APPNA ki nai sadr Dr Humeraa Qamar ki kahani, America mei muqeem Doctors ki janib se Lahore mein hospital bananay ka ailan kar dia

Daily Pakistan

APPNA ki nai sadr Dr Humeraa Qamar ki kahani, America mei muqeem Doctors ki janib se Lahore mein hospital bananay ka ailan kar dia #Episode05  #APPNA

Transcript

00:00Assalam-o-Alaikum, viewers. Top 100 Pakistani Doctors in USA.

00:02Special Series' host, Mubeen Rashid, is here with us.

00:05We are very happy to have Dr. Humera Kamal with us.

00:08Our new President.

00:09And you are the biggest donor in USA.

00:11In a democratic country, where elections are held every year,

00:13a new President comes every year.

00:14Dr. Humera Kamal, first of all, thank you very much for joining us.

00:16Assalam-o-Alaikum.

00:17And MashaAllah, congratulations to you.

00:19Now, in 2025, InshaAllah, you will be a doctor.

00:20Yes, thank you very much.

00:21What was your family background? How did you decide to become a doctor?

00:23I grew up in Pakistan. I grew up in Lahore.

00:25Right.

00:26My father was in the Railways.

00:27MashaAllah.

00:28Yes. My initial schooling was in a Railway school in St. Andrews.

00:32Then I did my senior Cambridge from Cathedral High School, Lahore, in Hall Road.

00:37Then I did my FSC from Connaught.

00:39Okay.

00:39And then I did my Medicine from Allama Iqbal.

00:41Our family background has a lot of emphasis on education.

00:46Yes.

00:46My father and my mother always said that we have given you education.

00:52Now you have to lead a successful life.

00:55Right.

00:55With the values that you have to work very hard in life.

01:01And you don't have to kill anyone.

01:02And you have to move forward with your hard work.

01:06In the beginning, in Pakistan, there was a lot of pressure on children.

01:08That you really want to become a doctor or an engineer.

01:10Yes.

01:10You grew up in Pakistan and have a mindset.

01:11So, when you were studying in school, did you have pressure?

01:13Or did you really want to become a doctor?

01:15The decision to become a doctor was actually my mother's decision.

01:18Because my mother insisted, I did my FSC and then I did Medicine.

01:23So, the credit for that goes to my mother.

01:24There are two types of children that I have interviewed.

01:27One type is very intelligent and the other type is very hard-working.

01:30So, are you intelligent or hard-working?

01:33You are absolutely right.

01:35The education system in Pakistan is hard-working.

01:37It is called rote memory.

01:38You have to work hard.

01:40So, I think in Medicine, you have to do both.

01:43You have to have a certain IQ.

01:45Yes.

01:45So that you can survive.

01:46Right.

01:46And then without working hard, no matter how intelligent you are,

01:53if you don't spend a certain amount of time, then you can't do it.

01:57School and Credit College is the number one college in Pakistan.

01:59So, did you get a position or did you get an export?

02:02Not really.

02:02I was like a little bit above average student.

02:06Which session of MEBS did you have to attend?

02:07Alamogarh Medical College?

02:08The year I had to become a doctor, in 1987.

02:10Right.

02:10So, it was a little overlapped with 1987.

02:13I went in 1988.

02:14You must remember, in the 80s, Mr. Zia-ul-Haq closed the colleges for a year.

02:18Yes.

02:18So, we had a batch in 1987, but we left in 1988.

02:22Right.

02:23And how many people from that batch were successful in the USA?

02:25From our class, Allama Iqbal's class, about 30 students came to the USA.

02:31My sister was here in the USA.

02:33When I got married in 1989, then Asad, my husband is a cardiologist also.

02:38I see.

02:38Yes, Asad Qamar.

02:39So, we decided that right after marriage, we will come to the USA.

02:43What year was this?

02:44We came in 1990.

02:46I did my Masters in Public Health from Yale.

02:48Wow.

