Happy Medicine

Angela and Aashish Shah were looking for the right opportunity to start a scholarship in their father’s honor when they learned about the University of Houston Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine. After discovering the college’s mission to increase the number of primary care physicians in Texas, specifically in underserved communities, they knew they had found the right match. They established the Dr. Kiran H. Shah Honorary Scholarship in the College of Medicine in 2021.  

For 38 years, Dr. Kiran Shah practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Texas City.  

Angela recalls a time when a woman stopped her and her father in Baybrook Mall and informed them that Shah had delivered her child. She then introduced them to her son who was now a young man.  

“Her son was over 6 feet tall. He looked like a linebacker,” Angela remembers, amused. “My dad and I are both pretty small people, so my dad’s looking up at this huge guy, knowing that he brought him into the world.”  

The experience is just one example that made the lasting impact of her father’s work feel very real to her, although she knew, even as a child, how much he cared about his patients.  

“When I was growing up, we never let the phone go unanswered because we knew it could be his patient on the other end.”  

Due to Shah’s deep involvement in his community, it’s hard to believe that he didn’t grow up there. His origin story is as remarkable as his legacy. Inspired by the small-town doctor his family saw during his childhood in India, he says he always wanted to be a doctor.  

“Medicine is a noble profession. Most doctors go to medical school not because they want to make money but because they want to help people. For me, my patients were as important as a family member,” Shah explains.  

After graduating from BJ Medical School in Ahmedabad, India, Shah and his wife, Pratima, immigrated to New York City, where he completed his residency. He wanted to practice primary care, but that residency wasn’t available. Therefore, he decided to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology because he felt this specialty was the closest to family care  

“Most patients who see an OB-GYN aren’t sick. They come in for regular check-ups or they come in because they’re pregnant, which is not a sickness. And most of the time, it’s very, very happy medicine. That’s what I call it. Happy medicine.”  

An OB-GYN job opening brought him to Texas City in 1978. When he told the doctors he worked with in New York City about his decision to move down to Texas, they expressed incredulity.  

“I said, ‘Look, I came here from India to New York, so another thousand miles doesn’t make much difference to me,’” Kiran recalls.  

This position provided him with the career he always wanted — a small-town doctor. Over nearly four decades, he developed close relationships with the people he treated.  

“When I saw a patient, they didn’t have to give me their medical history or their name because I knew them and what kind of medical problems they had,” Shah says. He clarifies, “When I’m in a community, I don’t want to just be a doctor.”  

He nurtured deep roots in Galveston County, serving in organizations such as the Texas City Rotary Club. Through this involvement, he led an international community service project with the Rotary Club of Ahmedabad to build an updated kitchen for a school for disabled children. He also served the Medical Society of Galveston County, culminating as its president in 2008.  

“My brother and I watched our father be not just a dispenser of medicine but a community leader. He was passionate about improving the overall health of the community,” Angela shares. “We know from our father’s work that a primary care physician serves as the entry point for most people to getting proper health care. They develop a relationship with patients and show them that someone is invested in their lifelong and everyday care.”  

With the Dr. Kiran H. Shah Honorary Scholarship, Angela and Aashish aim to encourage medical students who share their father’s passion for community health. By supporting students who are committed to serving in primary care in underserved communities, the Shah family ensures that his legacy will live on in the work of future doctors.