Dr. Rachel Arakawa

"Medicine is an interview," Dr. Arakawa says. "It's really about putting together a logical timeline. They have that old-fashioned saying, history is king. The exam is queen. If you devote the time to really obtaining a thorough history from the patient, you can pretty much figure out what's happening most of the time."

Medicine is both a calling that runs in her family and a deeply personal commitment to helping others. The daughter of a rheumatologist, she was drawn to medicine by watching her father make a meaningful difference in patients' lives. Growing up, her father emphasized that medicine was a noble profession. “He would say, ‘You’re going to be able to rest your head on the pillow every night knowing you did everything you could to help somebody else.”

Dr. Arakawa grew up in Honolulu and earned her BA in the Biological Basis of Behavior from the University of Pennsylvania. She received her medical degree from the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine before pursuing her dream of training in New York City at Columbia University. She completed her residency in internal medicine at Columbia University/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, followed by a fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at the same institution.

Dr. Arakawa joined Mount Sinai Hospital in August 2020. She quickly built a busy practice specializing in thyroid, parathyroid, and metabolic bone disease.

"I have the temperament for the long game," she says. "My job is to say, if plan A works out, great. If plan B or C works out, great—but I should also have a plan Z."

Dr. Arakawa continues to teach fellows in the Hilda and J. Lester Gabrilove Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Bone Disease at Mount Sinai, where her students awarded her Teacher of the Year in 2024—an honor that meant more to her than any other recognition.

"The award was generated by our own students. That was most meaningful to me because it was that glue that said all these little loose bits came together," Dr. Arakawa says. "There's nothing more magical than being in a small room with eight to 10 med students just running through clinical scenarios. They're young and they're insanely curious. It's a safe environment where it's okay to be wrong. That's the best learning."

What drew Dr. Arakawa to Atria was the opportunity to practice medicine the way she believes it should be practiced, with time to truly get to know patients and understand their individual stories. She emphasizes meeting patients where they are and developing therapeutic relationships over time. Rather than walking into an appointment with a rigid treatment plan, she focuses first on understanding the patient's concerns and barriers to self-care.

"Sometimes the most therapeutic thing that you can do is just sit with the patient with no objective at all, except to elicit from them their goals and priorities.”

Outside of medicine, Dr. Arakawa is passionate about food and travel. She lives in New York City with her husband, a professional chef, and they love exploring culinary scenes internationally.