A Doctor Who Makes It Personal by Giving From the Heart

It might be an understatement to say that Bahar Sedarati cherishes her work as a local doctor. After all, she is a successful internal medicine physician with thriving practices in Laguna Hills and Newport Beach.

But she also values the notion of paying it forward through community charity work and ― as a way of keeping her perspective on life ― showing her creative side through a lifelong passion for artistic endeavors.

Dr. Sedarati delights in working side-by-side with her husband, Alireza Khazaeizadeh, who is also an internist. They are part of Monarch HealthCare, one of the largest associations of private practice physicians in Orange County and Long Beach.

Together, they efficiently handle a variety of cases, including both primary and urgent care patients. They have both taught medical school and jointly wrote a textbook.

However, when she is not with her patients she is out donating time and money to support the Guard a Heart Foundation, an Irvine-based nonprofit organization that specializes in local fundraising activities for heart disease awareness, detection and prevention. The foundation’s mission centers on patient education and helping teach people to “guard their hearts” and live healthier lifestyles.

“I’m a big advocate of prevention and lifestyle and just staying healthy,” said Dr. Sedarati.

She has served as the foundation’s spokesperson and given many community presentations over the years, during which she often discusses the dilemma of her 72-year-old father, who has suffered both a heart attack and stroke.

“I have been reaching out to the community to teach them how to lower their risk for cardiovascular disease because of my father,” said Dr. Sedarati, who, like her dad, is a native of Iran. “I do believe we can prevent a lot of disease and lower the cost of health care. We can keep people and families healthy, keep them out of the hospitals and increase life expectancy.”

But even with her demanding job and her passion for the foundation, she still finds time to fulfill her creative energies. One of her indulgences is tailoring and women’s fashion.

“I learned how to sew when I eight years old from my grandmother,” she says about her handiwork. “So I love that. I’ve always had a very creative mind. I also love singing and dancing. I do paint. I have a very artistic mind. That’s what I do when I’m not working.”

Dr. Sedarati makes her own line of exquisite evening gowns, which sometimes feature fabrics she orders from Paris or Italy. So far, however, she has only made them for herself and there are no plans yet to market the clothing to the public.

Dr. Sedarati might best be described as that kind of consummate professional who is able to find the right balance between a logical way of doing things and an artistic approach to life. She is convinced that allowing her creativity to flourish is key to keeping herself motivated and sustaining her medical practice.

And, she notes, a creative spirit is also very helpful when working with patients so they can achieve better outcomes. “Everything is about creation,” she says. “Creating new opportunities for people ― to make them healthy and help them learn more about themselves.”

When she talks with people about heart attacks she notes how they can be silent killers that strike men and women differently. She often explains the key risk factors people need to keep in mind or to look out for before it’s too late, including: age, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, blood sugars and markers such as smoking and obesity.

She makes it a regular point to show patients a poster in the office of her and her father talking about the subject of heart disease. The poster always gets people’s attention and becomes a conversation energizer.

By bringing up how the affliction has touched her family, Dr. Sedarati believes she has created new ways to connect with her diversity of patients.

It’s about creatively showing her humanity.

“People relate to a real person,” she said about sharing aspects of her life. ”If I come as a physician and just start educating, I become a textbook to them. But if come as a person and as a family member ― as a daughter ― then I am someone who they can relate to. I make it more personal, more touchable.”