Sumit Tiwari, MD

Meet Sumit Tiwari, MD, from BJC Medical Group Cardiology.

 

Talk about your background and education.

I did my internal medicine residency at University of Missouri at MIZZOU in Columbia. Then, after that, I went down to New Orleans at Tulane University where I did my cardiology fellowship and cardiac imaging training. I was in practice for about seven years before I moved to Memorial/BJC Medical Group. 

Talk about your specialty.

I do general cardiology so all aspects of cardiology including chest pains, coronary artery disease or heart attacks, arrhythmias, abnormal heart rhythms, congestive heart failure, pre-operative cardiac checks, and management of blood pressure and cholesterol. But a predominant focus is managing people with congestive heart failure as well as cardiac imaging. So, advanced cardiac imaging tests like echocardiograms, transesophageal echocardiogram, stress test, cardiac, and CT scans. Those are my passion and what I have more advanced training in.

Why did you choose medicine and specifically cardiology?

I grew up in a family of doctors. My grandfather was a doctor. My father’s a doctor. I was exposed to medicine at a very young age. When you see them, you see it’s very gratifying when you can help someone, and they feel good. You can make an impact in somebody’s life. I gravitated towards medicine from a very young age, so it came naturally to me.

When we first start, everybody goes through internal medicine training. The heart is such a central organ towards all the other issues that if you have training and expertise in cardiology you pretty much have a passion and ability to handle the other organs. That’s why just the focus of the heart; that’s what made me get into cardiology. 

What do you hope your patients experience during their first visit with you?

I want to have them get all their questions answered about the heart. I want them to feel comfortable that we can have a long-term physician-and-patient relationship. They should feel at ease. They should not hesitate to ask any questions. Nothing is too trivial. Even if it’s something they feel does not pertain to the heart, I want them to bring it up so we can see if it makes a long-term impact on their overall healthcare and cardiac care.

What is something people don’t know about you?

I was actually a very big trivia nerd, so I used to participate regularly in Jeopardy, not just medical Jeopardy. I had seriously considered that as a career before I went into medicine.