Natalie E. Azar is an American medical journalist and Rheumatologist based in New York City. She is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of Rheumatology at NYU Langone Medical Center.

She also covers all health related and breaking medical news for TODAY and MSNBC. She has been the medical contributor for NBC News since 2014. She creates both written and video content for their websites and also appears on NBC Nightly News.^[1]

She grew up in Pennsylvania. Her father was a psychiatrist, which influenced her decision to become a doctor.

She graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a Bachelor's degree in 1992 and went on to graduate from Cornell University Medical College in 1996 with honors in Anesthesiology.

She completed her internship and residency at NYU/Bellevue Hospitals Center in 1999 and her Rheumatology fellowship at NYU/ Hospital for Joint Diseases in 2001.

In addition to her work at NBC, she is a regular guest on Dr. Oz, discussing relevant medical news, and has written extensively for Everydayhealth and ZocDocand has been an online video contributor for Healthguru.com and Sharecare.com.

In the spring of 2016, She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work at NBC News and was one of 5 medical journalists listed in Crain’s annual ‘people to watch.’^[3]

She is an assistant clinical professor of medicine and rheumatology at the New York University Langone Medical Center. In addition to her clinical work, she is a member of the New York University School of Medicine admissions’ committee as well as a faculty instructor at the medical school in the Practice of Medicine course.^[2]

On March 13, 2020, Azar shared story about struggles to get patient tested for coronavirus with Today.^[17]

"I just tried to get a patient tested an hour ago, and I couldn't in my outpatient office,'' she said on MSNBC. "The only place that we're currently doing it is in the emergency department, and they don't have enough." ^[17]

"They said we can only do it if the patient is sick enough to require hospitalization, and I was dumbfounded," she elaborated.

She said on Today that "possibly we will have some outpatient capacity hopefully by today and, fingers crossed, by next week."^[17]

"What's so frustrating about this is that literally I'm gathering information as I go, as opposed to having it all up and running,'' Azar said.

"It's not for lack of preparation on the hospitals' part, it's just we don't have the tests."

"We're getting information about the clinical course of COVID in a lot of folks, in that many people start off very mild, but then can progress to more severe illness after one week,'' she said.

"So I want to know who those people are on day three or four so I can keep an eye on the ones who I'm more worried about."

^[17]

Dr. Azar has two children, a son and a daughter Her son's name is Lucas Hubner and her daughter's name is Darby Hubner.^[6] Her husband is Michael Stephen Hubner, whom she married on November 10, 2000.^[16] Azar dated Hubner for 5 years before they got married.^[16]