Photo Courtesy of the Medical College of Wisconsin
NEWS HERO OF THE MONTH
DR. SYED AHMED
MCW’S SYED AHMED
PARTNERS WITH THE COMMUNITY TO ADDRESS MORE THAN SYMPTOMS BY ERIN BLOODGOOD
D
r. Syed Ahmed is a long-time physician and academic who has dedicated his career to treating patients through community engagement. He takes time to get to know his patients and determines his diagnosis once he understands their daily concerns as well as their symptoms. Based on years of research at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), he finds it is crucial to learn about his patients’ background and life situation in order to effectively improve their health. Community engagement is a concept that is becoming more widely used in medical institutions around the country. The idea is that institutions can better improve the
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health outcomes of people by actively partnering with the communities they are working with. Academics and doctors tend to be removed from the populations they are treating. “What we do in the hospital system is very important and valuable, but it impacts only 20% of the outcome. Eighty percent of the outcome is connected to where the people are coming from,” says Dr. Ahmed. So, by listening to leaders and organizations in those communities, they can better understand the situations that cause health problems. Rather than treating the symptom, Ahmed and other physicians at MCW are trying to address the underlying problem.
OUR HEALTH GREATLY DEPENDS ON THE ENVIRONMENT WE LIVE IN AND THE SITUATIONS WE DEAL WITH IN OUR EVERYDAY LIVES. Trained in the traditional ways of medical practice, Ahmed was not always attuned to this way of thinking. He had his first eye-opening experience when he moved to a small town in Ohio after finishing his residency. He realized that cardiovascular disease was very common in this town, so he began his own program to try to help
