Humanizing Medicine: Making Health Tangible
Memoirs of Engagement with a Global Development Network
by Azim H. Jiwani

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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.

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Dr. Azim Jiwani worked in health care and global health development for several decades, holding various leadership positions in academic, hospital, and community settings. His work included teaching, research, medical administration, strategic planning, advocacy, consultancies, and advisory roles. Dr. Jiwani held senior faculty positions with the Aga Khan University (AKU) and at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Medicine as a clinical professor. He interacted with many local, national, and multilateral organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations, universities, and global health institutions—and he continues to play a consulting and voluntary advisory role in health care, education and international development. As an avid traveller, Dr. Jiwani’s journeys have taken him to locales in Europe, Asia, Americas, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Australia and New Zealand, where he explored local cultures, traditions, social, historical and environmental aspects of life and development. He has lectured at many higher learning institutions, professional organizations, civil society groups, and community groups. His interests include natural sciences, moral philosophy, architecture, civilizational histories, and anthropology. Dr. Jiwani lives in West Vancouver, British Columbia, with Nilu, his wife of 45 years. They have two daughters and five grandchildren.

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Contributors

Author

Azim H. Jiwani

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