As a hospitalist at Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn's largest and busies safety-net hospital, Dr. Maryam Baqir, treated some of sickest patients imaginable at the worst of times imaginable—during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing such pain and suffering every day left her with the profound realization that so much can be prevented; we don't have to wait to be sick," she says. In this episode, Dr. Comite interviews Dr. Baqir about her recent move from conventional medicine's reactive approach to a proactive, preventive method of care, a shift Dr. Comite made more than 20 years ago when began practicing precision medicine.

You'll learn…

• Most conventional medicine is excellent at saving lives and treating disease but does a poor to fair job of preventing illness from emerging.

• As a front-line physician during COVID, Dr. Baqir became very skilled at taking care of very sick people but realized her greatest desire was to help them stay out of the hospital.

• A diabetes diagnosis is not inevitable. You can escape a genetic predisposition through lifestyle changes and medication.

• Strokes don't have devastate lives; 80 percent can be prevented.

• Why both doctors say spending more time with patients is essential to getting at the root causes of illness and disease.

• When she starts patients on GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro, Dr. Baqir says they often embrace eating healthier and exercising regularly.