Residency: University of Virginia

Hometown: Bend, Oregon
Undergrad: University of Oregon
Medical School: University of Michigan Medical School
Favorite Case in Urology: Robotic pyeloplasty
Favorite OR Music: Leon Bridges or Summer Hits of the 2000s
Fun Fact: I graduated high school in China but I regrettably have no Mandarin skills to show for it

Trainee Spotlight Interview September 2023

Med School: Northwestern, Chicago, IL
Residency: Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH

Trainee Spotlight Interview January 2024

Hometown: Goodrich
Undergrad: University of Michigan
Medical School: University of Michigan Medical School
Favorite Case in Urology: Orchiopexy
Favorite OR Music: Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, John Mayer
Fun Fact: I love to bake and can make a mean cheesecake!

Trainee Spotlight Interview October 2023

Residency: University of California, San Francisco

Trainee Spotlight Interview March 2024

Undergrad: Clark University
NP School: Vanderbilt University

Med School: Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, GA
Residency: University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY

Trainee Spotlight Interview April 2023

Undergrad: Cumberland University
Nursing School: Tennessee Technological University

Medical School: Stony Brook School of Medicine, Stony Brook, NY
Residency: Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA

Trainee Spotlight Interview January 2023

Medical School: Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ
Residency: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Fellowship: Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Dr. Ruchika Talwar is a urologic oncologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Medical Director in the Episodes of Care Office, where she leads and operationalizes VUMC’s specialty value-based care programs, including Medicare models and the innovative MyHealth Bundles program. She is a residency graduate from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, where she was affiliated with the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the Wharton School. She completed a Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) fellowship and Masters of Management in Healthcare at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Talwar has served in several national leadership roles within organized medicine, including Chair of the American Urological Association's residents and fellows committee, the Health Policy, Young Urologic Oncologists, and Women in Urologic Oncology Committees of the SUO, and is currently the Fundraising Chair for the AUAPAC. She held the H. Logan Holtgrewe Legislative Fellowship in 2022, when she spent time working on Capitol Hill in the office of Congressman Darren Soto (FL-09). Dr. Talwar’s clinical practice includes both robotic and open approaches to urologic cancer surgery, with a focus on patient-centered care. Her academic work in health policy, value transformation, drug pricing, and costs of care has been published in several JAMA journals and the Journal of Clinical Oncology. She makes several trips a year to Washington, DC, meeting with Congressional representatives as a passionate advocate for improving the quality of care provided to patients in the US.