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Phone: (276) 964-9102 Azhar Latif, M.D. is a board-certified pediatrician who works with Merit Medical Group, a multi-specialty practice in Richlands, Virginia. His colleages at Merit Medical Group are Muhammad Javed, M.D. (Internal Medicine, Cardiology), Kamran Rasul, M.D. (Internal Medicine, Geriatrics), Waleed Siddiqi, M.D. (Internal Medicine, Geriatrics), Raheel Ahmad, M.D. (Internal Medicine), Tahir Ahmed, M.D. (Internal Medicine), and Haya Siddiqi (Internal Medicine, Geriatrics). Two family nurse practitioners – Carolyn Thornsbury and Shelia Tillia – also work with Merit Medical. The group has offices in Honaker, Oakwood, Tazewell, and Lebanon. Dr. Latif received his medical education at King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan, taking a M.B.B.S. degree in 1990. Upon graduation, he spent one year as a resident physician in Pediatrics at Mayo Hospital and King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan. Between 1992 and 1994, he served as the supervising medical officer for a rural health center in Rawalpindi District. In 1994 he earned a Resident-Diploma in Child Health at the Post-Graduate Medical Institute in Lahore and became a Fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Pakistan. Dr. Latif was Resident Medical Officer at Rawalpindi General Hospital and Medical College from November 1994 through February 1995. Between March 1995 and June 1996, Dr. Latif studied for and passed the United States Medical Licensing Examination. He moved to the United States in 1996 and did a short externship at Driscoll Children’s Hospital, Texas A & M University in Corpus Christi while awaiting enrollment in the hospital’s residency program. He enrolled there in 1996 and completed a three year residency in Pediatrics in 1999. Dr. Latif returned to Pakistan after completing his pediatric residency and worked as a volunteer while applying for medical positions in the United States. In May 2001, he came back to America and began working in Russell and Tazewell counties, which are Medically Underserved Areas.
Dr. Latif estimates that 20% of his patients are infants under the age of one year, 60% are children between the ages of 1 and 14, and 20% are adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19. Overall, the Merit Medical practice includes about 20% children, 40% younger adults, and 40% adults over the age of 60. Dr. Latif estimates that 80% of his patients are covered by Medicaid or Medicare, 17% have private insurance, and 3% have no insurance coverage. He sees about 15 patients a day during the summer and 20-25 a day during busier seasons. Dr. Latif does circumcisions, laceration repair, and removal of foreign objects in the office and he attends c-sections in the hospital. Services available from Dr. Latif are prenatal counseling and anticipatory guidance, newborn care, immunizations, well child care, allergy and asthma management, emergent and urgent pediatric care, preventive pediatrics, adolescent medicine and youth counseling, school and sports physicals, follow-up of children with chronic illnesses, treatment of common childhood infections, pediatric behavioral medicine, management of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders, and referral to pediatric sub-specialists as needed. His special interests include acute appendicitis and nephritic syndrome in children. Residents who train with Dr. Latif will have ample time to consult with him and may be able to spend more time than usual with individual patients. Unless there is need for a sub-specialty consultation, Dr. Latif takes care of all the children who seek his services.
Specialties represented on the hospital staff include Anesthesiology, Cardiiology, Cytopathology, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine, Family Practice, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Hematology/Oncology, Internal Medicine, Nephrology, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Oral Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, Podiatric Surgery, Radiation Oncology, Radiology, Urology, and Vascular Surgery. Residents who train with Dr. Latif can choose from several local hostelries, including the Bedrock Inn and Cuz’s Cabins Bed & Breakfast in Pounding Mill, Virginia and the Super 8 Motel in Richlands. GMEC will try to locate a furnished house or apartment for residents but short-term housing can be hard to find in rural communities so we can make no guarantees.
Four lanes of U.S. Highway 460 join with four lanes of U.S. Highway 19 just south of Richlands in Claypool Hill. There are two malls and several shopping centers in the area, many local and franchised restaurants, several cinema screens, and any number of discount stores, groceries, and specialty boutiques. The surrounding countryside is lovely, with forested ridges rising above quiet coves and high rolling hills of green pasture. Area attractions include the Crab Orchard Museum & Pioneer Park, Burke’s Garden, Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine, Cedar Bluff Mill, and Breaks Interstate Park. For more information, see the profile of Tazewell County at www.uvawise.edu/gmec. |
Azhar Latif, M.D.
Office hours for Dr. Latif are 9:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. He is always on call for his patients and he is on hospital call one week and one weekend each month. The practice has Internet on the premises and the hospital has high-speed connections in the physician’s lounge. There are six exam rooms in the Richlands office along with a CLIA waived medical lab and a pharmacy. Patients who need more complex lab tests, x-rays, or other diagnostic studies are referred to Clinch Valley Medical Center or the Merit Medical Group office in Honaker. 
Clinch Valley Medical Center is a 200 bed acute care hospital, the largest Virginia facility of its kind west of Roanoke. The hospital offers: allergy care, angiography, cancer care (diagnostic, therapeutic, support, rehab), cardiac catheterization, cardiac intensive care, case management, diabetes teaching, diagnostic imaging, electrocardiography, emergency care, hemodialysis (outpatient), intensive care, laboratory, lithotripsy, maternity care, nursery, nursing teaching program, nutrition, occupational therapy, pastoral care, pharmacy, radiation therapy, rehabilitation, respiratory therapy, skilled nursing services, sleep studies, social services, speech therapy, surgery (inpatient, outpatient, orthopedic, cystology, laparoscopy, endoscopy), transitional care, unit, and ultrasound.
The Richlands-Cedar Bluff-Raven-Claypool Hill-Pounding Mill community is a thriving commercial place with a population of about 15,000. The boundaries of these several small towns bump into one another to form a larger, unofficial whole. The population of Richlands itself is 4,144. Tazewell County has a population of 44,598. Once based on coal mining and forestry, the regional economy has grown diverse in recent years. As measured by employment, major elements of the Tazewell County economy are educational, health and social services (22%), retail and wholesale trade (20%), manufacturing (12%), construction (7%), and agriculture, mining, and forestry (7%).