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Dr. Nivedita Lakhera MD, Internal Medicine, endearingly known as Niv (born 12 May 1978) is an Indian-born American hospitalist in San Jose, California. She is one of the leading contemporary poets and is a staunch advocate of gender equality in all spheres of life, especially medicine and technology. She is a prolific writer, having written 6000 poems and proses, besides having created a massive body of artwork. All while being dedicated to her professional practice of medicine. She sustained a massive stroke at the age of 27, during the second year of her Internal Medicine residency. This jolting incident proved to be life-changing; and made her aware of the fragility of life, and the purpose of her own journey. She has created an impressive body of work that spans mixed media, acrylic, and sketches that have been exhibited and sold in several art exhibitions including Art Basel Miami. She has published two poetry and art books- Pillow of Dreams (2017), and I Am Not A Princess, I Am A Complete Fairytale (2019). Besides being a celebrated and prolific poet, she is passionate about the performing arts, particularly dance and theater. She is one of the proud representatives of the voice of women of color in the diverse fields of medicine, literature, humanities, and art. She is a frequent keynote speaker. Besides the usual topics of medicine, she talks about the subject of pain as a unique university to learn from, healing based on growth and learning, and compassion for the self as the key to fulfilling oneself and helping others. She is a fervent believer of technology as the only way to democratize medicine. She endorses AI, blockchain technology, and machine learning to make health care accessible to all.

Early Life
Dr. Niv was born in New Delhi, India. She was raised amidst science journals and literature. As per her, her mother, Surendra lakhera is the greatest reason for joy in her life while her father, Subhash Chandra Lakhera brought home inspiration of science and literature as he was a scientist, social justice advocate and a writer. Her father worked as a scientist in a prestigious DRDO organisation in India and has received the Aatma Ram award for his contribution for popular science literature from the President of India. In one of her interviews with __, she says her parents and siblings are primarily responsible for her moral compass, integrity and zest to look beyond oneself towards greater social impact. She was reading science journals at an early age along with both hindi and english literature, along with that she was active with debates, theater, dance and performing arts. She loved science and found medicine to be her calling as she saw the best use of her knowledge.

Medicine
Dr. Niv went to medical school when she was only 16 years old. She traveled to the opposite corner of India from New Delhi to Kerala, which she considers both immensely difficult and inspiring. As much as she appreciated the serene beauty and culture of the new place, she had to learn a new language to communicate with her patients. Despite the scarcity of resources, like electricity on occasions where she and her classmates studied in candle light and seeth in high heat, the comfort was in the beauty of soul of not only the people of Kerala but the abundant nature that hugs you from morning till night. She considers living and learning in Kerala as one of the toughest, happiest and most necessary parts of life. She graduated as top 3 student from her batch and received honors. In her medical college talent show she was given a prestigious award- Kalathilakam for winning awards in several competitions like dance, acting, speech, debate, poetry etc. She was passionate about internal medicine and cleared her competitive US medical licensing exams with 97 percentile and 98 percentile. She did her first year of post graduation from Good Samaritan Hospital, Baltimore and second and third year of residency from UIHC. She scored 97 percentile in service exam during her second year of post graduation. She sustained a massive stroke during her second year of residency, she woke up with complete right sided paralysis and was diagnosed with major brain artery dissection leading to massive left sided brain damage, which is usually fatal. But she not only completed her residency but became board certified as soon as she graduated from her residency on her first attempt within 15 days of completion of residency. While going through marital and health turmoil, she stood strong and exerted her greatest efforts to complete which was her first foremost passion in life- a science to save life- medicine.

Every life saved despite her own trauma is one of the things she is most thankful for. She has been an inpatient physician for the last 12 years in the USA. She seeks to change the part of the culture of corporate America that attributes and causes physicians to burn out and is a staunch advocate of patient safety and physician wellness.

She took a stern stand specially for mental health of physicians during COVID Pandemic and her opinion piece published in USA today was one of the most popular and powerful opinion pieces. She was Interviewed regarding the same by NPR.

She is passionate about saving the lives of physicians who lose it to mental health, she strongly believes the moral injury that physicians can be and should be reversed with active interventions. She was invited as keynote speaker at the central valley kaiser women physician gala, where she was applauded for being both candid, vulnerable but determined towards physician wellness.

Front line Health Care Worker during COVID-19
During the time of COVID-19 pandemic, she vigorously campaigned against misinformation and was tirelessly advocating for masking, social distancing. Early on she filed a nationwide petition for early lock down that could have saved several hundred of thousand of lives. She could not achieve that, but she felt relieved it contributed to statewide lock down in the state of California, that led to significant control of the pandemic in state of California.

She exhaustively worked as a front line COVID-19 physician, while writing social media articles on information about COVID-19 and also appeared in national media to bring attention to scarcity of resources and the reality of front line workers.

Literature
Dr. Niv is a prolific writer and published as a child her poetry, satires and stories. In one of her interviews she says she can not not write. She is quoted as saying

“Writing is like breathing for me. If I don’t I would starve my soul off its oxygen. Initially I wrote my book for my parents because they wanted to hold my words in their hands. But soon a lot of people started connecting and healing via the book which subsequently made me write the next book and next book.

"Pillow of Dreams" February 2017
of Dreams" - her award-winning first poetry book - continue to be for three consecutive years the best-reviewed poetry book on Amazon.

"I am not a princess I am a complete fairytale" March 2019
"I am not a princess I am a complete fairytale" has been included in the syllabus of Peace and Justice at Michigan State University and at Wayne State University.

"The Lifecurrency" January 2021
"The Lifecurrency"