Interventional Pain Management/Anesthesiologist (Ammar Divan)

The Dream Vocation Podcast with Tony Bellagamba

In this episode we speak with Ammar Divan, an Interventional Pain Management Physician. Ammar’s specialty is as an Anesthesiologist, which for the lay-person like myself, that’s the doctor who puts you under when you go in for surgery. Interventional Pain Management is a subspeciality of anesthesiology. Ammar chose this sub-specialty because while anesthesiology interested him, he wanted to have more personal interaction and 1:1 communication with his patients because as he himself said, when you’re an anesthesiologist your patients are typically, well, asleep.

Ammar’s story is one that I’m sure many out there can resonate with. When he was young he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. Being the son of immigrants who came to this country with very little, they dreamed of their son becoming a doctor. But Ammar had to decide for himself if that was truly the path he wanted. As he want through college, he took courses in anthropology with a biological focus, which really peaked his interest in the evolution of how we eat and interact in our environment and how that, in turn, affects our health. He also spent time volunteering at a children’s hospital, all of which combined to help Ammar realize that medicine was truly his calling.

Ammar is incredibly informative during the interview, providing great insight into the medical field and what it takes to become a physician. I hope you enjoy and learn a lot!