Dr. Ashwini Niranjan-Azadi is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine. She earned her M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 2013 and completed her residency training in the Osler Internal Medicine Residency Program. She is the wellness and faculty development director for the Division of Hospital Medicine and an associate clerkship director for the Medicine Clerkship. She also serves as a coach for the Osler Internal Medicine Residency Program on the Janeway firm.

What are you most excited about for this year’s Reunion & Alumni Weekend?

I have been lucky that a lot of medical school friends have remained nearby. I am looking forward to seeing my classmates from out of town and having all of us at the same place at the same time. This year will be my first in-person reunion at the School of Medicine.

How many reunions have you been to, and what keeps you coming back to reunion?

Last year I attended the Osler Medical Residency alumni dinner during reunion. It was a great event and very nice to catch up with those who live out of town. I heard it was a smaller event than usual, probably due to COVID-19, but it was great to see residency friends and faculty members.

Share your favorite memory from medical school.

During undergrad, I remember seeing the Peabody Library for the first time and joking with my friends that I would get married there. I met my husband in medical school. The week of graduation, we held our wedding reception at the Peabody Library. It was one of the last times many of our classmates gathered together. Other than celebrating our marriage, we also got to celebrate the match and the last four years of friendships.

What advice do you have for the Class of 2023?

Don't lose contact with your friends from medical school. It’s easy to do as you go to different parts of the country. These are the people who understand exactly what you have gone through and will be the ones who understand how rough the transition can be into residency and beyond. I felt extremely lucky to have some of my close friends continue with me in the Osler program, and they really helped me with the transition. One thing I wish I had done more is to explore what different career paths look like in academic medicine. I think in academic medicine, people tend to get stuck thinking there is only one way to do things, that everything is related to clinical work or research. I didn’t even know what an academic hospitalist was during medical school, and now I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I encourage the Class of 2023 to talk to as many people as possible about what they do outside of their clinical work and what other career paths might be relevant to their studies and interests.

If you could go back to your experience in medical school and do one thing differently, what would it be?

I wish I had gotten to know the faculty better and spent more time with them, learned how they got to where they are, and explored academic medicine outside of the track that might be expected of my specialty. Most faculty members are here because we have a love of teaching, so don’t be afraid to reach out and ask questions.