PAMED EVERYDAY HEROES Two PaPS Members Named PAMED Everyday Heros This Camp Hill, Pa. Doctor and PAMED Everyday Hero Looks to Instill Hope in People’s Lives Kawish Garg, MD is the medical director of the sleep medicine department at Geisinger Holy Spirit in Camp Hill, Pa.
He is the recipient of the Pennsylvania Medical Society’s Everyday Hero Award for May 2020. “People who suffer from mental illness are feeling hopeless,” says Dr. Garg. “I want to instill hope in people’s lives.” He chose to specialize in psychiatry – and, ultimately, to sub-specialize in sleep medicine – because he saw an opportunity to help patients reclaim their lives. “Mental health issues affect not just individuals but also families and society as a whole,” he says. In the U.S., approximately one out of every five adults experience mental illness each year. When considering a specialty, he realized that he could make a significant difference in people’s lives by training to provide muchneeded mental health care. Dr. Garg grew up in Faridkot, in the state of Punjab, India. One of his major sources of inspiration for becoming a doctor was his father, who was a high school principal. His father had dreams of being of a physician himself and encouraged his son to follow that path. In 2004, Dr. Garg completed his medical school education at Government Medical College in India. He trained as a psychiatry resident at the University of North Dakota in 2012 and then completed a sleep medicine fellowship at the University of Minnesota the following year. “Sleep and mental health are strongly tied to each other,” Dr. Garg says, noting that sleep is essential for both mental and physiological health. After his fellowship training, Dr. Garg moved to Pennsylvania and took on a leadership role as medical director for Keystone Behavioral Health in Chambersburg. In August 2016, he joined Geisinger Holy Spirit, where he currently serves as medical director of his organization’s sleep medicine department.
6
P E N N S Y L V A N I A P S Y C H I A T R I S T | J U LY 2 0 2 0
Dr. Garg sees patients at Geisinger Holy Spirit’s outpatient sleep medicine clinic. He treats a wide variety of sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, insomnia, and sleep apnea. He also oversees the functioning of the clinic’s sleep lab. Since his arrival in Pennsylvania, Dr. Garg has been actively involved in his community. He has organized mental health awareness events and has appeared on TV news programs to educate the public about sleep disorders. For the past four years, he has been a member of the Central PA Psychiatric Society and served a yearlong term as president of that organization from May 2018 through April 2019. “It was a good learning experience for me,” Dr. Garg says of his time as president. He was able to provide input on state and federal bills that could have an impact on health care. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Pennsylvania Sleep Society. Dr. Garg’s participation in organized medicine has opened his eyes to how laws and regulations affect his profession and his patients. Recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Garg and his colleagues have had to adjust their schedules to accommodate telehealth visits with patients. He has seen that COVID-19 has had an impact on mental health and on sleep patterns for his patients. Dr. Garg encourages them to maintain their daily routines as much as possible and recommends exercise and meditation as ways to ease stress and anxiety. Dr. Garg stresses how much he admires his colleagues at the sleep medicine clinic. He appreciates their dedication and their ability to face challenges and keep the clinic operating smoothly. He credits his wife Shefali Gupta, MD for being the reason for his success. They have always supported one another. Dr. Garg and his wife have two young children, ages 7 and 3. He loves spending time with his family and with a close circle of friends he has developed during his time in Central Pennsylvania. Dr. Garg’s guiding principle as a physician is a simple but essential one - He believes strongly that he can help patients improve their lives.
“Seeing patients get better is my major motivation,”
