Drawing from the experiences of Muslim patients and providers, this lecture will extend diversity, equity and inclusion conversations to the overlooked dimension of religious identity. Leveraging research data from 15+ years of community-engaged research the talk will describe the ways in which Muslims are disadvantaged in health equity interventions and the impacts of such upon health and professional outcomes. The talk will end with practical, ethical, and data-driven recommendations to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion by attending to the religious dimensions of healthcare delivery.
Learning objectives: After attending this webinar, participants will be able to
- Describe why religious identity is often overlooked in health equity conversations.
- Understand how religious discrimination and accommodation impacts Muslim providers and patients based on 15+ years of research.
- Identify practical actions institutions can undertake to attend to the religious identities of Muslim patients and providers in healthcare.
This is an event of the Office of Academic Clinical Affairs (OACA), hosted by the Center for Bioethics, and co-sponsored by the following U of MN Units: Center for Antiracism Research for Health Equity, School of Public Health; Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, College of Liberal Arts; College of Pharmacy; Islamic Studies, College of Liberal Arts; Medical School; Program in Health Disparities Research, Medical School; Religious Studies, College of Liberal Arts; School of Dentistry; School of Public Health; School of Nursing.
Additional Resources:
- Initiative on Islam and Medicine Teaching Tool.
- Policy Report "Advancing Equity for Muslim Physicians in the Healthcare Workforce."
- Institute for Social Policy and Understanding "Meeting the Healthcare Needs of American Muslims: Challenges and Strategies for Healthcare Settings."
- Initiative on Islam and Medicine.
Speaker(s)
Dr. Padela is an emergency medicine clinician, community health researcher, and bioethicist whose scholarship aims at improving health and healthcare equity by better accommodating religious values in healthcare delivery. Using Muslim Americans and Islam as a model, he studies how (i) religion impacts patient health behaviors and healthcare experiences, (ii) informs the professional identities and workplace experiences of clinicians, and (iii) furnishes bioethical guidance to patients, providers, policy-makers, and religious leaders. This knowledge is subsequently mobilized towards educational and policy interventions. Methodologically, Dr. Padela’s expertise spans community-engaged research, religiously-tailored & faith-based message design, educational interventions aimed at health behavior change, discourse analysis, clinical ethics, and Islamic theology and law. His current projects span behaviors related to cancer screening, organ donation, end-of-life care, and the intersection of religion and science and are funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the Health Research and Services Administration, the Greenwall Foundation, and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
Dr. Padela holds an MD from Weill Cornell Medical College and an MSc in Healthcare Research from the University of Michigan. He also holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering and a BA in Classical Arabic from the University of Rochester. He also has completed a residency in emergency medicine at the University of Rochester, a research fellowship at the University of Michigan, and a clinical medical ethics fellowship at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. Additionally, his academic training includes visiting fellowships at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and the International Institute for Islamic Thought. He has authored over 120 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, is an editor/co-editor of three books Medicine and Shariah: A Dialogue in Islamic Bioethics (UND Press 2021)”, Islam and Biomedicine (Springer 2022), Organ Donation in Islam: The Interplay of Jurisprudence, Ethics and Society (Lexington Books 2022). He also serves on several editorial boards including for the Encyclopedia of Islamic Bioethics, the American Journal of Bioethics, BMC Medical Ethics, the BETIM Journal of Medical Humanities, and TAFHIM Journal of Islam and the Contemporary World. His work has been featured in many major news outlets including the New York Times, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, National Public Radio, the Chicago Sun-Times, and CNN.