((PKG))  TREATING COVID-19   
((TRT:  04:34)) 
((Banner:  A Doctor’s Challenge))  
((Reporter/Camera/Producer:  Jeff Swicord))  
((Map:  Washington, DC)) 
((Main characters:  1 male))  
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Dr. Amey Kulkarni, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente))  
I first actually got interested in medicine when I was about 
seven years old.  I had typhoid fever which is really 
unusual.  I was very sick and I was in the hospital for 
eighteen days.  After that I felt pulled towards medicine.  You 
know there is something about the chance to take care of 
people when they’re at their most vulnerable that really 
spoke to me, that sort of always stuck. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Dr. Amey Kulkarni, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente)) 
I don’t think that anyone thought in our lifetimes we would 
see anything like coronavirus.   
((All Photos Courtesy:  AP)) 
((Dr. Amey Kulkarni, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente)) 
Life on the COVID wards is both rewarding and 
tense.  There is an understanding of what this disease is and 
what it can do.   
((1st Photo Courtesy:  AP)) 
((2nd and 3rd Photos Courtesy:  Reuters)) 
((Dr. Amey Kulkarni, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente))
And so, you know the way that we pay attention to donning 
and doffing the personal protective equipment, the way that 
we are attentive to how frequently nurses, therapists, people 
who do tests, physicians, go into the rooms, we are very 
thoughtful about those features.   
((All Photos Courtesy:  AP)) 
 ((Dr. Amey Kulkarni, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente)) 
People who are sick and very uncomfortable have the 
chance to get better.  And people do get better.  I think that 
that’s an important thing to remember about coronavirus is 
that it is a disease that lots of people can recover from.  And 
I think the chance to be a part of that I think is really 
rewarding.   
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((NATS:  Dr. Amey Kulkarni)) 
Can I ask you to check your pulse just like this?  Put your 
fingers on your wrist.
((Dr. Amey Kulkarni, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente)) 
Everyone’s life has changed as a result of coronavirus and 
our lives as physicians is no different in that way.  And so, 
switching from an in-office based practice to a virtual 
practice, we were able to do that part relatively quickly.    
And now I worry that my heart patients are scared to seek 
care because they are worried about getting coronavirus in 
the hospital.  And I worry about the patients with coronavirus 
that they are going to have some devastating 
complication.  And so, you worry in both directions which I 
think is a new feeling for all of us. 
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Dr. Amey Kulkarni, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente)) 
I think like everybody, my family has ups and downs with the 
crisis.  We have a lot of home activities that we plan as a 
family to sort of remind each other that this is a moment to 
pause and enjoy each other.  My wife is the champion of 
that.    
((NATS:  Dr. Amey Kulkarni)) 
Ready?  One, two, three.  Nice. 
((Dr. Amey Kulkarni, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente)) 
Many of us worry about being a vector for our families.  I 
think that that is something that’s on all of our 
minds.  Everyone is a little bit more anxious than they were 
three months ago and a little bit more stressed.  My wife and 
kids, if something happened to them, it would be 
devastating.  My greatest fear is that I am going to give it to 
my parents.  They are, you know, in that higher risk 
category.  And we’re cognizant of the risks of being a 
healthcare worker.  
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((All Photos Courtesy:  Reuters)) 
((Dr. Amey Kulkarni, Cardiologist, Kaiser Permanente)) 
Medical knowledge has undertaken this grand revolution in 
the last two months because of the pandemic.  I think that a 
wider swath of medical professionals have learned how to 
quickly interpret data and understand what is good data and 
bad data in a way that we have never been able to do 
before.  It helped us move faster through the science of 
coronavirus.  I think that we are better prepared now than we 
were two months ago.  We will be better prepared in a month 
than we are now because I think that the way that we are 
interpreting and understanding knowledge has 
fundamentally changed in really, really positive ways, in 
really positive ways.   
((MUSIC))