Dr. Afzal's path into medicine began with a plain conviction: that a patient is a whole person, not a list of symptoms — and that good care needs the one thing modern practice rarely gives it, which is time.
01 — Formation
She earned her medical degree from the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine, then trained in Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, where she learned to manage complex, layered conditions and developed a lasting interest in the parts of a patient's life a chart never captures — sleep, stress, diet, environment, history.
She became board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 2019, and later a certified Medical Cannabis Certifying Physician — one more option to offer patients who had run out of them.
02 — The Chicago years
For five years at University of Chicago Medicine, she cared for patients with complex chronic conditions, many of them on Medicare. She saw, up close, how a system built for volume tends to reach for the prescription before the conversation — and how often a natural, evidence-based option was never mentioned at all, simply because there was no time to explain it.
I wanted to practice medicine the way it was meant to be practiced — unhurried, honest, and centered on the person in front of me.
Dr. Azka Afzal, M.D.
03 — A different kind of practice
In 2024 she founded TeleTonicMD: a concierge, direct primary care practice with unhurried visits, honest options, and a whole-person approach. Initial consultations run sixty to ninety minutes. Every option — conventional and evidence-based natural — is put clearly on the table, so the decision is genuinely the patient's.
A direct primary care practice: integrative medicine, extended visits, whole-person care.
Comprehensive internal medicine with a focus on chronic disease in Medicare patients.
Residency training in hospital and outpatient medicine.
Medical degree, with early research into integrative approaches and community health.
04 — In the press
Dr. Afzal writes and speaks on integrative medicine, chronic-disease management, and patient advocacy.
Selected publication: a peer-reviewed chapter on integrative and advanced medical practice, published by Springer. Read the chapter →
“Healthcare should be a partnership. My job is to give you a clear view of every option you have — and then the time to decide what's right for you.”
Dr. Azka Afzal, M.D.
Founder & Medical Director