Izdeen Ilyas, MBChB

Izdeen Ilyas, MBChB

Second-year Resident

Izdeen Ilyas, MBChB, graduated from the University of Duhok College of Medicine, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with a Bachelor in Medicine and a Bachelor in Surgery. Following his graduation, he spent six months of hands-on experience with Medair International NGO providing primary care to refugees and IDPs in refugee camps of northern Iraq. To continue his passion of providing care for underserved populations, he volunteered at Clinic With a Heart, where he contributed to the clinic's free medical, dental, and vision services in Lincoln and neighboring towns. This experience deepened his understanding of health disparities and instilled in him the desire to continue to work with and serve these populations after residency. 

Born and raised in the foothills of Mount Sinjar (northern Iraq) in a relatively small town among a severely underserved minority community, Dr. IIyas was inspired to become a doctor by his father's work as an administrative employee at the town's only Primary Healthcare Center. The need for doctors was immense where only several practitioners, often not native to the region, worked and patients had to travel for hours to the nearest hospital.

Throughout his career, Dr. Ilyas has seen how Family Medicine can make a real difference in people’s lives. Whether discovering and treating disease early on, helping patients prevent more serious issues, or educating and supporting patients to build and maintain a healthy lifestyle, he understands how Family Medicine plays the first line of care. During his rotations, he liked several aspects of medicine, whether it was procedures, OBGYN, internal medicine, pediatrics, or geriatrics. He also discovered how he wants to build lasting relationships with his patients, and to him Family Medicine is the only field that can combine and offer all of these.

There were several reasons why Dr. Ilyas chose to do his residency training at Lincoln Family Medicine Residency Program. He was fortunate to be able to shadow several family physicians in Lincoln who did their residency training at LFMRP. These physicians always made sure they provided compassionate and comprehensive care to their patients, and they spoke so well of the program – the friendly environment, supportive staff, and leadership, and they highly recommended it. He could envision himself fitting in well and realized that's where he wanted to be for the next three years. Dr. Ilyas already lived in Lincoln and feels privileged to call it home.

Lincoln’s Residency Program offers exposure to a diverse patient population both in terms of culture and disease conditions, hence better learning opportunities for residents. Strong didactic conferences, skill seminars, and rural rotations in the core curriculum were a plus. And Dr. Ilyas already lived in Lincoln.

One piece of advice Dr. Ilyas shares with patients: physical and mental health are highly associated with lifestyle and choices made every day. This is why he likes to remind his patients that a healthy diet and regular exercise are the best medicines available to date!

In his free time, Dr. Ilyas loves playing soccer, traveling, and spending quality time with friends and family. In addition to English, he speaks Arabic and Kurdish which allows him to communicate with a broader base of patients, considering the growing populations that speak these two languages in the Lincoln area. Prior to medical school, he served with the United States military for two years as a translator and cultural advisor in the Middle East.