OUWB student, alumna publish report on how dermatologists can provide culturally sensitive care for Muslim women
A pair of current and former OUWB students are leading efforts to make dermatologists more aware of special considerations that should be top of mind when treating Muslim women wearing hijab.
Fourth-year medical student Rafey Rehman was lead author on “The Etiquettes of Hijab: Recommendations to Improve Care in Dermatology Clinics.” The report was published in early August in The British Journal of Dermatology, a top-ranked international dermatology journal.
One of the co-authors was Fatima Fahs, M.D., a recent graduate of the dermatology program at Wayne State University. Fahs also is an OUWB alumna (Class of 2016), and Instagram influencer known as “Dermy Doctor” with more than 54,000 followers.
The purpose of the report is to provide recommendations on how to deliver culturally sensitive health care and “ultimately improve physician relations with patients who wear hijab in dermatology clinics.”
“I hope that dermatologists and dermatologists-in-training who read this paper will consider what changes they can make during their office visits and patient encounters to be culturally sensitive and allow their patients to feel completely comfortable during an exam that may otherwise be difficult,” says Fahs.
(Only partial stories are posted here with hopes to provide a brief overview and introduction to my most recent work. The full version of this story may be found on the OUWB website here.)
