Throughout his decades-long career at Massachusetts General Hospital, Hasan Bazari, MD, trained the best and brightest minds in compassionate care and creative approaches. He joined the hospital as an intern in 1983 and eventually became director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program from 1994 to 2014. His teaching philosophy, which emphasized guided reflection and mindful practice, earned him well-deserved accolades: the Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award, given to 10 outstanding program directors in the medical subspecialties, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Distinguished Alumnus/Clinical Practitioner Award.
Dr. Bazari retired from medicine in 2015, but he hasn’t stopped prioritizing educating the next generation of caregivers. He recently made a generous gift to Mass General to fund a lecture series, which he hopes will inform and inspire future clinical leaders — no matter where their careers take them.
“I find it to be most important to give the next generation the gifts of education
and learning,” Dr. Bazari says. “That way, we will continue to attract the best and
the brightest, and we will care for them and nurture them, whether they continue on at this institution or another.”
An Inspired Journey
Dr. Bazari’s journey to Mass General started in a small village in India, where he was born and lived until he moved to Malaysia at six years old to live with his father and four siblings. As a teen, he decided to pursue medicine after seeing his father recover from a diabetes-related foot infection. After earning a bachelor’s degree at Columbia University and his medical degree at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he arrived at Mass General, where he found an institution whose mission matched his goal: to offer compassionate, world-class, patient-centric care.
When he became director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program in 1994, he was both surprised and grateful, remarking that he would learn along the way. Dr. Bazari did much more than that, mentoring thousands of young clinicians as they navigated their first years in the medical field.
Dr. Bazari sees the lecture series as the next step in his teaching legacy. He hopes the speakers, chosen by leadership within the Division of General Internal Medicine, will help new doctors understand the interconnected nature of the profession and give them the tools they need to succeed.
“What’s important to me is how we help young people as they enter the medical profession and look for a place with a mission that aligns with their values, the same way I saw the Mass General mission,” Dr. Bazari says. “They might not believe in themselves yet, and they need an institution that will not abandon them.”
To learn more about how you can support continuing education at Mass General, contact us.
