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Kovar's desire to treat people who otherwise would lack medical care has taken him many places. He has served as medical director at the Country Doctor Community Health Center in Seattle, which provides primary health-care services to a diverse, predominantly uninsured population, regardless of a patient's ability to pay. Kovar also has treated Native American populations in Arizona, Idaho, North Dakota, and Washington state. He has worked abroad as a volunteer and director in refugee camps in Thailand, Cambodia, and the Sudan. An opium detoxification and rehabilitation program was created under his direction in Thailand in 1986. Kovar worked in northern Iraq after Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
The UW Humanism in Medicine Award honors a physician who is a caring and compassionate health-care provider, teacher, and mentor. Kovar's students say he fits the bill.
"I learned from him as he provided culturally sensitive and multilingual care to patients from every socio-economic background, all of whom he treated without judgment and with genuine respect," one of Kovar's medical students wrote in the award nomination letter. "His positive energy was fed by the appreciation that his patients showed him as he educated them to be active in their own health care."
Medical students nominated Kovar for being a physician they would like to emulate. Students praised Kovar for treating medical students with the same respect that he treats his colleagues, and noted Kovar's lifelong commitment to community service, his culturally sensitive care, and his collaboration with patients.
Dr. Carol MacLaren, assistant dean for student affairs, presented the Humanism in Medicine Award to Kovar at the end-of-quarter meeting attended by WWAMI site directors in January 2003.
On Nov. 11, 2002, Kovar was among nominees from 53 medical schools honored by the Organization of Student Representatives of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) as physician role models of humanistic medicine. The AAMC and the Pfizer Medical Humanities Initiative sponsor the Humanism in Medicine recognition program under the theme, "Real doctors. Real teachers. Real heart."
In 2001 the UW award and AAMC award nomination went to another community physician, Dr. Ed "Drew" Malloy, clinical associate professor of family medicine, who worked at the SeaMar Community Health Center until moving to Arizona in April 2003.
In 2003, Kovar left his position as co-coordinator of the family medicine clerkship at County Doctor after 14 years. He remains an avid teacher of medical students and residents, as well as college and high-school students interested in health-care careers.
Kovar is an advocate for banning anti-personnel landmines and helps asylum seekers document torture and abuse overseas. He participates in the Northwest Regional Primary Care Association, which represents community, homeless, and migrant health centers. A dad as well as a doctor, Kovar is a parent volunteer in Seattle public schools.
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