Cardiologist Dr. Deepti Kumar was inspired to become a physician by her father, who was a pediatrician. “I remember people telling me when I was a young girl about how my father had helped them and that really had an effect upon me. I could see how much people admired and respected him.”

Dr. Kumar started in medicine as an internist doing primary care before she undertook a fellowship to study cardiology. Dr. Kumar loves practicing cardiology because of the detective work involved. “You pick up all these little clues from a patient’s history and all the different tests you do and then come to a diagnosis. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to uncover something and solve a patient’s problem.”

In her practice at Reliant Medical Group, Dr. Kumar enjoys interacting with other doctors and finds her work very satisfying. “It’s like a close-knit family here, there’s always someone you can call if you have a question. I like the fact that everyone is always willing to help.”

One of the more common problems that Dr. Kumar treats are abnormal heart rhythms, which doctors call arrhythmias. “We often treat people suffering from arrhythmias with medications known as beta-blockers and occasionally these people need pacemakers or ablations. For some kinds of arrhythmias we can also utilize Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICDs) that monitor the heart and deliver a life-saving shock if it detects an abnormal rhythm.”

Dr. Kumar is a strong believer in listening to the patient. “I often feel that the patient knows what is wrong with them. I believe that if you listen to them carefully you can really learn a lot about what is bothering them. And that’s why having trust between a doctor and patient is so important – because it fosters good communication.”

When she is not busy with her patients, Dr. Kumar enjoys spending time with her husband and two children and reading her favorite authors Agatha Christie and Alistair Mclean. “Believe it or not, I think I have probably read every one of their books.”