Humanizing Medicine

Covering more than forty years, this engaging memoir chronicles Dr. Azim Jiwani's journey from his early years of acquiring a wide-ranging medical education; his varied medical experiences in developed and developing societies; and his impetus and inspiration to tackle the substantial challenges of global health and human development."Humanizing Medicine: Making Health Tangible" describes the author's primary endeavours with the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN): a large, non-profit development organization, including an international university, with a mission to foster local leadership; strengthen and build capacity for better and more equitable, compassionate, contextual and affordable healthcare and to improve health systems. The AKDN strives to institute and promote medical education that is relevant and responsive to society's needs throughout the developing world. Dr. Jiwani's extensive travels to engage with many local, national, and international institutions-in both the advanced and the developing world - fostered cooperation, collaboration, and partnerships. Conditions encountered in his work, and his travels enabled him to trace significant factors that impact global health development over the twentieth century's closing decades and into the early twenty first century. Along the way, Dr. Jiwani raises questions about the ethical and moral foundations of development and health - the historical, social, political, economic and anthropological factors underlying the prevailing state of development and the vast disparities between the wealthy countries of the North and the evolving global South. He reflects on the conditions necessary for equity, access, and quality in healthcare. The book gives an insightful commentary on the critical human, political, scientific, technological, and geopolitical conditions essential to avert future environmental and health care crises and foster global cooperation for a more humane, just, and pluralistic global society.