Irfan M. Asif, M.D., has been named chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the UAB School of Medicine. Asif is a primary care physician with a specialization in sports and exercise medicine. He has developed a local, national and international reputation for teaching and scholarship.
Asif comes to UAB from the Greenville Health System and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, where he served most recently as the vice chair of academics and research in the Department of Family Medicine and as the sports medicine fellowship director.
Asif earned his M.D. in 2007 at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed his family medicine residency at the University of Washington (UW) with a concentration in sports medicine. Asif then stayed at UW for another year to complete his fellowship in sports medicine.
From there, he has served in several academic leadership positions: sports medicine fellowship director at the University of Tennessee, sports medicine fellowship director at USC School of Medicine Greenville, interim director of the family medicine residency program in Greenville, and also as the interim chair for the Department of Family Medicine in Greenville. He currently serves on the board of directors for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and is an Associate Editor for the journals Sports Health and the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Asif's research explores several domains of sports cardiology, and also the prevention and treatment of disease through lifestyle and exercise medicine.
The Department of Family and Community Medicine was established in 1975 and is recognized as a leader in the fields of clinical care, premedical education, practice-based research and student health services.