02:49I worked for a while, then I started a residency.

02:53At Yale New Haven Hospital and Bridgeport Hospital.

02:56After that, we moved to Florida.

02:57Since then, we have been in Florida.

02:58Wow.

02:59I have my own practice in Florida.

03:00How do you find Florida compared to other states?

03:03We liked Florida because we live in Ocala, in Ocala, Florida.

03:07And it's a relatively small town.

03:09We had to go to the hospital, then I had an office, then a house.

03:12So, the office, house and the hospital where I used to go to see the patients,

03:16everything was in a 5-10 minute drive.

03:20Wow.

03:21It makes life a little easier to raise children.

03:24How many children do you have?

03:25I have three.

03:26Sana Syed Qamar, she is a public defender in New York City.

03:31Then my second son, Ahsan Syed Qamar, he is a law student in Chilean University, New Orleans.

03:36My youngest son, third, Adil, he is going into law school now.

03:40If both husband and wife are doctors,

03:41does it help or does the clinic or hospital open at home?

03:45Tell us about this.

03:46When both husband and wife are in the same profession,

03:48it helps them.

03:50As a woman physician, I have to take care of the house,

03:54I have to raise the children, I have to take care of the children's school.

03:58So, as a woman physician, I think you have to do two or three times more work

04:04to get to the point where you can run a good family unit.

04:08There is a theory that when a woman gets married, she quits her job.

04:11Yes.

04:12She doesn't do any work.

04:12In Pakistan, the husband says, it's okay.

04:14And then he has to go to the doctor's tab.

04:15My wife is a doctor, an ME-based doctor.

04:17How do you see this challenge, being a female doctor?

04:19The husband should be so strong that he explains to his wife that

04:24there is a medical school for five years and then there is a residency.

04:27Before that, you do FSC.

04:28So, it's a good process of seven to ten years.

04:31If you take that thing from a woman, for whom she has done so much work,

04:36then it will be mentally and physically very depressing, in my opinion.

04:41But I just feel like this aspect of women should be made more evident in the society of Pakistan

04:46that you have become a doctor.

04:48You did so much work.

04:50You should use it.

04:52Yes, yes.

04:52So, tell me, being an entrepreneur as a female, and that too in the USA.

04:55Yes.

04:56As soon as you moved to Florida, you started your own clinic.

04:58Yes, I started my own clinic.

05:00How did you come to this?

05:01There must have been some difficulties in the beginning.

05:03How did you overcome them?

05:04The good thing about the USA is that medicine is a very systematic profession.

05:08When we moved to Florida, I had the option to get employed with someone.

05:13You get employed with someone.

05:14You don't have any headache.

05:15You just took the money, gave it to the patient and went home.

05:18But when you start a business or practice, you are absolutely right.

05:22It's like any other business.

05:23Exactly.

05:23You have to look at its financial aspects.

05:25You have to contract with insurance.

05:27You have a whole billing department.

05:30There is nursing care.

05:31Out of the work I do at the moment, about 70% of it is clinical work.

05:36And 30% is administrative work.

05:39Okay.

05:39Because I have to manage my practice like any other business.

05:42So, tell me, how many patients do you see on an everyday basis?

05:45I see about 30-40 patients in a day.

05:48Do you have any plans to expand it further?

05:51Like, urgently, people come to see you.

05:52Yes, I have 3 employees at the moment.

05:553 physicians.

05:56I don't keep a lot of patients in my office.

06:00Because then you lose that personal touch.

06:03Your patients become your family.

06:08Human connection matters a lot in medicine.

06:11When your patients trust you, know you,

06:14the rate of healing goes up a lot.

06:18What is the role of a doctor?

06:20Do you talk to your patients?

06:21Do you talk to your patients in a friendly manner?

06:23Yes, of course.

06:24How do you treat your patients?

06:25Please elaborate on this.

06:26Healing is not just about the body.

06:28Let's say I have a child who has a fever.

