A long route into medicine

Where it began

I grew up in Pakistan in a Christian family whose work was to found and run non-profit hospitals, including Mariam Hospital, funded through the United Nations. We ran free clinics out in the remote areas, and handed out food aid alongside the care so that people who had walked a long way to see a doctor did not leave hungry as well as unwell.

That work made us a target. Religious persecution turned into violence. One of my brothers was imprisoned. Another was killed. In the end my family left Pakistan and was granted asylum in the United States. We left behind everything we had built and carried out the one thing that could not be taken: that medicine is a calling, not a career.

Six countries before a license

I was born in Libya in 1984 and it was home until 1992. Pakistan came next, where I finished school and began pre-medical study. Then medical school at Avicenna Tajik State Medical University in Dushanbe, a decade in Malaysia including two years in Singapore, and in 2012 the United States: Michigan first, then Virginia for my degree, then Utah.

I did not take a direct route into medicine. I took the long one, and it is the reason I understand what it is like to be the patient who does not speak the language and does not know how any of this works.

Every day I go to work, I get a chance to make a difference in someone’s life. I find deep purpose in helping people understand complex information, and I greatly value the opportunity to connect with them on a personal level.

Zobia Zafar, MPAS, PA-C

Three years volunteering at free clinics

Between 2012 and 2015, while studying in Virginia, I volunteered at more than twenty Remote Area Medical free clinics across Virginia and Tennessee. I also led my university’s volunteer program for those trips, which meant arranging transport, gathering students before dawn and being on site by three in the morning. Most of my own hours went to the dental area, because that line was always the longest.

One clinic saw more than five thousand people in three days. That is the work that made me want to do this properly, with a license and a name on the door.

Training

• Master of Physician Assistant Studies, University of Utah School of Medicine, graduated August 2022
• Bachelor of Science, Biology and Chemistry, Southern Virginia University, December 2015
• Arizona Regulatory Board of Physician Assistants license, January 2023
• NCCPA certified, and DEA registered
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support, American Heart Association CPR and BLS, Nexplanon trained, Certified Clinical Hemodialysis Technician

Clinical rotations

My training deliberately covered the whole range rather than one narrow lane, which is what makes general practice possible. It means I recognize what is serious and what can safely wait.

• Primary and urgent care, University of Utah Health
• Underserved primary care, Ft Duchesne Indian Health Service
• Trauma and general surgery, Utah Valley Hospital
• Women’s health and obstetrics, Rocky Mountain Women’s Center
• Pediatrics, University of Utah South Main Public Health Center
• Nephrology and hepatology, University of Utah Kidney and Liver Clinic
• Emergency medicine, Timpanogos Regional Hospital
• Behavioral health, Huntsman Mental Health Institute

Since qualifying

I worked in family medicine at Whispering Palms Medical and Phoenix Family Medical Clinic from 2023, and I have been with Optima Medical in Laveen since 2024. I am a member of the American Academy of Physician Assistants and the American Academy of Family Physicians, and a scholar with the Area Health Education Centers program.