How do we deliver the right care to the right people at the right times? Can we leverage nutrition to play a more central role in digestive diseases? And in what ways can technology transform the patient-doctor relationship? My work centers on exploring these questions.
Dr. Rusha Modi is a board certified physician in internal medicine, gastroenterology & hepatology. He is a strong believer that people are more than their chief complaints. Illnesses are what people have not, who they are.
Rusha Modi is an attending physician at a specialty county clinic serving low-income populations in Los Angeles, and sees patients in an academic clinic as well. He lectures at the Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles on gastroenterology and health policy, as well as mentors trainees in clinical medicine.
His clinical interests include nutrition, especially in high performance athletes, inflammatory bowel disease, colon cancer screening, gastrointestinal bleeding and celiac disease among others. He is certified to perform a variety of procedures including esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGDs), colonoscopies as well as dilations, feeding tubes, and wireless pH monitor placement.
His current work explores digital health solutions for preventative health disparities in low-income communities, optimizing patient education for colon cancer screening using novel patient decision aids, and the development of virtual reality (VR) technologies to increase patient adherence for colonoscopies.
When not seeing patients or investigating novel questions, he consults for various start-ups in the healthcare sector.
“Dr. Modi was professional and caring. I felt truly supported as person when talking with him.”
“I am grateful to have Dr. Modi advocating for my health.”
“I feel truly heard and at ease with Rusha. He pays attention to me as a person.”
Below you will find a selection of essays, blogs and musings designed to be a starting point for healthy community discussion. Constructive and polite feedback only please.
In our crazy world with juice detoxes, fad diets and ancient holistic supplements that someone just discovered, it can be confusing to figure out what to do to actually be healthy. The information overload is crowding out true wisdom. Some of our health is determined by luck and genetics, the latter is really a function…
Blocked up. Stuffed. Bloated. Impacted even. Whatever term you use, being constipated is a terrible and often embarrassing. It’s hard to talk about these problems because of the stigma surrounding our bowel habits. But waste management, so to speak, is essential to good gut health. Since the 2/3rds of the internet and 86.4% of Los…
Heartburn is one of the most common complaints I see in clinic. Enjoy this animation I did with the TED company on why we can often get that burning feeling….
“There’s a popular saying among doctors: There’s no such thing as alternative medicine; if it works, it’s just called medicine.” ― Ed Yong “No medicine can compensate for un-healthy living.” ― Renu Chaudhary Read time: 20 minutes TL;DR Key Points Avoid catchy headlines that overpromise and under-deliver Alternative health approaches may help but they have been…
If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our…
Who is a good doctor? How do you know if you receive quality care? Unfortunately, patients by themselves can’t make that determination. Of course, we all want respectful and convenient care by an empathetic provider. What about the more technical questions? Since most people are not well versed in how their bodies work, it can…
“I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world’s greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.” … – Heartburn by Nora Ephron Read time: 15 minutes TL;DR Key…
Read time: 14 minutes Job security is one of the reasons people enter medicine to become a doctor. “People will always be sick,” is a common boilerplate in the profession, as if that attitude is something to be proud of. Even as a medical student, I found this notion to be naïve. Increasingly, I feel…
Read time: 10 minutes It’s the essence of every medical encounter and the basis for doctoring itself – the chief complaint. Patients tell us their primary symptoms and we then proceed to the HPI or History of Present Illness. This dialogue between the sick and the healer is at the core of what we do…
A heart can be no more forced to love than a stomach can be forced to digest food by persuasion. – Alfred Nobel Read time: 15 minutes TL;DR Key Points: Bloating is the uncomfortable perception of gas. Bloating is primarily an issue of gas handling by the gut and less often of excessive…
The wound is the place where the Light enters you. – Attributed to Rumi Read time: 15 minutes TL;DR Key Points: There are two predominant approaches to managing IBS. A similar strategy is useful for related functional bowel disorders This paradigm is based on the current understanding of the brain-gut axis A bio psycho-social…
“I’m already beat. The trick is to not let the caring get to you.” These were the words recently uttered by one of my physician colleagues, referring to the stresses of caring for patients in the world of modern health care. The weariness was clear over the phone. Without missing a step, I responded, “I…
Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. – Helen Keller Read time: 12 minutes TL;DR Key Points: Stress is not your destiny. While it is part of modern life, it can be effectively addressed There are a variety of body, breath and mind techniques that…
All diseases begin in the gut. – Hippocrates Read time: 7 minutes TL;DR Key Points: Recovery is essential to everyday life, much like after a workout. The 24 hour adaptation cycle is key concept in this arena The brain-gut axis means that gut problems like IBS cannot be understood without addressing psychological factors Even…
As it is not proper today to cure the eyes without the head nor the head without the body, so neither is it proper to cure the body without the mind, and this is the reason why so many diseases escape Greek physicians who are ignorant of the whole. – Socrates Read time: 15 minutes…
While I was recently on rounds with medical students and residents, last year’s Graham-Cassidy health care bill came up. I took some professional interest in the bill, since U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is a gastroenterologist like me. At the county hospital where I work, we see a large proportion of low-income patients who are underserved.…
“Coffee causes ulcers… right?” “I feel awful. That pizza must have given me an ulcer!” “Work has been crazy stressful. I think I have an ulcer.” All of these sentiments, while well meaning, are actually inaccurate. There is a surprising amount of confusion among the general public about what causes stomach ulcers and what we…
Big data is one of those buzzwords that is so popular it almost becomes meaningless. A lot has been said about the role of massive number crunching and now artfiical intelligence and it’s ability to transform medicine. In this piece at the Center for Health Journalism, I explore some of the realities behind these pronouncements.…
Academic medical centers have been traditionally been vanguards of medicine – centers for the latest research, places to train the future generation of physicians, and where the most complicated patients are treated. Navigating this cathedral of biomedical science is not easy for many young faculty members, including myself. Some of these challenges may surprise you……
Maybe it’s time we drop the pitchforks when it comes to the food choices we make. In my GI clinic I have seen all forms of diets: vegan, paleo, ketogenic, (s)low carb, 6 food elimination protocol, specific carbohydrate diet, low sugar, low salt, juices, detoxes, the Zone, and the Hollywood cookie diet (no, seriously). I…