06:31Right?

06:31So, just by looking at his fever, we don't get rid of it.

06:36You know, you talk to the family.

06:38You ask them.

06:39You hold the child's hand.

06:42You talk to the parents.

06:45You calm them down.

06:47They trust you.

06:48When the parents trust you,

06:50when the children trust you,

06:52their healing rate will go up a lot.

06:54They leave happy.

06:55Connection of mind and body, both.

06:57Before joining APNA,

06:58please tell us how it is.

06:59At what stage did you start using APNA?

07:00And then you became the president.

07:02As a female president.

07:03Because you have already been a female president here.

07:04But you too, Mashallah.

07:05How do you see this challenge?

07:06APNA is one of the largest

07:10Pakistani-American organizations

07:12anywhere in the world.

07:13Exactly.

07:14When my children grew up,

07:15I started looking for such communities for my children

07:20so that they realize that they are Pakistani-Americans.

07:25They get a sense of identity.

07:26Their Pakistani-American identity and Muslim identity

07:30was very important, which they got through APNA.

07:32That's why I've been coming to APNA for 20 years.

07:34Then I started a women physicians of APNA group in 2008.

07:38One-third of the members are women.

07:42Oh, okay. Very nice.

07:43One of the main reasons for which I was fighting for APNA election

07:45was that I wanted my future-generation girls

07:49to get a role model.

07:50Very nice.

07:51So that they come and assume leadership positions in APNA.

07:54Very nice.

07:54You have been looking at APNA's role for 20 years.

07:56To what extent are you satisfied and satisfied?

07:58And what is the challenge that you are facing as a president

08:00that I will try to do this work for a year?

08:02My goal will be two things in 2025.

08:05First, I want to empower younger physicians

08:08and women physicians more.

08:1250% of my next year's committees will be chairwomen.

08:16I have already selected and elected them.

08:19You have given a lot of information about this.

08:2150% will be women, Inshallah.

08:23People say that APNA makes a big platform, a big hospital.

08:26They make a college in Pakistan.

08:27Yes, that was my next point I was making.

08:30Inshallah, we are starting our hospital in Lahore next year.

08:33I have done a lot of work for it.

08:34We will take that hospital forward as a medical school.

08:38Excellent.

08:39Our own medical school.

08:40Have you contacted the government to send you land for free?

08:42No, I want to keep it completely a private enterprise.

08:46Because you know that the government keeps changing.

08:48I don't want APNA to be dependent.

08:50At that time, you know who is in power and who is not.

08:53So it is much better to do a private enterprise.

08:55The new doctors who want to come here,

08:57the medical staff who want to come from the US,

08:58do you have any plan for that?

09:00Yes, we are planning a medical school.

09:03We are planning a nursing school.

09:04And we are also planning an allied staff school.

09:09In which we will train nurses from echo techs to ultrasound techs.

09:14And then we will contract with the hospitals here

09:17so that the nurses who graduate from there

09:19can come here and work for sure.

09:22And similarly, ultrasound technicians, echo technicians,

09:25all those who are called allied staff,

09:26they will also be trained and they can come here.

09:28And not only can they come here,

09:30but they will be of US standard.

09:32So the level of care will improve in Pakistan's hospitals

09:35when they will go and work.

09:37Finally, do you have any message for Pakistani or US doctors?

09:40Any message of hope?

09:41I am very proud of Pakistan.

09:43I am very proud of Pakistanis.

09:45They are excelling in every field even after coming here.

09:49So it is a tremendous talent.

09:50My message is that you, the physicians,

09:53come and become a member of APNA.

09:55Strengthen APNA.

09:57APNA needs all of you.

09:58And APNA is not just for Pakistani doctors,

10:00but also for other diasporas.

10:03We also reach out to them.

10:04We work with them.

10:06Ladies and gentlemen,

10:06I would like to take your leave now.

10:08Take care of yourselves.

10:09Allah Hafiz.

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