Creating a ripple effect for community advancement

When his parents migrated from India in the early 1970s, Anesh Badiwala, MD, recalls that they brought the cultural emphasis on the importance of education with them. “Education is sacred in India, it is a key component in many things including culture, growth, prosperity and advancement. My parents brought my brother and I up with the ideals they fostered in India, and we knew that not only would education be important, but it could help us have a role in the betterment of the world we live in.”

After graduating residency from New York Medical College in Family Medicine, Dr. Badiwala joined a traditional primary care practice in New York where he began putting his education to use by providing direct patient care. During his residency, he met his wife, Hiral, and as the two began exploring the idea of building a family, they wanted to find a place closer to family they could call home.

“When I first visited what is now Baptist Health Hardin, I knew that this is where I wanted to shape my career,” he said. “The ability to have a role in an organization that was dedicated to growing alongside a rapidly changing community and advancing technology is something I wanted to be a part of. Baptist Health Hardin gave me the opportunity to join a team of talented physicians, and staff who care about the patient every step of the way, and when you can find those two things together, that is something special.”
Dr. Badiwala is inspired by the field of medicine for the never-ending possibilities it embodies, from refining traditional healthcare methods to discovering faster, safer ways of helping patients to heal, there is always something to strive for and lives that can be improved from the work being done.

“To me, there is nothing more gratifying than taking someone in a vulnerable state of health and healing them to a point of where I know that I have positively impacted their life and allowed them to go back to continue making memories with their loved ones,” he said. “Every time I am able to restore a sense of normalcy to someone’s life, to give them back something they may not have thought possible, it is like winning the lottery.”

As a father of two young children, Dr. Badiwala is invested in helping to create a better world for his kids to grow up in. “Healthcare is important to the forward progression of any community. Hardin County is booming, and with that growth, the need to have quality care accessible to anyone within our region only increases. By coming together, we are able to create a brighter, better future for us all, and especially for our children. If we all help our neighbor, then we’d all live in a better place. By supporting Baptist Health Foundation Hardin, I am doing my part to help us get to where we need to be. My call to serve doesn’t end when I leave a shift at the hospital, and philanthropy enables me to make sure I am giving a gift that isn’t hindered by time but will ripple throughout our community for generations to come.”