NorthShore Health Centers Employee in the Spotlight: Dr. Aditya Shah

NorthShore Health Centers Employee in the Spotlight: Dr. Aditya Shah

It’s important for physicians to get to know their patients, but it is just as important for patients to know their physicians. Dr. Aditya Shah, M.D., is one of the newer faces at NorthShore Health Centers. He is a family practice doctor with a strong passion to help people through science.

Shah was born in India and later moved to the Region, where he graduated from Munster High School. The year before he moved to the States, Shah spent a year living with his uncle who is a doctor in India. Everything he observed in that time inspired him.

“That’s when I really got interested in healthcare,” Shah said. “Since high school, it’s always kind of been what my goal was.”

Armed with this goal, Shah sought out to further his education. He started out by earning a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Indiana University Northwest. Then, it was on to med school. Thanks to his uncle, Shah knew that he wanted to be in healthcare, but nailing down the specifics was hard.

“Initially, I wanted to become a surgeon,” he recalled. “During the last two years [of med school], I went through different clinicals and specialties. That’s when I really got to explore and decide what I liked, which turned out to be family medicine.”

During those last years of med school, one of Shah’s professors organized a trip to Haiti, which had just suffered the catastrophic 2010 earthquake. Shah eagerly joined the mission, which had a huge impact on his healthcare philosophy.

“Those areas are underserved in medicine, they’re kind of in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “We went on a broken school bus from village to village, setting up camps and visiting classrooms or churches just to see patients.”

Shah has since returned to Haiti, and has seen the program he helped pioneer expand. Those experiences in Haiti motivated him to continue providing quality care to the underserved. NorthShore’s mission is to provide comprehensive care to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay. It was the perfect fit for Shah when he finished his residency at Northwestern University.

“This mission is important. I get to see and help patients who don’t have access to healthcare otherwise,” he said. “Those without insurance or refugees from the Congo—it’s about being there for people who don’t have other options.”

In his free time, Shah is something of a globetrotter. He makes a point of travelling across the world at least once a year. He has visited places such as Greece, Singapore, Bali, and his favorite, Iceland. Recently, he has also taken up experimenting with making his own cold brew coffee and cocktails.

“You go out and pay 15 bucks for a drink and it’s not very good, so I thought, I bet I could do this better myself,” Shah joked. “If I really like something, it’s fun to be able to make it myself.”

Shah currently lives in Chicago, and his primary medical interests are preventative care, chronic conditions, and lifestyle and obesity medicine. To learn more about NorthShore Health Centers and all of their physicians, visit northshorehealth.org.