Book Doctor

Dr. Dipesh Navsaria promotes literacy through his association with Reach Out and Read, a national program through which clinical caregivers use books and family reading to support healthy outcomes. (Image by Sharon Vanorny)

Earning a degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine is an estimable achievement, but not a particularly rare one. In 2005, Dipesh Navsaria, MSLIS ’04, UIC MD ’05, was one of more than 300 recipients. But he was the only one in that class, and possibly ever, to have taken time along the way to earn a master’s degree in library science.   

“When I was an undergraduate at Boston University in the 1990s,’’ he says, “there was a reading program at Boston City Hospital. They gave books to kids, and at checkups, they encouraged parents and kids to read together. The benefits are enormous: brain and cognitive development, social and emotional growth, mental and physical health.”

While attending medical school, Navsaria wanted to further this work, but felt underqualified. “I knew a lot about the benefits of reading,” he says, “but I knew nothing about kids’ books. I was surprised to discover that one of the best resources in the world [the U. of I.’s Center for Children’s Books] was near my home.”

Illinois’ Graduate School of Library and Information Science—now known as the School of Information Sciences—customized a program that enabled Navsaria to deepen his understanding of children and reading. More than 20 years later, he continues to promote literacy through his association with Reach Out and Read, a national program through which clinical caregivers use books and family reading to support healthy outcomes.

Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Child Development Lab, is a strong proponent of shared reading as a benefit to children’s health and development. (Image by Sharon Vanorny)

“The benefits [of shared reading] are enormous.” —Dipesh Navsaria, MSLIS ’04, UIC MD ’05

Navsaria’s ability to see how seemingly unrelated phenomena can affect a patient’s health is key to how he defines his role as a physician. In a time when much of medicine involves specialties and subspecialties, Navsaria promotes a broader view. He practices outpatient pediatrics, teaches, engages in public advocacy, and regularly co-hosts two podcasts on childhood health and literacy. He is as much at home in a clinic as in a classroom, the state capitol, or a studio.

“Children’s health,” Navsaria says, “is influenced in multiple environments—family, community, school, society. Often, we see these things as silos, but of course they overlap and interconnect. Parents bring their children to the pediatrician, and usually they want to know if the child is growing appropriately. We look at height and weight and other indications, but they’re only part of the story. Are the parents reading at home? Are the schools educating effectively? Is the community safe? Is the government fostering a healthy environment? All these factors have profound implications on a child’s long-term health.”

Navsaria currently holds two faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Among them is a post in the School of Human Ecology, which embraces his all-encompassing approach to healthcare.

Nevertheless, Navsaria acknowledges there is one area where he rarely ventures directly. “I’m a terrible researcher,” he says. “I’m much better at explaining what researchers have discovered, so that people can apply it to their lives. Many people today are drawn to fringe ideas because they want simplicity. It’s much better if we can make complexity comprehensible and allow the public to recognize that we have the same goal: to help them and their loved ones live their best lives.”