A first-generation Punjabi American, Alex Singh Parmar’s path toward medicine began when he was a child. His mother supported the family as a hardworking surgical nurse, and his father was disabled with rheumatoid arthritis. Parmar was thrust into a caretaker role.
“Growing up, being a caretaker for a disabled father and also my younger brother was a big responsibility to hold on my shoulders,” Parmar said. “I was always with him at appointments, caretaking, pushing his wheelchair. Seeing the things that physicians do really opened me up to the world of medicine and the types of care patients deserve. It brought light to how as a provider I could improve the patient experience.”
Parmar believes patient care can be improved by two things: instilling physicians with increased cultural dexterity to navigate the intricacies of their patients’ care; and making changes to the system that would protect people like his father from falling through the cracks.
“His diagnosis was delayed because of cultural and language gaps. They told him he had depression, and he should go home and see if he could fix his mood. Unfortunately, it was bigger than depression, and in India, care wasn’t the same,” Parmar said. “That experience is what pushed me into medicine, and 25 years later, here I am.”
Parmar recently became the first University of Arizona student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Medicine from the College of Medicine – Tucson. The degree curriculum includes basic science prerequisites and core courses with four areas of emphasis: medical technology, basic medical science, medicine and society, and integrative and practice-focused medicine.
An immersive experience
As an undergraduate, Parmar participated in Fostering and Achieving Culture Equity and Sensitivity in the Health Professions Conversantes, a service-learning course through the UArizona Health Sciences Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. The course provides bilingual Spanish-speaking students with training and opportunities to volunteer as medical interpreters in health care facilities in southern Arizona.
Parmar applied the skills he gained as a medical interpreter to his work at the College of Medicine – Tucson’s Commitment to Underserved People Clinics. It was during one of the volunteer opportunities at a CUP clinic when Parmar first heard about the BS in Medicine program, which would start enrolling students the next year. He took a peek at the proposed curriculum and liked the broad course selection, which he recognized would prepare him for many possibilities in his chosen field.
Some of the courses were already available, so Parmer got a head start on the coursework for the new major without delaying his graduation. One such class was FCM 296, Careers in Medical Health Sciences, which uses a learning methodology called case-based learning. It is a central component of the degree program in which students are taught by many different health care professionals who present real-world medical cases.
“I thought this class was perfect for people who want to go into the medical field but might not know what they want to do. They created an immersive experience, exposing you to a career path that you may decide to pursue, making sure students are getting a better understanding of what’s ahead,” Parmar said.
Paul Gordon, MD, MPH, co-director of the BS in Medicine program and a professor of family and community medicine, co-teaches Careers in Medical Health Sciences, which he designed as a way for students to see patient cases through multiple perspectives.
“Each week, students examine how they would care for a patient through the lens of one of nine different professionals — a social worker, a nutritionist, a nurse, a doctor, etc. They’re really getting an idea of the breadth of the teamwork involved in caring for patients,” Gordon said. “Patients are represented through the lifecycle, starting with a newborn whose mom has used drugs, a child with cerebral palsy, and we end with an elderly person whose adult children want to put them in a nursing home.”
In addition to learning more about the collaboration involved in medicine, Parmar also appreciates that the major enables interaction with medical students and faculty members, and especially that so many classes are taught by practicing clinicians.
“They can give you personal anecdotes and stories showing how outside of the interaction that you have with the patient, there’s so much going on,” Parmar says.
“There are more practicing clinicians teaching in this undergraduate curriculum than any other undergraduate curriculum I’m aware of,” Gordon added. “We have MDs teaching in the first two years. We are picking our teachers to be sure we have the best and the most engaging and energizing.”
Making a positive impact
Parmar said he would recommend the bachelor’s in medicine program to anyone interested in a career in health care.
“This is a perfect major for anybody with any ambition or pursuit into medicine,” he said. “They can really get to know what medicine is about, and then decide, ‘Is this for me?’ It’s a great environment for anybody coming out of high school or community college and being thrown into the fray.”
Parmar says his coursework drove home that health care is a team practice, and he has enjoyed learning about the teammates he hopes to rely on someday. But he has never wavered from his goal to practice medicine.
“I want to be the provider my dad didn’t have,” Parmar said. “My goal is to serve the community I was raised in, knowing at the end of the day that I’m making a positive impact in the world.”
