Vikram Pandit, MD ’20, is a radiology resident and upcoming Yale University fellow, and he’s done it all without a left hand.
In his first year of residency at Rutgers University, Dr. Vikram Pandit finally made a breakthrough in his young career as a radiologist—he figured out how to put a glove on both his prosthetic hook and his hand completely unassisted without breaking sterility.
He knew from his first semester at Adtalem Global Education’s American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) that every task a physician needs to safely complete would need to be done differently without his left hand.
I wasn’t even sure it would be allowed,”
Dr. Pandit said of a prosthetic in a sterile setting.
Between medical school at AUC and residency at Rutgers, no one has questioned whether Dr. Pandit belongs. Next year, he’ll start a fellowship in musculoskeletal radiology at Yale University.
“Having one hand has influenced my interest in joints and hands. It’s a full-circle moment that I fit right in.”
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
Dr. Pandit has gone through life believing where there is a will, there is a way. He was born without his left hand, but his physical limitation was never a deterrence to envisioning life in medical school and becoming a physician.
Before AUC, he was an undergraduate at the University of Southern California thinking about ways he could make himself stand out as a medical school applicant.
He scrolled through dozens of biomedical engineering faculty biographies and found research in prosthetics that piqued his interest. The timing was perfect; after not having a prosthesis for about a decade, he had been fitted for a myoelectric arm the summer prior to discovering Dr. Loeb’s research.
“It was a unique value addition with an opportunity to be both researcher and research subject,” he recalled. “We were able to do more research with practical applications rather than more common and ambitious ‘recreate Luke Skywalker’s hand’ type of prosthesis research.”
Dr. Pandit stayed with the research lab for two years after USC, continuing to explore day-to-day, life-of-the-user projects to benefit prosthesis development. After those two years, he believed his lab and life experiences would overshadow any perceived limitations others may see when they meet a medical school applicant missing a hand.
Through conversations with a family friend, he found a home to pursue his dream at AUC.
During an internship, Dr. Pandit needed a non-electronic prosthetic that could be routinely washed and sterilized when he found the hook he now uses during interventional radiology procedures.
Applying for a Medical Residency with a Disability
Throughout his time at AUC, Dr. Pandit doesn’t recall any instance where he was told “no” or that he couldn’t do something because of his disability. There were medical roles he inherently accepted would not be physically possible, but everyone from his fellow students to professors, fellow residents to attendings, supported Dr. Pandit’s journey. Many even had their own ideas as to how he could put his gloves on, but he persisted through years of trial and error before getting it right on his own as a resident.
Despite the constant support from his peers, when it came to applying for residency, he chose not to write about his hand in personal statements out of fear of rejection.
“I thought it could be used against me,” he says. But that was never the case.
“I had the research, the work experience, and just about every room I walked into was met equally with positivity and curiosity and an easy conversation starter. Having something distinctive, like a disability, gave me an interesting story to share.
“How many people with robotic hands do you think an interviewer sees during interview season?”
For more information, email the Adtalem Global Communications Team: adtalemmedia@adtalem.com.
