Meet Renu Deshpande, M.D. –
Danville Office, Family Medicine Physician

Renu Deshpande was raised in Bangalore, India. She recalls her early life as a time spent around her family, with a strong encouragement to study hard and to focus on her goals. Her uncle was a doctor, and by the 7th grade, she knew she wanted to become a doctor as well.

Dr. Desphande has always viewed her parents as very altruistic and generous people. Her father provided financial support for the entire family, including his three brothers and parents, to obtain an education. In addition, he took care of several members of their extended family.

Dr. Deshpande studied medicine at the Mysore Medical College. As a result of the British colonization of India through the early 1900s, the education she received was Western-based, which made it easier for her to assimilate to the United States when she later moved here. She pursued an ophthalmology residency in India for two years before moving to the states.

After immigrating to the United States and living in more than one spot, she eventually landed in the Bay Area. Here, she met two individuals that greatly influenced her medical career, Dr. Navim Amin and Dr. Robin Lowitz. Dr. Lowitz started a free medical clinic for migrant farm workers. While waiting to receive her medical licensing to practice, she volunteered at a farm worker clinic and discovered her passion for family medicine. Dr. Amin was the chairman of the department of family medicine. He mentored her and taught her the value of being humble, working hard and doing your best regardless of what resources you have available. Dr. Deshpande enrolled in the family medicine residency program at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield to follow her passion. In 2006, she was recruited by Bay Valley Medical Group and began her practice in family medicine.

Dr. Deshpande says that her favorite aspect of being a physician is the opportunity to face uncertain situations. Like all doctors, she has invested thousands of hours into studying and memorizing a plethora of conditions and diseases. She enjoys challenging herself with each patient, trying to recall previous visits before referring to the medical record. It’s a way for her to keep her mind sharp and embed her patients’ lives and history in her memory.

Outside of family and medicine, Dr. Deshpande is most passionate about intrinsic education. That is, the pursuit of reaching higher levels of mental, spiritual and emotional clarity through reading. She notes, “Over the past years, I’ve really unlocked an inner-richness to life, something that I had missed out on earlier because I was so focused on my career. What I’ve found now is that by taking the time to grow personally and by exploring these ideas, my career and whole life have become a lot richer.”

Desphande loves taking her two daughters to the local bookstore and spending hours sipping on hot chocolate as the three of them read, share stories with each other and connect. Her older daughter, 13, aspires to become an artist someday and her younger daughter, 11, is interested in crafts and spends most of her time in girl scouts activities. “I’m very proud of my two daughters. They are so hungry to learn about life and having them share a passion for reading is something that really bonds us.”

Before getting into medicine, Dr. Deshpande was trained to sing Indian classical music. She also played the veena, an Indian plucked-string instrument. One of her goals is to soon be able to take lessons and refine her skills so that one day she can play again, as a hobby.

Dr. Deshpande brings a wealth of wisdom to her professional life, all the while pursuing learning in her personal life. She accounts that this is one of the primary reasons she’s so motivated to push herself as a doctor and remain passionate about life. In talking to her for only a few moments, it’s easy to see that her strong, confident demeanor is coated with humility, gratitude and an inquisitive heart.

Dr. Deshpande practices family medicine in Bay Valley Medical Group’s Danville office. To schedule an appointment, please call: 925-314-0260.