Shivani Garg, MD

Assistant Professor (CHS)
Division of Rheumatology
Medical school: Government Medical College and Hospital, Chandigarh, India
Residency: Einstein Medical Center, Pennsylvania
Fellowship: Emory University – Rheumatology
Joined the Department of Medicine: September, 2017

What is your primary professional focus in any or all of our mission areas (clinical, research, and/or medical education)?
I believe the power to resolve challenging unsolved mysteries of nature comes from doing research. During my medical training, I have been actively involved in basic science research, descriptive studies on comorbidities in HIV patients and Lupus patients. I structured few quality improvement projects like improving pneumococcal vaccination rate in lupus patients and improving patient compliance for follow ups by establishing multidisciplinary clinic (Dermatology-Rheumatology) during my fellowship. At UW- Madison, I look forward to set up multidisciplinary clinic for lupus patients and performing descriptive analysis for better understanding of impact of autoimmune disease on other comorbidities and quality of life.

What drew you to UW-Madison and the Department of Medicine?
During my medical school, I grew passionate to learn the skill to diagnose complex presentation of diseases, heal patients with chronic disfiguring diseases and learn the cause of these variant presentations. Having this sense of direction, coupled with my inquisitive nature and in-depth analysis I could find the links and discover a path (Rheumatology) at Emory University. I grew found of population-based research and descriptive studies and UW-Madison was the perfect opportunity where I could be a clinician, researcher and educator.

What are you most excited about during your first year with the department in this role?
I am excited about seeing complex and challenging patients as well as bread-and-butter diseases in rheumatology, which will help me grow my clinical experience.

This will also provide me an opportunity to perform more population-based descriptive analysis in lupus and other diseases in rheumatology and comparing severity of comorbidities in lupus patients to patients with other rheumatological diseases.

And finally, as an educator, I would like to explain the concepts to my students, residents and fellows in a way that it underscores their basic understanding of theses complex diseases.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
Painting and poetry, I have a blog and website where I post my paintings and poetry.

Also, I like playing squash and hiking with my husband.

Favorite piece of advice from a mentor or inspiring figure in your life?
“Not just because it looks good - it will turn out well. Always be prepared for the ugly and take that as an opportunity to turn around things!”