Dr. Affan Qaiser: An epitome of resilience, resolve, and grit

It takes a lot of effort and perseverance to be consistent in your struggle and keep your eyes focused on your goals, despite all the difficulties and lengthy work.

But all the pain and hard work involved becomes secondary to people who believe in living for others and touching every life around them. One such personality is Dr. Affan Qaiser, Pakistan’s most sought-out Transplant Hepatologist and seasoned medical journalist.

And that’s not just it. He also wears many other hats, such as being the Director General and Head of Gastroenterology at the Shahida Islam Teaching Hospital and CEO & Founder at Liver Tower Multan.

While caring for his patients’ physical well-being, he is also concerned about people’s mental wellness and seeks to impart wisdom about life and struggle. With his positive, heart-touching words, he has become quite popular and garnered a wide follower base. With his 1.9 million Facebook followers, on way to hit the 2 million mark, and millions of views, he has impacted many lives and spread positivity across the whole Pakistan.

While his success as the most qualified Transplant Hepatologist and a pioneer of medical journalism is resounding now, it was not like this from the outset.

He has strived hard and covered all bases to achieve every goal that he set. To become a well-renowned medical journalist, he worked on his writing, media, content creation, and intrapersonal skills.

With determination and the right tools, he managed to compose a striking 2000 columns that garnered the interest of not only medical students but senior professionals as well. He appears in various media talk shows and has his own YouTube channel where he shares life lessons and educate people about a holistic, healthy life. He has been associated with Pakistan’s biggest digital media house UrduPoint. Moreover, he has also been a part of Daily Express as the Executive Panel Writer for over eight years.

As for his professional achievements as a hepatologist, he has over 400 successful liver transplants under his name. He seems to have excluded the word ordinary from his dictionary and his life. Not many people today manage to achieve such feat in one career field, let alone two and that too very challenging, highly consuming ones.

Another feather in his cap is bridging the gap in Pakistan’s medical sector by being the first-ever transplant hepatologist (and a very good one). This decision was driven by his personal experience and the helplessness he felt when his father got diagnosed with Liver Cirrhosis.

He was told that Pakistan lacked proper treatment facilities needed by a Liver Cirrhosis patient. He took his father to China, but it got him thinking about the people who could not afford such an expensive treatment in a foreign country. This experience moved him deeply and motivated to help his people get better yet affordable treatment in their own country.

But how did he manage to accomplish such exceptional achievements?

He gives all credit to the Almighty, his parents, and a couple of personal habits like discipline, hard work, and having a passion to tread on the road rarely trodden. Born to a professor of medicine, Dr. Qaiser Mehmood and a Dr. Nasrin Qaiser, Head of the Community Medicine Department at Nishtar Medical College Multan, his life’s journey was set out according to many.

A doctor’s son is expected to be a doctor and nothing else. But he tried to go beyond this stereotype and follow his heart. He recognized the need for medical journalism in the media landscape of Pakistan, which was a term unheard of earlier, and decided to bridge this gap too. All this hard work and determination have polished him as a person and instilled resonance in his words. The man is truly an epitome of hard work, positive mindset, and grit.