Amir Barzin, DO, MS, Associate Professor and Medical Director of UNC Health Virtual Care Services and UNC Nurse Connect, recently won the 2022 C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award along with UNC School of Medicine Carolina Together Testing Program collaborators Susan Fiscus, PhD, and Amy James Loftis.
UNC’s publication The Well recently featured Dr. Barzin in an article, Dr. Amir Barzin answers call to service, which discusses the Massey Award, his work at the forefront of Carolina’s response to the COVID-19 global health crisis, helping launch and leading the UNC Health Respiratory Diagnostic Center early in the pandemic, helping launch and serving as the director of the Carolina Together Testing Program, and leading the CORVASEQ study which is working to genetically sequence COVID-19 in North Carolina. Barzin also discusses his family moving to the United States from Iran, and the impact that UNC has had on his career.
From the article: “I hate sitting on the sideline and telling people what to do,” says Dr. Amir Barzin. “I have to be in the work. I have to understand it. So if people are going to sit out there and swab someone’s nose to see if they’re positive for COVID, you better believe that I’m going to be out there swabbing someone’s nose.”
Cristy Page, MD, MPH, who was Residency Director when Barzin was a resident, also was quoted in the article: “(Amir) and the team navigated logistical challenges to create such an efficient operation, worked outside each day in the North Carolina summer and truly functioned as one cohesive team,” wrote Cristy Page, School of Medicine Executive Dean, about that experience in her Massey Award nomination letter. “We constantly heard from people who had come to the RDC for testing just how easy the process was and how the members of the team helped to put their stresses at ease.”
Barzin is currently serving as the inaugural medical director for UNC Health Virtual Care Services and the UNC Health Clinical Contact Center, all while providing stellar care to his patients.
Read the full article here.