08/26/2026
🇮🇳 Meet Gareema Naik 🇮🇳
From the coastal city of Valsad, Gujarat, India to Vascular and Interventional Radiology at UAB, Gareema brings empathy, curiosity, creativity, and a strong commitment to becoming an exceptional physician.
Growing up in the close-knit community of Valsad taught Gareema early on the importance of empathy and caring for those around her. Her desire to pursue medicine became even stronger while witnessing the medical journey of a close relative. Seeing how a physician could alleviate suffering and transform a patient’s life showed her the tremendous impact of compassionate, high-quality healthcare. Since then, her clinical experiences have reinforced an important lesson: excellent medicine requires not only strong diagnostic thinking, but also the ability to communicate clearly and compassionately with patients.
Outside the hospital, Gareema has a wonderfully creative side. She enjoys jogging along the beach, listening to music, sketching, and even writing poetry in Hindi and English. She also keeps up with global news and enjoys unwinding with a good cricket match. Sketching and painting, in particular, have taught her patience, observation, and attention to detail, while running helps build the discipline and resilience she carries into her medical training.
And when Gareema needs a taste of home, nothing compares with her mother's malai kofta with dal fry and jeera rice. More than a favorite meal, it represents family, comfort, and the memories of sharing food together back home.
Gareema’s immediate goal is to pursue an Internal Medicine residency in the United States and build a strong foundation in caring for patients with complex medical conditions. Looking further ahead, she hopes to become an internist in an academic medical center, combining patient care with clinical research and contributing to the broader medical community.
Her experience at UAB has been an important step toward that future. Arriving in a completely new healthcare system initially felt daunting, but the welcoming environment and support she received helped her adapt quickly. During her Vascular and Interventional Radiology elective, she has had the opportunity to encounter complex cases in a high-volume clinical environment and observe how advanced procedures, multidisciplinary collaboration, and patient-centered care come together.
Gareema, your compassion, creativity, curiosity, and determination to keep growing reflect the spirit of our IVMS program. We are proud to have you at UAB and excited to see where your journey in Internal Medicine and academic medicine takes you next!
