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Founder, CEO & Medical Director

Azka Afzal, MD

A board-certified physician building the kind of practice she wished her own patients could find.

Board-Certified in Internal MedicineBaylor-trainedChicago
Azka Afzal, MD

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 through the six-year combined BA/MD program at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine, graduating summa cum laude, then trained in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. There she learned to manage complex, layered conditions, co-authored research presented at national and international meetings, and won first place in the oral vignette competition at the Southeast Regional American College of Physicians Associates’ Day in 2018. She also 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, the same year, a Registered Medical Cannabis Certifying Physician with the Illinois Department of Public Health, one more option to offer patients who had run out of them.

02 — The Chicago years

For five years at the University of Chicago Medicine, she cared for patients with complex chronic conditions, many of them on Medicare, through the Comprehensive Care Program, in both clinic and hospital; worked as a general hospitalist twelve weeks a year; and attended on the internal medicine teaching wards. She taught residents through journal club, morning report and a continuing medical education series on transitions of care. At the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine she co-founded and directed the ASAP (Ask-Search-Appraise-Perform) clerkship in evidence-based practice, and she precepted first-year students in the M1 Longitudinal Program and fourth-year students on the Comprehensive Care Program elective.

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.

Azka Afzal, MD
Azka Afzal, MD
Azka Afzal, MD

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.

2024–Present
Founder, CEO & Medical DirectorTeleTonicMD

A concierge direct primary care practice for patients located in Illinois: telehealth statewide and house calls within 50 miles of Chicago, first visits of 60 to 90 minutes, and integrative, whole-person care. She led the design and launch of the practice’s HIPAA-compliant iOS app.

2025
Certificate in Modern JournalismNew York University

Training in modern reporting, media law and multimedia storytelling.

2019–2024
Attending Physician, Internal MedicineUniversity of Chicago Medicine

Comprehensive Care Program (clinic and hospital care for patients with complex chronic conditions), general hospitalist on the hospital medicine service, and the internal medicine residency teaching wards.

2019–2024
Co-Founder & Course Director, ASAP ClerkshipUniversity of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine

Co-founded and directed a clerkship in evidence-based practice for fourth-year medical students, with six contact hours of teaching a month; its curriculum, built with librarian colleagues, was presented at SHM Converge 2021. Preceptor for first- and fourth-year students.

2019
Member, ABC News Medical UnitABC News

Selected during residency for a one-month rotation in New York: pitched, wrote and edited daily medical news and wrote eight bylined articles (one co-written); her article on how clinicians judge children’s pain ran on Good Morning America.

2016–2019
Internal Medicine ResidentBaylor College of Medicine

Residency training in hospital and outpatient medicine. Elected board member of the Academics Committee (2016–2019), where she expanded the residency journal club; small group leader for second-year medical students in Patient, Physician and Society 3 (2017–2019); created a noon-conference curriculum on the U.S. health care system and returned as an invited lecturer through 2024; member of the Academy of Resident Educators.

2010–2016
BA/MD, Summa Cum LaudeUniversity of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine

Six-year combined BA/MD program. Treasurer of the Sojourner Health Clinic, a free clinic run as a UMKC student organization (2014–2016); vice president of the American Medical Women’s Association student chapter (2015–2016); early research on patient safety and on how patients understand their discharge instructions.

04 — Research & publications

Dr. Afzal’s research spans clinical medicine, critical care, cardiology, nephrology, quality improvement and medical education. Where a published record exists, the title links to it.

Peer-reviewed journal article

Book chapter

Published abstracts

Other presentations

  • Reducing Inappropriate Proton Pump Inhibitor Prescriptions in a Primary Care Clinic

    Cai C, Brown A, Berman J, Gurwara S, Sohn Y, Afzal A, Gross D, Lescinskas EH.

    Poster, Baylor College of Medicine 5th Annual Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Conference; Houston, TX; April 26, 2018.

  • Colonic Perforation After Nivolumab-Induced Colitis With Cytomegalovirus Infection

    Brown A, Afzal A, Chen A.

    Poster, Baylor College of Medicine Department of Medicine Housestaff Research Symposium; Houston, TX; April 11, 2018.

  • Analysis of Carotid Artery Plaque Morphology in Patients With Symptomatic Atherosclerotic Carotid Artery Disease

    Khalid K, Afzal A, Borgaonkar S, Hoff J, Granillo-Ibanez A, Pham TT, Taffet GE, Nambi V, Kougias P, Brunner G.

    Poster, Baylor College of Medicine Department of Medicine Housestaff Research Symposium; Houston, TX; April 6, 2017.

  • Patient Discharge Instructions: Factors That Improve Patient Understanding and Compliance

    Afzal A, Honeyman J.

    Poster, University of Missouri–Kansas City Health Sciences Student Research Summit; Kansas City, MO; April 2, 2015.

    First author

  • Follow Up Contact Improves Patient Safety and Satisfaction in the Truman Medical Center Medical Clinics

    Afzal A, Sanford C.

    Poster, Vijay Babu Rayudu Quality and Patient Safety Day, University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine; Kansas City, MO; April 11, 2014.

    First author

05 — In the press

In 2019 Dr. Afzal was a member of the ABC News Medical Unit, selected during residency for a one-month rotation in New York. She pitched, wrote and edited daily medical news, reviewed new research and fact-checked medical reporting, and her article on how clinicians judge children’s pain ran on Good Morning America. Her health writing for the public began in medical school, and in 2025 she completed a Certificate in Modern Journalism at New York University.

ABC News Good Morning America
“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.”

Azka Afzal, MD

Founder, CEO & Medical Director

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