DR . WHO
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he already has . “ Sometimes I see three generations in one room . I don ’ t want to leave them . If I leave them , there might be a problem because it takes a while to build a relationship with a doctor that you feel comfortable with . Some of these people I ’ ve been with for 25 years ,” he said . “ I have people who have moved to Alabama and Florida that still come to see me . I ask them why they come all the way here , but they say they use it as a vacation every three or six months to come visit .”
In addition to his office work , he is also a hospitalist at Clark Memorial Hospital just across the bridge in Clarksville , Indiana . While he finds the work rewarding , it ’ s different than office work because he ’ s not able to form the same bond with patients . “ The drawback of being a hospitalist is that you ’ re missing the personal touch with the patient and family . It takes time to build that rapport and the patients have some hesitancy sometimes because they don ’ t know you .”
Dr . Siddiqi also serves as Medical Director and attending in nursing homes . He splits his time between one in Indiana and one in Kentucky . Throughout all three parts of his work , he said that he sees medicine changing a lot . It ’ s not the same as it was when he started 25 years ago , but he wants to maintain many of the same patient-focused practices .
“ I don ’ t like to be rushed . Sometimes you have to , but usually you can take the time .” he said . “ I tell the patients ‘ I ’ m going to be here for you . I ’ m not going to leave the room until we have an answer .’ I realized if you spend a few extra minutes with them , if you answer all their questions , and you don ’ t rush them , then they ’ re satisfied ,
and they rarely call you . They trust you with their life . You have to make sure you do them justice .”
Passing these traits of compassion and understanding down to the next generation of students is extremely important to him , and he ’ s had several pre-med students shadow him in the office previously . Currently , he has third-year medical students from Lincoln Memorial University DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine in Tennessee shadowing him at the hospital . One of those third-years shadowing happens to be his daughter , Myrah . Her twin sister Nissa is a third-year student at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry and their younger brother Bilal is a sophomore at UofL . While Bilal has shadowed both physicians and dentists , he is still trying to decide on his future path .
And of course , the anchor of the family is Dr . Siddiqi ’ s wife Azra , the mother of their three beautiful children . They ’ ve been married 28 years now , and Azra took care of their kids as they grew up and also managed Dr . Siddiqi ’ s private practice . The family likes the simplicity of spending time together and having stimulating conversation as well as traveling internationally . The top of their travel list includes Istanbul , Turkey , Spain , London , Saudi Arabia and Paris ( and having children fluent in foreign languages is a major plus !).
When he ’ s around the house with free time , he enjoys gardening , saying anyone driving through his neighborhood can spot his house as the one with the most flowers .
As he looks toward retirement and the future , he plans to scale back but continue seeing patients in the office , as he ’ s not ready to give up some of those longstanding relationships . He also has ideas
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