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September 30, 2024 / 2024 Connecticut's Healthcare Heroes Awards

2024 Healthcare Hero: Nivedha Natchiappan

Nivedha Natchiappan Medical Student, School of Medicine UConn Health Return to the honorees homepage
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Winner Category | Volunteer

Nivedha Natchiappan is a fourth-year medical student at UConn and part of the UConn Health Leaders (UCHL) leadership team. UCHL is a volunteer organization that trains pre-health students to screen patients for and address social determinants of health (SDoH), which are social risk factors linked to health outcomes (i.e., food insecurity).

What have been your significant contributions to your organization in the past year?

I’ve been extremely fortunate for the opportunities I’ve received through UCHL. I’ve personally trained over 100 volunteers who have gone on to screen more than 10,000 patients across Connecticut for SDoH barriers.

I also created a gynecologic oncology project aimed at identifying and addressing SDoH needs in newly diagnosed cancer patients. This has been especially meaningful because these patients not only have a higher burden of unmet social needs, but SDoH barriers also make it harder to complete their therapy.

The hope is to ease the burden patients face while giving them the best chance to complete their cancer treatments.

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Tell us about a challenge in your job that you were able to overcome.

The biggest challenge is seeing patient needs and feeling helpless, whether it’s talking with a family who ran out of food as a UCHL volunteer, or sitting with a patient who can’t afford their insulin as a medical student. To overcome requires creativity, commitment and knowledge of your community’s resources.

What’s your next major goal and/or challenge?

The next stop on my professional journey is residency, where I hope to continue this work. Additionally, several of my UCHL pre-health mentees — many of whom are first-generation in medicine — have applied to medical school, so another major goal of mine is to celebrate their acceptances in the upcoming months.

Personal side:

Residence: Avon

Favorite way to relax: Spending time with friends and family

Hobbies: Knitting, losing to my little brother in basketball, (mild) hiking

Favorite movie: “Cars 2”

Currently reading: “Educated,” by Tara Westover

Favorite cause: Health equity

Fun fact: I won’t eat chocolate unless it’s in cake or ice cream form.

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