Hooked on ID with Priya Nori, MD, FSHEA, FIDSA
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I became hooked on ID for the classic reasons — formative experiences in medical school and residency, a deep connection and kinship with supervising ID physicians during fellowship, immense learning opportunities, unforgettable mentor experiences, and tremendous personal and professional growth prospects.
ID is vast and inclusive. You can “test-drive” different paths to understand where your skills are best suited. For instance, although my primary hospital role is within antimicrobial stewardship and outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT), I’ve also embraced medical education and training program leadership and harnessed stewardship and OPAT know-how to develop treatment protocols and establish an outpatient COVID therapeutics program for our system.
Through my OPAT work, I have become embedded with our department of orthopedics. Dr. Glaucomflecken might say that I’m the “ID-bro” to the “ortho-bros,” who consider me one of their own.
An ID career has enabled me to care for numerous patients while implementing changes at an organizational level, impacting many others. I’ve learned to turn challenges into new opportunities. “Embracing the randomness” has led to numerous exciting opportunities like journal editorial work and collaborating on publications on major topics like ID burnout and moral injury, reproductive rights and artificial intelligence. ID is at the cutting edge of issues such as climate change, human conflict and displacement, and global health care disparities. Journal editorial roles help me give voice to others invested in these issues.
Although the pandemic was extremely difficult for our field, it also enabled rapid professional growth. Crises appeal to our “put me in coach” nature as ID specialists. When multiple public health issues crash together and compound the disparate impacts of HIV, COVID-19 and mpox on vulnerable populations, our people step up to the plate and meet these challenges with scientific progress, innovation and strategic thinking. Leadership is in our DNA.
Another silver lining of the pandemic was the development of meaningful friendships within the ID community. ID specialists (docs and pharmacists) around the globe became personal friends.
Locally, our “ID family” became very close, collectively rallying during crises, and celebrating shared milestones, like the graduation of our trainees. Through ID, I’ve cultivated genuine and lasting connections with patients, colleagues and friends.
Are you hooked on ID yet?
— Priya Nori, MD, FSHEA, FIDSA
Medical director, antimicrobial stewardship & OPAT
Associate program director, ID fellowship
Associate professor of medicine (ID) and orthopedics
Montefiore Health System
Albert Einstein College of Medicine