We are proud to announce Dr. Amir Barzin as the President of UNC Health Faculty Physicians, effective July 20. In his five months as Interim President, UNC Faculty Physicians has experienced growth across both our clinical and research missions. Dr. Barzin’s collaborative leadership has led to closer partnerships across UNC Medical Center resulting in significant increases in patient access. In fact, Faculty Physicians saw 9,000 more new patients than projected this past year, allowing for faster access than ever before.
Dr. Barzin has a distinguished career of leadership, where he has always focused on expanding patient access through innovative models of care. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer of UNC Health Physicians, where he led initiatives across access, virtual care, physician recruitment, and network development. Prior to his role as Chief Operating Officer of UNC Health Physicians, Dr. Barzin served as the inaugural Medical Director of UNC Healthlink (now Nurse Connect) and the inaugural Medical Director of UNC Health Virtual Care services with UNC Health. Under his leadership, the teams improved access by expanding inpatient and outpatient clinical care to all 100 counties in North Carolina and establishing the UNC Health Outpatient Access Center. Dr. Barzin is a family physician by training and has also served as the Family Medicine Inpatient Service Line Director, the Medical Director of The Family Medicine Center at Chapel Hill, and the lead of UNC Urgent Care at The Family Medicine Center.
During the pandemic, Dr. Barzin demonstrated excellence in leadership and a deep commitment to patient care by establishing the Carolina Together Testing Program and serving as the Director and Lead Physician. The program helped safely reopen the UNC Chapel Hill campus by processing over a quarter of a million COVID tests and bringing test result times down to less than 48 hours. Dr. Barzin also helped establish UNC Health’s Respiratory Diagnostic Centers, where he showed up not just as a leader, but as a front-line worker swabbing noses at the drive-through testing site.
Over time, Dr. Barzin has received many teaching and clinical care awards, including the Robert Cefalo UNCH Housestaff Award, the Hyman Battle Distinguished Excellence in Teaching Award, the C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award, UNC School of Medicine Distinguished Service Award, and the UNC HBH Friend of Nursing Award. Over the course of his career, he secured more than $25 million in grant funding to support clinical and research initiatives.
Dr. Barzin is a compassionate leader committed to providing the best care to our communities and the best experience for our teammates. We are grateful to him for serving in the interim role and excited to officially welcome him as the new President of Faculty Physicians. We invite each of you to continue your dedicated and collaborative work with Dr. Barzin to make UNC Health an academic and community powerhouse with patients at the center of all we do.
- Matt and Samatha
Matt Ewend, MD is President, UNC Health Physicians and Chief Clinical Officer, UNC Health
Samantha Meltzer-Brody, MD, MPH is Executive Dean UNC School of Medicine, and Chief Academic Officer, UNC Health