Racialized Communities
Leadership Grant in Family Medicine

Award recipient

Dr. Mukarram Ali Zaidi

Calgary, Alberta

Dr. Mukarram Ali Zaidi is the inaugural recipient of the Racialized Communities Leadership Grant in Family Medicine, which will support his research project “Assessing Access and Satisfaction of Refugee and Immigrants to Primary Health Care in Calgary, Alberta.” With this work Dr. Zaidi and his colleagues Drs. Aamir Jamal, Shirley Steinberg, and Naved Bakali are seeking a greater understanding of the challenges refugees and immigrants face when accessing health care in Canada. 

Exploring the impact of perceived discrimination and of language, social, and cultural barriers on health outcomes has long been an important area of focus for Dr. Zaidi. As a field doctor, a physician at Civil Hospital, and a medical officer for the Health and Nutrition Development Society in Karachi, Pakistan, in the 1990s, Dr. Zaidi had opportunities to observe the social determinants of health and their impact at the patient and population levels. He translated these early experiences into research interests after moving to Canada in 1999.

After earning his bachelor’s degrees in medicine and surgery from Dow Medical College in Karachi in 1997, Dr. Zaidi completed his Medical Council of Canada qualifying examination in 2006. He also completed a master of science in epidemiology at the University of Toronto, a graduate diploma in population health risk assessment and management at the University of Ottawa, and the Family Medicine Residents of the Canadian Shield program at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. In 2017 Dr. Zaidi started the Signature Medical Centre, where he is the medical director and a practising family physician. He is also a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Calgary.

With a strong interest in community outreach, in 2013 Dr. Zaidi founded Think for Actions, a national non-profit organization and scholarly think tank that aims to empower youth and assist them in their professional development. Today, Think for Actions researches the impact of hate crimes on religious and racial minorities and advocates for international humanitarian projects.