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
#Episode05 #APPNA
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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.