World Humanitarian Day Spotlight: Kavitha Pundi, MD
This World Humanitarian Day, we are delighted to highlight Kavitha Pundi, MD, a dedicated Heart to Heart medical volunteer and Associate Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital. Dr. Pundi is motivated by a deep desire to create sustainable change and lasting impact by expanding access to life-saving cardiac care globally.
Dr. Pundi explains that, for her, clinical work and direct patient care serve as a unique medium for relationship building:
“They’re real people, with real stories, and you develop a real connection to what’s going on – you’re able to impact their lives directly. Those personal connections are what drive you to wake up in the middle of the night, they make you excited to come to work and excited about the long-term future of the patients and families you’re taking care of.”
In 2013, while a Pediatric Cardiology Fellow at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Pundi was invited to join her first Heart to Heart surgical-educational mission to Kaliningrad, Russia. She has since participated on three more missions: another to Russia, one to Mexico (see her in action here), and her most recent one to Costa Rica in March 2022. On these missions, Dr. Pundi performed physical exams and echocardiograms on patients with congenital heart disease, participated in patient case discussions, advised on complex cases, and presented lectures and workshops to local colleagues.
After participating on a Heart to Heart training mission, Dr. Pundi realized that the Heart to Heart education-based program model aligned with her own view of humanitarianism: “If you can create change through education and by changing the system in which people are getting care, expanding access and making sure that that system is improving over time, the impact of that is so great.”
We are grateful to have Dr. Pundi as a part of the Heart to Heart community. Her positive attitude, cardiac expertise, and care for her patients make her a wonderful addition to any Heart to Heart team and a true humanitarian.