Dr. Ayaz Virji was recently hired as the new Director of the NYU Abu Dhabi Health and Wellness Center. Dr. Virji received his MD from Georgetown University in 2000 and completed his residency in family medicine at Duke University Medical Center in 2003.

After a successful career in Pennsylvania, Dr. Virji decided to move to the rural community of Dawson, Minnesota. This was a significant change in his career, but one that Virji thought was in the best interest of patients.

“You get into this philosophical thing. Who am I? What do I want to do?” Virji added.

“In the rural populations you have 20 percent of the people but only nine percent of the doctors. So, I decided to go and relocate and to an underserved area to help turn the system around,” explained Dr. Virji.

Beyond the urban to rural transition from the busy East coast of the U.S. to a Midwestern town, Dr. Virji also experienced a cultural shift. An advocate for intercultural engagement and tolerance, he became involved with advocacy against Islamophobia after the 2016 elections, giving a series of lectures. Dr. Virji’s community involvement in cooperation with a local Christian pastor attracted national attention in the U.S., leading to a Washington Post article and an upcoming book titled Love Thy Neighbor: A Muslim Doctor's Struggle for Home in Rural America.

“This is not just Islamophobia, this is all of us together. It is inclusion. That is the message,” Dr. Virji said concerning the focus of his book.

“It says in the Quran ‘We created you in many nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Truly the best among you is the most righteous.’ It doesn’t say the one who is the most self-righteous thinking he’s so good.” Virji added.

When asked what drew him to the UAE Dr. Virji told The Gazelle, “I guess you make decisions based on what is best for your family, and when I grew up I was blessed to have a lot of travel experience, to have a global experience because my dad was in business so he took us everywhere.”

“We decided we want to give that experience to our kids. There’s no better place in the world for that.” However, leaving the Midwest for the Middle East has not been easy. “It was hard, it was difficult, because uprooting from one place to another is emotionally difficult,” Dr. Virji said. “I felt I was betraying [my patients].”

On the subject of his goals at NYUAD, Dr. Virji and the team at Health and Wellness have discussed new initiatives for the coming years. Later this month, Health and Wellness plans to launch a weekly roundtable event for the NYUAD community. A physician from Health and Wellness will host a brief talk on a certain topic followed by questions from students. Dr. Virji said some of the planned topics will include menstrual health, Vitamin D deficiency, men’s health and sports health.

The Health and Wellness Center also plans to increase the scope of services provided, reducing the number of medical procedures that require sending a student to an outside medical provider, such as drawing blood for lab work.

When asked about the availability of mental health care on campus Dr. Virji said, “We will have one [counselor] who will be starting hopefully in the summer and then another one later in the fall. So, then we will have three.”

“If it benefits students, if it benefits patients, then we are going to work very hard for that, because it makes everybody’s life easier,” said Virji.