
Dr. Amish Nishawala
New York
Pediatrics
One of Amish Nishawala’s first encounters with a doctor happened shortly after he came to the United States from India at age 3. He had dislocated his elbow, and when his parents took him to a physician in Queens, the doctor distracted the young boy by telling him to look across the room before quickly putting the elbow back in place. “I’ve always remembered that kindness,” Dr. Nishawala says. Since then, Dr. Nishawala has carried that ethos of gentleness and humor into his own practice.
As a high school student, Dr. Nishawala was accepted into Northwestern University’s Honors Program in Medical Education, which allowed him to earn both an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and a medical degree in seven years. He then completed his residency in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Nishawala has practiced in a wide variety of clinical settings in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and has cared for patients of all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. When he worked at Children’s Aid, he treated children who lived in New York City’s homeless shelters and foster care system, which showed him the importance of working with families to develop health plans that they can appreciate and carry out regardless of their situations. “The key is taking the time to explain the plan and make it easy for someone to understand it based on their own worldview,” he says.
Dr. Nishawala loves teaching and seeks to equip all of his patients and their caregivers with the knowledge to take control of their own health—whether that means answering questions about sleep schedules and breastfeeding or helping them navigate the health care system to find treatment for complex medical needs. “My practice is about empowering parents to do well and then making them feel proud of what they’re doing—because it’s not easy,” he says. As kids grow older, Dr. Nishwala helps parents find ways to partner with their adolescents so that young people can build confidence in caring for their own bodies.
Dr. Nishawala is excited to share his experience and perspective with patients at Atria. “Every day in a typical doctor’s office, we run into limits on what we can do based on time, money, and resources. We’re prioritizing, and many things just don’t fit in,” he says. “At Atria, nothing is off the list of possibilities, and we prioritize everything.”
Outside of work, Dr. Nishawala enjoys playing disc golf, practicing photography, and traveling. He lives in New York with his wife Melissa, who is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at New York University, and their cat, Catu Mitu, whose name means Sour Sweet in Gujarati.
Credentials
Voluntary Faculty
Mount Sinai Hospital
Voluntary Faculty
New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell
Former Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Former Clinical Instructor in Pediatrics
Weill Cornell Medical College
Former Pediatrician
Apple Pediatrics
Former Pediatrician
Lutheran Medical Center
Former Pediatrician
Children’s Aid
Former Pediatrician
Broadway Pediatrics
Former Pediatrician
ABC Family Pediatrics
Former Pediatrician
Cinnaminson Pediatrics
Affiliations
Member
Medical Advisory Board at Cariloop