“I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway. And more, much more than this, I did it my way.” The lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s famous song hummed on repeat for a week in March as Marwan Hamed, MD, celebrated the news. After years of attending medical school in Egypt, conducting research with the Mayo Clinic, and completing an observership with the University of Colorado Department of Medicine, he would be joining the CU Internal Medicine Residency Program.
Hamed, born and raised in Egypt, was one of the first international medical graduates (IMG) — meaning a physician who earned their medical degree outside of the United States — to complete an observership in the CU Department of Medicine. Observerships are educational experiences where trainees learn by shadowing clinicians and observing how they interact with patients. Recently, the department launched a global health observership program that aims to bring more IMGs like Hamed to the CU Anschutz Medical Campus.
“Through our observership program, we aim to enhance our international exchange programs by exposing learners to advanced medical practices, cutting-edge technologies, evidence-based practices, and multidisciplinary care approaches employed in academic medical centers,” says Andrés Henao, MD, PhD, director of the department’s global health program and an associate professor of infectious diseases.
After Hamed spent a month shadowing CU faculty in the fall of 2024, he knew CU was the place he wanted to continue his medical training. However, given how competitive the residency matching process is, especially for IMGs, he felt that applying to CU “was quite the gamble.”
“I didn’t play it safe, but I’ve taken many risks over the years,” he says. “I’m honored to be here, I’m proud of what I’ve done, and I’m grateful for the support my family, friends, and mentors have given me — especially my wife, who has been loving, patient, and supportive every step of the way."
Growing up, Hamed’s academic talents were stronger in math than biology, but he never pictured himself working as an engineer. Instead, he was drawn to the medical field because he wanted to have a more direct impact on people’s lives.
In 2012, he started his medical training at Cairo University, where students study for six and a half years before working for a year in an internship — a total of seven and a half years of training. By 2019, as Hamed planned for his future, he decided he wanted to pursue further medical training in the U.S.
“Throughout medical school, my mentors, namely Drs. Hussein Khairy, Maha Hasaballah, and Sahier El Khashab, planted in me the seeds of caring for my patients and gave me a solid medical knowledge ground to build on. We have limited facilities back in Egypt compared to the U.S., so I wanted to take that further and get the best training possible, deciding to pursue my training here in the U.S.,” he says.
After spending a few years as a postdoctoral research fellow in the cardiovascular department of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he moved in 2021, Hamed wanted to advance his clinical skills. He applied for the 2024 match season, which is the time period where graduating and postgraduate medical students apply to residency training programs across the country.
“In the U.S., there are some top-tier medical schools, and CU is one of them,” Hamed says, explaining what drew him to apply to CU.
During the application process, Hamed began networking and reached out to Geoffrey Connors, MD, who was the director of CU’s internal medicine residency program at the time. But when Hamed learned that his wife was pregnant in November 2023, he decided to withdraw his application for the match season.
“We knew it would be risky to have to move from Minnesota to wherever I ended up matching, so we decided to delay for a year,” he says. “I contacted Dr. Connors to explain the situation and told him that I'd be more than happy to do an observership at CU if there was ever an opportunity. He directed me to Dr. Limes.”
Julia Limes, MD, the current director of the internal medicine residency program, asked Hamed to send her application materials to be considered for an upcoming pilot observership program.
“There was a pool of applicants, and they only picked one,” he says. “Luckily, it was me.”
In the late summer of 2024, Hamed, his wife, and their baby traveled to Colorado for the first time. For the month of September, Hamed rotated with internal medicine faculty, attending multidisciplinary inpatient rounds and shadowing one attending physician each week.
“Everyone was supportive, and the attendings always welcomed my comments and questions,” he says. “No one made me feel like an outsider.”
One of the biggest lessons for Hamed was learning how clinicians tailor their communication approaches depending on the patient and their needs — a skill that is especially vital when working at a place like Denver Health where clinicians often encounter patients from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.
“You will have some patients who are well educated and medically literate, and then on the other end of the spectrum, you’ll have a patient with a lower socioeconomic status and poor medical literacy. Both present different challenges — one patient will ask a lot of questions, and the other may struggle to understand the medical terms you use,” he says. “It’s an art that you learn with time, and I saw that throughout the month. It also showed me that the main driver of clinicians here is to truly help improve the lives of their patients.”
The monthlong observership confirmed to Hamed that CU was where he wanted to receive his residency training.
“I got to know the team, made friends, and felt certain that this is a place where I want to be. And it’s a place where I want to give back — because it’s a dual relationship,” Hamed says.
Mutual learning is a priority for the CU Department of Medicine’s global health observership program, explains Henao. As program director, he says all the applicants he has seen to the program are very talented.
“They enrich academic discussions and engage in scholarship initiatives. Our department also learns and appreciates the skills and medical approaches that have been successful in other parts of the world,” Henao says. “We aim to continue enriching our medical mission through networking, knowledge exchange, skills development, and talent recruitment, facilitated by this program.”
When Hamed learned on March 21 that he had matched into the residency program at CU, he knew that his dedication and work had paid off. In June, he packed up his family’s belongings and officially moved to Colorado, and he started residency training in July.
“It’s been fun so far. I started with cardiology consults and have gotten good feedback, and I’m getting to know how to use electronic health records, which is a big switch because in Egypt, we use paper-based charts,” he says. “I feel like I’m getting the best of both worlds. I learned a lot in medical school and during that year of shadowing my mentor in Egypt, which gave me a solid foundation. Then, I did research for over three years, and now, I’m doing my residency training. I feel like I’ve been well prepared for this.”
In the next four years, Hamed hopes to further explore the medical subspecialties of cardiology and gastroenterology and hepatology before deciding what he wants to focus his career on. Overall, he has four priorities for the future — caring for patients, teaching others, advancing research, and being the best father and husband.
“Clinically, I want to be the type of doctor who patients are happy to see rather than feeling intimidated or anxious. Even if I’m the bearer of bad news, I hope to settle patients’ fears and let them know that I’ll do whatever I can to improve their quality of life,” he says. “I also believe teaching is part of any clinicians’ legacy, and it’s a way to pay it forward to your patients and trainees.”
As a researcher, Hamed strives to improve the medical system by discovering ways to enhance how clinicians use medical tools. It’s a continuation of what he did with the Mayo Clinic, where he worked on a project to create a clinical decision tool that aimed to improve the management of patients with a specific type of high cholesterol.
When he reflects on his progress so far and the opportunities ahead, Hamed’s advice for other people is to find their own path and be unafraid to take calculated risks.
“The journey as an IMG can be difficult, with starting a whole new life in another country and culture. It can be intimidating — but what I’ve found is that people are more similar than we are different. The people here have the same core values and heart, and knowing that makes the experience much more friendly,” he says. “If you really want something, take that leap of faith.”