Imperial Valley family physician George Carr Fareed, M.D., was awarded the California Medical Association’s (CMA) Frederick K.M. Plessner Memorial Award on Friday, at the association's annual House of Delegates meeting in Anaheim. The award honors the California physician who best exemplifies the ethics and practice of a rural country practitioner.

Dr. Fareed has been described by patients as an empathetic doctor and has become a friend to many patients. Before he moved to the Imperial Valley in 1991, he had a distinguished history as a clinical researcher, worked as the team doctor for the U.S. tennis team and established three HIV specialty care clinics for underserved patients in the Imperial Valley, which borders Mexico.

From 1970 until 1991 Dr. Fareed was a successful clinical researcher as an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and then an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles Geffen School of Medicine and continues there today as an adjunct associate professor. After his years in academic research he moved into public and private biotech work as the director of cancer biotherapy at INGENER, director of new product development for XOMA Corp. and as president of Advanced Antigens, Inc. He developed processes that led to three U.S. patents in the biotech field.

After two decades spent in research, he decided that he wanted to use to put his clinical skills into action and headed out to the Imperial Valley to establish his practice in the town of Brawley. He started by establishing three HIV clinics through a partnership with Clinicas De Salud Del Pueblo, because there was little treatment available in the area for those with the infection. These clinics were the first in the area to serve patients on both sides of the border.

Dr. Fareed has an active interest in sports medicine and was able to put this interest into practice as the team physician for the U.S. Davis Cup tennis team, working with such tennis greats as Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras from 1991 to 2003.

In addition to his work with the U.S. tennis team, he has served as the team doctor for several high school sports teams for the past 20 years. His past experiences as the team physician with the U.S. tennis team gave him insights that have enabled him to provide local teams with the highest level of care. In 2014 he was recognized by the Breitbard Hall of Fame in San Diego with the Bob Breitbard Meritorious Achievement Award for his work with high school athletes.

One of the student athletes that he has cared for described Dr. Fareed as the “most compassionate doctor I have ever known. He truly cares about the kids and really all human beings.”

Learn more about Dr. Fareed by viewing the award video on CMA's YouTube page, www.youtube.com/cmadocs.