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Presented to academic staff of the Institute of Medicine, Universiti Brunei on 13th August 2008 by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr.
I am talking about the future. My futuristic vision is that in the next 15-20 years a vigorous Islamic healthcare industry will have emerged and will be well established. There will be many Islamic hospitals, polyclinics, free standing diagnostic centers, rehabilitation centers, and palliative care centers.
Brunei wants to position itself as a leader in the Islamic banking and financial services industry and UBD has recently inaugurated the Center for Islamic Finance and banking with an imposing new building at the entrance to the university. It also has plans to be a leader in the evolving Islamic healthcare industry.
The Islamic healthcare industry will in my vision outperform the Islamic banking industry in terms of revenue generation and contribution to GDP. This is because Islamic health care is an added value. Patients are dissatisfied with the biomedical model of medical care delivery because of its emphasis on technology at the expense of the human dimension that would be obtained in an Islamic holistic care that takes into consideration spiritual, psychological, and social dimensions of health care.
The Islamic healthcare industry is part of a general trend that started growing stronger with the dawn of the 15th century of hijra to rebuild Muslim civilizational institutions such as Islamic economics, Islamic education, and Islamic nutrition (halal food).
The emergence of the Islamic health care industry necessitates a theoretical definition and refining of the concept of the Islamic perspective of medicine as well as the training of physicians and nurses to deliver care from an Islamic dimension. I have been working with several brothers and sisters over the past 13 years on both issues and I feel we have now reached a point of take-off. Starting in Malaysia in 1995 and extending to neighboring countries and even beyond the East Asian region we have been holding workshops at faculties of medicine with the aim of reforming the curricula to integrate Islamic values and Islamic law, fiqh tibbi. The details of these efforts can be found at our website http://omarkasule.tripod.com. Over the past 7 years we have graduated medical doctors trained in this system and we have anecdotal evidence that patients who interact with them find them different and superior to physicians trained in the traditional way.
The Islamic Input into the Medical Curriculum (IIMC) has become a reality in several medical schools over the past decade. The Kulliyah of Medicine of International Islamic University Malaysia taught medicine with embedded Islamic values was taught at Kuantan from July 1997 to date. IIMC involved integrating Islamic values and Law in the teaching and practice of medicine.
At the Institute of Medicine, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, the Islamic perspective of medicine (Islamic Medicine) has been an integral part of the curriculum since August 2005 until now with IIMC being taught under the theme of Professional and Personal Skill Development (PPSD)
IIMC in various forms was adopted by other medical schools at various universities such as the Universiti Sains Islam, Malaysia, Riphah International University Islamabad, Peshawar Medical College, and the 14 schools that are members of FOKI (Forum Kedokteran Islam Indonesia).
IIMC is based on 3 assumptions: (a) Islam has moral values that are universal and, being found in other religions and belief systems, can be taught to and be appreciated equally well by Muslim and non-Muslim students. In the classroom we adopt a comparative ethical approach by covering differing ethical values of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism alongside those of Islam. (b) A physician must understand Islamic Law relating to medicine, fiqh tibbi, in order to practice successfully in a Muslim community whose culture and social norms are shaped by the shari’at that is a comprehensive code affecting all aspects of the life of the individual and the community.
IIMC teaches the Islamic epistemological perspective of basic medical sciences so that students can appreciate the signs of the Creator, ayat al Allah, from the book of empirical scientific observation, kitaab al kawn, alongside appreciating the signs of the Creator from the book of revelation, kitaab al wahy.
IIMC in the clinical phase teaches students to help patients solve practical problems related to ablution, wudhu, prayer, solat, fasting, puasa, pilgrimage, hajj & umrah; and what is permitted, halal, as medicine, physical activities, nutrition, and other activities of daily living.
The community health part of the curriculum deals with how social problems that are root causes of disease can be prevented or solved using Islamic teachings.
IIMC uses the theory of the purposes of the Law, maqasid al shari’at, principles of the Law, qawa’id al shari’at, specific legal rulings from the Qur’an and sunnat, and comparing with European ethico-legal sources as bases for discussing medical ethico-legal issues such as autonomy, privacy & confidentiality, professionalism, animal and human research, resource allocation, end of life issues, and medical malpractice. Also covered are issues that arise out of modern medical technology such as assisted reproduction, genetic testing, and transplantation. An emphasis is made on a holistic and balanced approach to medicine by reference to Prophetic medicine, tibb nabawi, and traditional / complementary medical systems such as unani, ayurdevic, and Chinese medicine.