Daily Inspiration: Meet Nimmi Kapoor

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nimmi Kapoor.

Hi Nimmi, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was fortunate to be raised by two strong, brilliant physicians and was always pushed to excel. Medicine was an obvious choice for me, but surgery was a surprising passion of mine. Similar to my upbringing in my home of So-Cal, my training in NYC was equally rigorous. I spent 11 years in the city–four years at Weill Cornell for medical school and seven years at NY Presbyterian–Cornell and Memorial Sloan Kettering for residency. I knew I always wanted to return home and made my way back to Los Angeles for my Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship. My first job was a surprise–a community site where I learned more about the art of breast surgery from my mentor–a general surgeon–than I had in all of my training. Over the years, I became an expert in breast ultrasound and by the time I came to the Valley to start a new breast surgery practice, I was incredibly grateful to have this skillset as my local radiologists were not all breast-dedicated experts. I started performing intraoperative localization myself, so that patients with breast cancers and other benign lesions would not have to undergo a separate procedure just to target the cancer. Later, I gained further education and certification in oncoplastic surgery and genetic testing so that I could provide these services to my Valley patients as well.

By the time my daughter was graduating from high school, I realized it was also time for me to take the next step in my career. I joined UCLA in 2023 with the mission to improve the way breast surgery was taught and practiced. I wanted to bring ultrasound skills and oncoplastic training–skills that I spent years learning on my own–to our trainees so that by the time they graduated, they would already have these skills and be ready for any practice setting. Oncoplastic surgery allows for the reshaping of the breast after a lumpectomy for cancer. Sometimes it involves a breast reduction or breast lift. In addition to teaching our residents and fellows these skills, I hold an annual course at UCLA for practicing surgeons to also learn these skills. In the future, we will be incorporating cryoablation and robotic surgery into our skillset and courses.

I think I always want to be on the “edge” of things and push the needle to continue to innovate, improve, and incorporate new technologies. This is what drives me.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
General surgery training anywhere is a huge challenge! On the body, the mind, everything. After my first two years of residency, I wanted to quit. Instead, I took some time to do research and re-assess my goals. During that time, I was blessed with a beautiful daughter. That break in residency really gave me the perspective I needed to fall in love with surgery again and figure out my life a bit. By the end of residency though, I went through divorce and had to navigate that life as well. When I finally emerged as a fully trained Breast Surgical Oncologist, my only sibling passed away suddenly. So yes, life has been full of challenges and really horrible events.

Through it all, we can persevere. I am very close to my parents, my daughter is thriving in college, and I have been happily married to a wonderful person for the past decade. To get here, though, was a process, to say the least. I took a community practice job instead of the academic one that I had been trained for. I focused on family and life instead of career and “success”.

Now, I realize why that path was so important. It allowed me to bridge community needs to academic work and focus on improving patient outcomes and quality metrics. Now that I am back in academic medicine, I am finding ways to merge the care I could provide to my patients in the Valley with care our trainees provide to their future patients.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Dr. Nimmi Kapoor is a Breast Surgical Oncologist and an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. After graduating summa cum laude from UCLA, she earned her medical degree with AOA honors at Weill Cornell Medical College. She then attended New York Presbyterian Hospital Cornell for general surgery residency and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for surgical oncology residency and research training. She then returned to her home in California and completed a joint Breast Surgical Oncology Fellowship at John Wayne Cancer Institute and Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Kapoor is currently the Director of Breast Surgical Skills and Innovation at UCLA and runs a nationally acclaimed course on Breast Ultrasound, Intraoperative Localization, and Oncoplastic surgery. Her research interests include genomic profiling of tumors, postpartum breast cancer, and cryoablation.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Some of my favorite things to do are spending time with my family, scuba diving, and getting work done on my laptop while flying somewhere.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.uclahealth.org/providers/nimmi-kapoor
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drnimmikapoor
• Twitter: @DrNimmiKapoor