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Healthcare systems need to be able to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs and behaviours, including tailoring delivery of care to meet patients’ social, cultural and linguistic needs, according to a visiting health expert. |
Dr Robert Like, professor and director of the Centre for Healthy Families and Cultural Diversity, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in the US, made the comments during a lecture organised jointly by Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Medical Education Department and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q)’s Department of Global and Public Health.
Dr Like said: “Transforming our healthcare organisations and educating leadership and the workforce about the provision of high-quality, patient-centred, culturally responsive and effective care is critically needed to help reduce disparities and foster health equity.”
“HMC is growing dramatically. The quality of its services is increasing in many specialty areas and HMC is serving a growing and diverse population,” Dr Like said, referring to the influx of a large number of expatriates.
“Among the encouraging things that I saw during my visit to HMC was the development of the interpreter and language services, which will really help patients better understand their medical problems and adhere to the treatment regimen as advised. This will lead to improved patient outcomes. I am hoping that the information we shared through our talk can further enhance what HMC is already doing,” said Dr Like, emphasising that culturally competent care can help reduce patient anxiety and feelings of isolation.
Dr Like was joined by Dr Jeffrey Ring, director of Behavioural Sciences and Cultural Medicine at White Memorial Medical Centre in the US. Both were welcomed to HMC by Dr Abdullatif al-Khal, deputy chief of staff for Medical, Research and Academic Affairs - Medical Education.
In their meeting with Dr al-Khal, Dr Ring and Dr Like discussed the significance of patient-centred care and the value of training healthcare
practitioners in this area.
“Dr Robert Like is nationally known in the US for his work in the area of cultural competency and health professions education,” said Maha Elnashar, director of the Centre for Cultural Competence in Healthcare, Department of Global and Public Health at WCMC-Q. “Dr Jeffrey Ring has been working in the area of culturally responsive health and mental health for 20 years. Both are distinguished experts in their fields and have established many unique initiatives to achieve equity and
quality in healthcare.”
Commenting on the two experts’ visit to WCMC-Q and HMC, Dr Ravinder Mamtani, associate dean, Global and Public Health at WCMC-Q, said: “We very much appreciate the seminars presented by Dr Like and Dr Ring. We hope to continue our dialogue with them on projects of mutual interest.”
