Kashmir's Poet-Physician Redefining Relief Globally

Dr. Akhtar Purvez brings the spirit of Kashmir to American medicine, blending science and poetry to transform healthcare.

- Fiza Masoodi

On a bitter winter morning in the early 1960s, in Tangmarg, just 23 miles from the capital city, a young Akhtar Purvez watched a neighbour mount a horse and ride ten miles to summon a doctor.

Hours later, the physician returned the same way.

By then, the patient had died.

"That memory stayed with me," Purvez recalls. "It wasn't just the loss of life. It was the intense feeling of unmitigated suffering, helplessness, and the relief that was out of our reach."

He grew up in a place where hospitals were distant, doctors rare, and families often relied on prayer, herbal remedies, or hope.

Those early experiences left a lasting impression on the boy who would go on to practice pain medicine in the United States, still a new field of medicine, and lead medical research to discover new therapies that would benefit the humanity beyond one country.

Today, Purvez is a leading physician in America, shaping how chronic pain, and its related field of addiction medicine, is understood and treated around the world.

His upbringing was modest but rich in culture. His father, the renowned Kashmiri-American intellectual and poet, Muzaffar Aazim, instilled in him the virtues of service to the humankind without discrimination and a love of language and culture.

"Our home was full of books and conversations," he says. "We didn't have much wealth, but we had values: honesty, hard work, and respect for others."

Healthcare in the valley remained a struggle. The nearest hospital was more than fifty miles away, and traditional remedies often failed.

"I saw pain treated as destiny," Purvez continues. "That was difficult for me to accept. I wanted to understand pain and confront it."

Medicine carried great respect in Kashmir. Doctors were guardians of life, and humility was expected.

That cultural gap hit him hard during his first residency interview in the United States.