Assistant Professor of Medicine
Section of General Internal Medicine
Dr. Mim Ari is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of General Internal Medicine. She completed her medical degree at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where she continued her training with an internal medicine residency (primary care track) and chief resident year. Prior to coming to the University of Chicago in 2017, she worked at Denver Health and at Cook County. She is currently a practicing general internist in the Primary Care Group, and attends on the general medicine wards and on the opioid use disorder (OUD) consult service.
Dr. Ari has a strong interest in integrating substance use disorder (SUD) treatment into her career as a general internist. She is board certified in addiction medicine, and treats patient with SUDs in her primary care clinic. She is a founding member of the OUD consult service, launched in 2019, which currently sees 40-60 hospitalized patients a month with OUD across all service lines. She has spearheaded educational efforts for IM residents and students on SUDs, collaborated with colleagues in EM and geriatrics, and has presented nationally on teaching learners about SUDs and decreasing stigma, and OUD consult service creation. She is also MPI on the AHRQ-funded I-COPE grant to improve care for older adults in Chicago with chronic pain, opioid use, and OUD. As part of this work, she is implementing clinical decision support tools in 36 clinics across Chicago, and has co-created an ECHO-Chicago course entitled Pain Management and OUD in Older Adults.
Through her work as core faculty for the University of Chicago’s primary care track, LUCENT (Leadership for Urban Primary Care and Education and Transformation), she enjoys mentoring the next generation of primary care leaders and encouraging the diverse career paths available to general internists. As co-director of intern recruitment for the Internal Medicine Residency for the last three years, she has focused recruitment efforts on attracting a talented, compassionate, and diverse class of future internists who are committed to caring for the South Side community.
She is grateful for the strong mentorship within and outside of her division which has allowed her to pursue her myriad interests within general medicine and grow as an academic physician. Outside of work, she enjoys exploring Chicago’s museums, playgrounds and art events with her two children (ages 2 and 6) and husband, reading, walking and connecting with friends.