Indrani Persaud Umadat
Indrani Persaud Umadat, MD
Attending Family Physician
NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, East New York
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Focus on Preventative Care in Brooklyn
As a family physician who has spent most of her career serving low-income communities in the Bronx and Brooklyn, Dr. Indrani Persaud Umadat still draws on some of her earliest experiences, before she came to the United States more than 25 years ago.
Dr. Umadat was born in Guyana, earned her medical degree in Iraq and practiced for a decade in Guyana’s government-operated healthcare system. “People lived very simple lifestyles, they used local remedies and generally would only go to the doctor if they were ill,” Dr. Umadat recalls. “So, coming out of that background I had an interest to do preventative care, to educate people about healthy lifestyles.”
After two decades in public and private settings in the Bronx and Brooklyn, Dr. Umadat joined NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health, East New York in 2024. She’s found her work there familiar and fulfilling. Most of her patients are immigrants from Caribbean nations who have had limited access to health care. “Educating them about preventable things like hypertension and diabetes is a daily challenge,” Dr. Umadat says.
Her approach is to persuade patients to take ownership of their own health: “We’re here to advise and recommend – ‘Here’s what you can do, basic things like what you eat and how much you exercise, and here’s what can happen if you don’t do these things. But ultimately it’s your decision.’ You hope that the patient will get it but it’s not one time and you’re done. It’s an ongoing thing.”
One recent success story: A patient who came in with an A1C of 15, more than double the baseline for diabetes. “He was not aware of his condition but once he understood what was going on he was motivated to make a change. His A1C came down to 6. We lowered his insulin but as I tell patients all the time, the doctor cannot do it alone. When we see improvement, it is because the patient is invested in their health.”