Maryam Baqir, MD: So Much Sickness, Pain, Suffering can be Prevented

As a hospitalist at Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn's largest and busies safety-net hospital, Dr. Maryam Baqir, treated some of sickest patients imaginable at the worst of times imaginable—during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing such pain and suffering every day left her with the profound realization that so much can be prevented; we don't have to wait to be sick," she says. In this episode, Dr. Comite interviews Dr. Baqir about her recent move from conventional medicine's reactive approach to a proactive, preventive method of care, a shift Dr. Comite made more than 20 years ago when began practicing precision medicine.   You'll learn…  Most conventional medicine is excellent at saving lives and treating disease but does a poor to fair job of preventing illness from emerging.   As a front-line physician during COVID, Dr. Baqir became very skilled at taking care of very sick people but realized her greatest desire was to help them stay out of the hospital.  A diabetes diagnosis is not inevitable. You can escape a genetic predisposition through lifestyle changes and medication.   Strokes don't have devastate lives; 80 percent can be prevented.   Why both doctors say spending more time with patients is essential to getting at the root causes of illness and disease.   When she starts patients on GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro, Dr. Baqir says they often embrace eating healthier and exercising regularly.