Faculty Spotlight: Farah Khan

Background

Dr. Farah Khan is a South Asian Muslim American who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where she spent her entire childhood. Growing up, much of her inspiration came from her parents. Throughout her childhood and into her formative years, Khan said their emphasis on the importance of hard work, education, and family values has “always served as inspiration for the kind of life I want build.”

For undergrad, she attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she majored in environmental engineering. She then returned to her hometown for medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and following graduation, went to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia for both residency and fellowship.

“Over the years of my medical training, I have been surrounded by strong, independent women who have encouraged me to pursue both my professional and personal goals.”

Her father further inspired her to pursue endocrinology and diabetes care. “As a child, I saw my dad struggle with complications from type 2 diabetes despite always being vigilant about his diet and lifestyle.”

Following her fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism, Khan came to the University of Washington in 2018. Since then, she has established herself as a passionate clinician at the UW Diabetes Institute, a researcher focusing on cystic fibrosis and diabetes care and a dedicated educator and mentor. She is now a clinical associate professor within the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition.

Diabetes care & education

As a diabetes care physician, Khan is passionate about establishing relationships with her patients and helping them to most easily and efficiently manage their chronic disease. “I most enjoy the continuity of care I have with my patients that allows me to build long-term relationships,” she said.

In addition to actively improving the lives of her patients, she hopes to improve the future of healthcare by being involved in educating the next generation of doctors and building tools to help other healthcare providers.

Khan works to increase diabetes education as co-chair of the diabetes continuing medical education conference for primary care with Dr. Savitha Subramanian, professor (Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition). “The CME event is always a wonderful experience and is a really great way to help improve diabetes education and skillsets in the region,” Khan said.

Creative outreach

Moving forward in her career, Khan hopes to build upon her passion for writing and communication. With a background in freelance writing, Khan said her “dream would be to unite my work as a physician with ongoing writing projects.”

To this end, she is excited to be spending time working on the  division’s outreach and communications efforts. She has been actively involved in growing the division’s social media presence, developing content for the division website and taking over the division’s eConsult service.

“These projects all involve writing, education, and technical communication to those outside our division,” Khan said, “all efforts that I have always found exciting and impactful.”

She is also a member of the Outreach and Visibility subcommittee in the DOM Gender Equity Council and recently co-moderated a Gender Equity Lunch Series on clinical faculty promotions.

Interests

In her personal life, she enjoys spending time with her husband and children. When she can find the time, she still enjoys writing and freelancing and is a passionate Bollywood fan.

“Many of my colleagues would likely never guess the depth and breadth of my knowledge of the Hindi film industry aka Bollywood.”