Fellow Spotlight: Payal Kohli, MD

Dr. Payal Kohli (pronounced “PILE CO-lee”) was born in Chandigarh, India, and moved to the U.S. at age 9. She earned dual bachelor’s degrees in molecular biology and brain and cognitive science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She received residency training in internal medicine from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital as well as anesthesia and critical care for a year at Massachusetts General Hospital. Due to her love for science, she pursued a research fellowship after residency, working with the prestigious TIMI Study group, under the leadership of Dr. Eugene Braunwald, to do cardiovascular clinical research.

She came to UCSF for her fellowship because of its reputation for having the most rigorous clinical training program in the country. “You see the inner city patient population at San Francisco General, the elderly male population at the VA Hospital, and a little bit of everything that is complicated at Moffitt,” said Dr. Kohli. “There are also a lot of strong female role models who are very prominent in cardiology.”

So far, Dr. Kohli has especially enjoyed her imaging rotation. She is interested in combining additional training in this area with her background in clinical trial research, using tools such as MRIs and echocardiograms to measure the impact of new drugs and therapies on the heart.

In her spare time, she enjoys exploring beautiful San Francisco and visiting the Napa Valley.