Dr Baqar grew up in Alice Springs, Northern Territory (NT). She was ranked in the top twenty students in the NT for her academic achievements in Year 12. She went on to receive the NT Government Higher Education Scholarship to study medicine at Monash University. Graduating in 2003, she undertook her physician training at Austin Health. She was one of five finalists in Australia and New Zealand for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) President’s Award for Physician Trainee of the Year (2009) for displaying excellence as a physician trainee.   

Further, her endocrine specialist training was completed at Austin and Western Health. She went on to receive the prestigious National Heart Foundation Health Professional Scholarship as well as the University of Melbourne Faculty Research Scholarship: The Sheppard M Lowe Scholarship to undertake her PhD studies examining the effects of salt on diabetes and cardiovascular health outcomes which was conferred in 2021.    

She has presented both nationally and internationally on her research arising from her PhD. Her overall research outputs include 18 journal articles and 1 guideline* ( Management of people with diabetes who choose to fast during Ramadan) (*submitted for publication to the Australian Diabetes Society). 

She was a finalist at the 2017 Australian Diabetes Annual Scientific Meeting, Young Investigator Award Session for research arising from her PhD Studies. Additionally, she was a Finalist at the RACP Future Directions in Health Congress in 2013 for the Wiley-Blackwell Award for Clinical Excellence for an oral presentation regarding a clinical case titled: “Where is that cortisol coming from”. This case presentation was subsequently published.  

She was an integral contributor to successful grant applications which received funding from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation Exploration Grant and The Estate GWA Griffiths Award   for the project titled: “Improving the transition of care for people with Diabetes”. 

Dr Baqar remains actively involed in research post completion of her PhD. She is currently a principal investigator for a study investigating Dietary Resistant Starch for Limiting Kidney Disease In Diabetes and an associate investigator in another study investigating Multi-Organ Denervation to RedUce Sympathetic Drive, A Single Blinded, Multi-Center, Prospective FeasibilityStudy (The MODUS study).

She is passionate about teaching and has been appointed as a Clinical Skills Coach with the The University of Melbourne and is a supervisor of basic physician trainees for the RACP.

Dr Baqar is the Clinical Director at Preston Medical Specialists. She has appointments at Austin Health. Dr Baqar welcomes referrals in all areas of endocrinology. Additionally she is fluent in Urdu and Hindi.