Amitha Kalaichandran
Healing through evidence-informed and up-to-date best practices that combine preventative and curative approaches to care while utilizing the expertise of all healthcare professionals. Motivating lifestyle changes through health coaching and innovative technology. Advocating for psychologically safe and inspiring hospital cultures for trainees and early-career physicians.
Integrative approaches to well-being (sleep, nutrition, physical activity, purpose/spirituality, physical and social environment, and mind-body approaches) combined with equitable access to the social determinants of health (income, education, housing, employment, social support, food security, and high quality person-centered healthcare) for our local and global communities.
From commentaries in peer-reviewed academic journals to reporting for the popular press, writing is a tool for: advocacy around complex issues, scientific knowledge translation, and advancing healthcare policy change. Ideally, it's best actualized through harnessing the power of fresh perspectives, including a diverse array of scientific experts, and, above all, compelling storytelling.
WonderWell is a newsletter that gathers the most groundbreaking research and insightful commentaries (from both established and new voices) in evidence-based medicine, wellness, healthcare leadership, narrative medicine (writing), and innovation to help you live and work in alignment with your purpose & well-being.
As a physician, epidemiologist, and medical journalist with an interest in wellness, I've learned that we're moving further and further away from ensuring all of us obtain the highest level of health and well-being available. Much of this relates to the healthcare system, which is focused primarily on quick fixes, and a biomedical reductionist approach (without considering the social and lifestyle factors that determine much of our dis-ease risk). The cultures in which we work and live also play a role: these environments, as I've experienced myself, can either be conducive to thriving or physical/mental/emotional depletion.
As an optimist above all, I know that we can all be part of creating a healthier future for ourselves and our communities. Through my research, clinical work, writing/journalism (knowledge translation), and commitment to integrating multiple approaches to healing, I plan to move the needle forwards, and believe that, with your unique skills and experience, you will too. In that vein, I hope you find the information here both inspiring and motivating.
With a beginner's mind, many things spark my curiosity, but these are the areas I've formally trained in, and remain most engaged with:
