failure, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy and pulmonary hypertension.

My research focuses on neonatal resuscitation and understanding the physiology of pulmonary transition at birth in asphyxia and to compare the effectiveness of various techniques (femoral occlusion), medications (vasopressin and epinephrine) and devices (laryngeal mask airway) during resuscitation. The results of these studies will have a pronounced clinical impact globally by improving resuscitation guidelines that hasten recovery and reduce death and neurological disability following birth asphyxia.

I also conduct clinical research, in our mother-baby unit, on the use of oral dextrose gel in the treatment of neonatal hypoglycemia. The results thus far have shown reduction in NICU admissions for neonatal hypoglycemia, which prevents separating mothers from their babies. I am working towards increasing the rates of skin to skin care (kangaroo mother care) in our unit. To accomplish this in very sick and premature infants who cannot be held, I am developing a Kangaroo care mattress in collaboration with our Biomedical Engineering team.

Interested fellows and residents are welcome to work in our sheep lab and conduct basic science research with me. They are also welcome to participate in my clinical studies and quality improvement projects.

I teach medical students, pediatrics residents and neonatal-perinatal medicine fellows. When on service, I teach the residents and fellows during daily morning bedside rounds. I assess my trainees’ level of knowledge; based on that, I teach them about our patients’ clinical conditions, their diagnoses and the care they will need. I also teach my trainees various procedures such as umbilical line and peripheral arterial line placements and endotracheal intubation and chest tube placements. I also give core lectures to the residents and fellows. During didactic teaching, I include multiple choice questions to get an idea of where my trainees stand, and then I build upon my presentations to address specifically the needs of my trainees. Most of my teaching is interactive; I believe in engaging my students and trainees as much as possible in critical thinking and active discussion so that they can absorb and retain knowledge.

Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Neonatology, Pediatrics

Fluent Hindi

Physician Gender:

Female