7 Quick Questions With Anshu Gupta, MD

Anshu Gupta is a pediatric endocrinologist at UVA Health Children's. She treats children who may have problems with their thyroid, diabetes, or piuitary disorders.
At the Battle Building, she believes it's important to greet all of her new patients with a smile. We got a chance to sit down and get to know her better with these 7 quick questions.

1. What has most inspired and shaped your approach to patient care?

I think all the pediatricians particularly that came before me is what has really inspired my approach to patient care. That includes my attendings from medical school who knew in a moment to light up the eyes of a child who had leukemia and was going through a lot of side effects of medicine treatment. Or my colleagues who actually will do anything to take care of a child and their family that is in their possible means and that is what inspires me every day.

2. What's the favorite part of your job?

The favorite part of my job is taking care of a child and bringing a smile to them. That smile is very important. I know when a child is smiling, usually they're feeling better already.

3.When you're the patient, what's your biggest fear?

Fear of the unknown, I think that would apply to almost all of us. My biggest fear is that my team might assume that I know a lot because I am a doctor, and I would like them to treat me as a patient and not as a physician when I'm a patient.

4. What do you do for stress relief?

We do a song called "I'm Happy Because" in the evening. I started this with my kids when they were very young, and sometimes we had very busy days. And I could sense that my kids were seeing my flustered part of the day. What we decided as a family was that even if it was a super busy day, we were all going to take five minutes and express gratitude by singing the song "I'm Happy Because." And everybody got to pick one thing that they were happy for the day.

5. Dogs or cats?

Dogs.

6. What's the latest movie that you've seen? Thumbs up or down?

The Diplomat is a series that's on Netflix. My son is very much into political dramas, so right now that's what we've been watching, and we just finished a season. I liked it, yes. I would say it's a thumbs up. I love Madam Secretary, that's my favorite one, if I had to pick something.

7. What's the best advice that you've ever heard?

The best advice I heard was from a mentor, actually a few years ago during the pandemic. I'm a very driven person, especially when it comes to taking care of patients, taking care of our trainees. I was sharing with them about how things were busy and my son was about to get ready to college and she told me to slow down and she said everything will be there, but he will have gone. I so much appreciate the advice that she gave me. I got to spend a wonderful year with him during his senior year, and now he's in college, and I am just very grateful to that person for having said that to me at the right time.