Sept 29, 2021: Pakistani-American Dr. Omar Atiq will be elected unopposed as president of the American College of Physicians, it was revealed on Wednesday.

Pakistani-American Dr. Omar Atiq will be elected unopposed as president of the American College of Physicians, hence becoming the first Pakistani and the second international graduate ever to head the organization.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) is the largest medical organization in the United States. The membership of the prestigious American College includes 154,000 internal medicine practitioners (internists), related specialists and medical students in more than 145 countries around the world.

According to details, Omar Atiq has been nominated as the next president of the prestigious American Doctors College. Although elections will be held in January 2022, Dr. Omar Atiq is the only candidate for the post.

Taking to Twitter, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US Asad Majeed Khan said, “Dr Omar Atiq becomes the first-ever Physician of Pakistani descent and only the second international medical graduate to be elected as President of American College of Physicians.”

The ambassador further added, “A proud and historic moment for Pakistani American Community. We acknowledge and appreciate this outstanding professional achievement.”

Omar T. Atiq, M.D., is a professor of medicine and otolaryngology-head and neck in the UAMS College of Medicine. He is the founding director of the Arkansas Cancer Institute in Pine Bluff and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Originally hailing from Pakistan, Dr Atiq received his medical degree from the Khyber Medical College, University of Peshawar, Pakistan, and did his residency and chief residency in internal medicine at the Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Administration Hospital and Foster G. McGaw Hospital of the Loyola University in Chicago.

Board certified in medical oncology, hematology and internal medicine, Dr Atiq did his fellowship training in medical oncology and hematology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

In January 2021, Dr. Atiq canceled the debts of about 200 cancer patients worth about 6 6,650,000 after realizing that many of them were struggling to pay.

He closed his cancer treatment center in Arkansas last year after nearly 30 years in business. He then worked with a debt collection firm to collect the arrears, but then he realized that many families were severely affected by the pandemic.

During Christmas, he wrote to patients that any of their debts would be written off.

While talking to ABC’s Good Morning America, he said, “Over time, I’ve noticed that there are people who just can’t afford to pay. So my wife and I, as a family, thought about it and looked at forgiving all debts.”

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