Bharati Kochar, MD, MSCR
Instructor of Medicine, Gastroenterology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, AGA Future Leader, Class of 2020

@bkocharmd

Hometown:
New York, NY

Current residence:
Durham, NC

If you could arrange a one-on-one mentor session with one presenter, who would it be and why?
I would love to meet and be mentored by James D. Lewis, MD, MSCE, AGAF. I have heard such great things about him from a number of my colleagues and mentors. Furthermore, he is among the few gastroenterologists who is a bona fide pharmacoepidemiologist and that’s an area in which I’d like to do more research.

How has working in the gastroenterology field impacted your life?
I have more respect for the importance of quality of life. I feel that I have become more patient over time as I work with people who have GI symptoms that often can’t be fixed immediately. Lastly, I have a greater appreciation for how much we don’t know in medicine in general, and GI specifically.

What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?
Spending time with my two kids, age 3 and almost 1. They like reading, being outdoors and exploring new things!

What’s your favorite thing about San Diego?
The weather, restaurants overlooking the beach and getting to see my friends who live there!

Who’s your favorite Twitter follow in the GI profession?
A recent tweetorial on natural selection and inflammatory bowel disease by @ibddoctor (Peter Higgins, MD, PhD) of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, made him my new favorite person to follow on Twitter.