Interview with Dr. Sheik Hassan, Howard University School of Medicine
Why are you a part of the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC)’s faith-based initiative?
I have been interested in advanced illness and end-of-life care for a number of years, both in my role in overseeing student training in internal medicine and in my local community, where I have presented on Islamic aspects of care at the end of life.
Having served with the Islamic Society of North America and Islamic Medical Association of North America (past president and past chair of the Board of Regents of the latter), I’ve had the opportunity to see the unique ways medicine and Islam can intersect.
Really, medicine and religion are already joined and part of one another’s fabric. A basic principle in Islam is not to waste things and use resources appropriately. By the same principle we have to use care appropriately when someone has advanced illness.
From your experience, what are the unique needs patients and family have, as members of the Islamic community?
People do have unique advanced illness needs – but its not just based on Islam, but due to the culture people are part of. For instance, in some countries people of different faiths might live in the same geographic area and would have the same thoughts on advanced illness.
I grew up in Guyana where there were Hindus, Christians, and Muslims. They would all go to the Imam to ask him to make a prayer, blow on a glass of water and then give it to the ill person to drink. This is a good instance of a cultural practice, not religious, that people of multiple faiths participated in.
My father was a spiritual leader in the community. Sometimes people would bring him a person suffering from a seizure. My father would recited verses from the Koran and blow wind over her as part of the healing process.
Why is the inter-faith community vital for the transformation of advanced care?
This is an excellent question. I have two points.
First, there is a big need for a multi-faith advanced illness care initiative in the community. There is a mix of people in the interfaith community but there is no formal identity to help them organize and bring a collective voice to advocate for action. C-TAC can help bring some formal organization and identity to members of the interfaith community who are already working on improving care for people with serious illness.
Second, I have a strong conviction that C-TAC will give Muslims the opportunity to engage in a critical issue – often Muslims are not involved enough in dialogues regarding large, societal issues as they should be.
Can you share more about the community model in Silver Spring, Maryland, that you mentioned at the March 23 Faith Leader Summit?
There’s a cardiologist who was interested in setting up a free clinic in a Muslim community setting that would be open to people of all faiths focused on serving the very poor. It started out offering very basic primary care and took 5-7 years to get off the ground. When they first opened it was just a few hours a week; then the cardiologist retired from his private practice and he gave more time to the free clinic. It is now a fulltime operation 6 days a week with over 12 physicians of different specialties.
People now come from not only Maryland, but also Virginia, Washington, D.C, and even Pennsylvania.
The Clinic also has patient navigators and nurses. We are now helping patients with advanced illness care. Apart from the clinical care, we have an adult lecture series every Sunday, which we use to make people more aware about community issues including advanced illness, aging, etc. The next steps for the Clinic include establishing a Continuing Medical Education (CME) program in advanced care – but that will take time to develop.
How can C-TAC help with community advanced care programs like this one?
C-TAC can help by assisting the outreach to clinical experts in the area and identifying speakers for the Sunday lecture sections, where people of all faiths attend.
What will it take to transform the way advanced illness care is delivered?
We really need to change the culture among health professionals. Ultimately, this will mean that we have to start at the medical school level and ensure that students are properly prepared. Secondly, we need to establish an advanced care evaluation system — evaluation drives the system. For instance, the national board of medical examiners needs to include questions on these issues on certifying exams.
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About SHEIK N. HASSAN, MD, FCCP
Dr. Sheik Nasir Hassan received his medical education at Howard University College of Medicine is a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He is currently the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Howard University College of Medicine. He is a past president of the Islamic Medical Association of North America (IMANA) and a past Chairman of the Board of Regents for that organization. He served as Chairman, Network on Cultural Diversity in Medicine with the American College of Chest Physicians from 2004-2006 and was one of the representatives of the Chest Foundation to the American Medical Association Commission to End Health Care Disparities.
He is licensed to practice medicine in Maryland and Washington, D.C. and was the Chief of Medical Services at the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home in Washington, D.C. Dr. Hassan previously served as chairman of the Coordinating Council for Continuing Medical Education with the International Federation of Islamic Medical Associations, also known as FIMA and with IMANA.