316: Standing Up to Fauci—Dr. Azadeh Khatibi’s Fight for Medical Freedom

Dr. Azadeh Khatibi recounts her path from a budding actress to a board-certified ophthalmologist and public advocate. She reflects on the challenges of balancing her dual passions in the arts and sciences, her growing disillusionment with medical bureaucracy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how her public health education influenced her views on policy.
Dr. Khatibi also discusses the pivotal moment when she decided to sue the state of California for their restrictions on doctor-patient communication and her testimony before Congress, highlighting the risks of silencing medical professionals.
The episode concludes with Dr. Khatibi sharing her motivation behind her upcoming documentary on free speech in medicine and advice for physicians who want to find their voice.

Bio
Dr. Azadeh Khatibi is a fellowship-trained and board-certified ophthalmologist. She was a Regent’s Scholar at UCLA and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Highest Departmental Honors in Molecular, Cell, Developmental Biology. She began her career as an actor while simultaneously pursuing studies at one of the top medical schools in the country, UCSF, in the Joint Medical Program, which only accepted 12 people per year. She also got her Master’s in Public Health and a master’s in Health & Medical Sciences, both from UC Berkeley. She completed internal medicine internship and residency at UC, Irvine, where she was chosen chief resident. She finished vitreo-retinal medicine and surgery at UC San Diego.

Dr. Khatibi is also a filmmaker and actress. She acted in and helped produce the feature Window Horses, with Sandra Oh, which was short-listed for Academy Award nomination. She was a lead producer of the film Sinjar, a narrative feature about the Yazidi genocide of 2014. Her acting credits The Truth is Hard to Find, directed by Darren Aronofsky. She served as a consultant on The Magic School Bus Rides Again (Netflix) and was a writing finalist in the Women in Film PSA program.

In addition, Dr. Khatibi is also a scientist, having discovered and named an eye disease, and also a published author of short story and poetry. She also volunteers as a mindfulness mentor.

Most recently, Dr. Khatibi has become a vocal advocate for medical freedom and ethics. She’s sued the state of California and the Medical in two lawsuits regarding first amendment rights violations of physicians.

Last fall, Dr. Khatibi testified in front of members of Congress’s Select Sub-Committee on COVID in Washington DC on the federal government's role in interfering with the patient-physician relationship and physician autonomy.

She is now working on a documentary about free speech and medicine and the spectre of medical authoritarianism.

Are there any specific questions/talking points you would like to include?: We can talk about the things I'm doing (listed in my bio), and the state of medical education, and also how I stood up to Fauci at his hearing and called him out. Or what you'd like to discuss.

List your website and any social links you would like to share::
Twitter:@azadehkhatibi

IG: @drazadehkhatibi

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUBInFIRCFtYpQnMi2H1cYg

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066809543555