The U.S. healthcare system depends on a global workforce and it is common to see a doctor or nurse who is from another country. Over a quarter of doctors in the U.S. are immigrants and in some states a third of all healthcare workers are from another country. Yet, as we learn in this episode, it is not easy for someone from another country to study medicine and persist as a healthcare worker in the U.S. Today's guest is Azan Virji, a first-generation international student from Africa who is pursuing both medicine and an MBA at Harvard University. With prior degrees from Yale, Azan is the co-founder of F-1 Doctors, an organization that provides mentoring and help for international students making their way through the complex web of medical education in the U.S. In addition to advocating for international students, Azan aspires to be an infectious diseases physician and is committed to solving global health issues, having interned with WHO and having conducted research on malaria in Uganda.

Episode themes:

• The story behind F-1 Doctors and how it fills a critical gap for international students in medicine
• How Azan’s experience of growing up in Tanzania exposed him to the lack of healthcare and how it inspired him to pursue medicine and specialize in infectious diseases
• The challenges that foreign-born medical students and professionals face in the U.S despite the national shortage of doctors and nurses
• How Azan navigated the personal and professional challenge of being an international student and away from him family during the peak of COVID-19
• How Azan used music to connect and educate his community and country about the pandemic. BONUS: Listen to his rap/hip-hop song!
• Brain-drain in Africa and how immigrant physicians give back to their home countries
• Azan’s three wishes for national-level change in the U.S that would make things easier for international students

Resources:

Connect with Azan: LinkedIn

New American Economy report on immigrant healthcare workers during COVID-19

Harvard Gazette story about F-1 Doctors

AAMC report on physician shortages in the U.S.

Azan's song, Corona Tutaishinda

Carnegie Corporation's African Diaspora Fellowship Program

Check out these other resources!

My book: America Calling: A Foreign Student in a Country of Possibility

Newsletter: www.rajikabhandari.com

LinkedIn: @rajikabhandari