Family practice physician Sami Ahmed joins Oaklawn Medical Group

July 19, 2016

Family-practice physician Sami Ahmed joins Oaklawn Medical Group

MARSHALL – While growing up in Windsor, Ontario, Sami Ahmed made the rounds of odd jobs, including stints working at a gas station and a pizzeria – but a high school co-op program changed his life a decade ago.

Ahmed was born in Detroit, and when he was young his family moved across the river to Windsor. There, he became an assistant in a local pharmacy. That position launched him onto a path that would shape his career as a family-practice physician, and to work with the Oaklawn Medical Group in Marshall.

“There was a family doctor’s office at the pharmacy, so we worked side by side – and I was able to see the physicians’ day-to-day life,” Ahmed said. “I decided that this was something I could do every single day.

“I’d been looking for a career that would be beneficial for the community – something I would enjoy doing, something that I could say, ‘This is worthwhile,’” Ahmed said.

“As a kid, I’d wanted to be a basketball player, but I never got up to that size,” said Ahmed with a laugh. “I knew in general that I wanted to be where you’re able to be influential in the community and be able to help others.”

What’s more, Ahmed believes Marshall is just the sort of community that he has been looking for.

While commuting between school in Chicago and his parents’ home in Windsor, Ahmed had stopped in Marshall and dined at Schuler’s restaurant.

“I knew a little about the town, and I believe that, to practice true family medicine, it needs to happen in a smaller town,” Ahmed said. “So, when a [physician] recruiter sent me the information about Marshall, I remembered it and it all sounded fantastic. It’s the ideal practice situation for what I want to do.

“Actually, larger cities aren’t exactly my cup of tea,” he said.

Ahmed already has moved his home from Sterling Heights to Marshall and is looking forward to beginning his Oaklawn practice in early August.

 “There are such genuinely nice people here, from top to bottom,” he said of the Marshall community. “There’s not a single person I met that didn’t fit into that same mold. That’s how medicine needs to be practiced – with caring people.”

 “Oaklawn is always searching for the best talent in physicians, and one of Marshall’s strengths is that it is such an attractive, close-knit community that appeals powerfully to those talented individuals,” said Mark Montross, Executive Director of the Oaklawn Medical Group.

“We’re very impressed by Dr. Ahmed’s commitment to forging a strong patient-physician bond, and his history of committed traditional family medicine,” Montross said. “We look forward to a great and lasting relationship.”

A sports enthusiast for much of his life, Ahmed still watches – and plays – basketball, football and soccer.

“I’m definitely a huge Pistons fan and a big Lions fan,” he said, adding that automobiles, electronics, cooking and even landscaping his parents’ property in Windsor are among his other off-duty pursuits.

“Right now I’m fixing up a 1990 Corvette,” he said.

Ahmed attended the University of Windsor, receiving honors in biochemistry, and in 2007 transferred to Wayne State University and lived in Dearborn. There, he received his bachelor’s degree in 2009. He then attended the Medical University of the Americas, receiving his medical degree in 2013, completing clinical clerkships in training hospitals affiliated with the University of Chicago, Wayne State University and Michigan State University schools of medicine.

Ahmed most recently served as an acute-care physician for an urgent care facility in Sterling Heights, and as a physician with Diagnostic Evaluation Services in Detroit. He completed his residency training earlier this year at Beaumont Health System/ Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine in Troy and Royal Oak.

Ahmed is board-certified and a member of the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Ahmed will work out of Marshall Primary Care (formerly Richardson Family Practice) in the Wright Medical Building at 215 E. Mansion St., Marshall. Those seeking appointments may call (269) 781-3938.