Research Publications - College of Medicine and Health Science

Department of Family Medicine
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Cultural sensitivity in presenting key health
information especially for diabetes and lifestyle
modifications has been emphasized in existing
literature. Using focus-group discussions and
in-depth interviews, themes uncovered in
this domain are leading to a novel analytical
framework for health education. In a related
study conducted over the last two years
and presented at an international forum, we
showed that interpretation of standard wayfinding
symbols used in healthcare facilities is
suboptimal among laypersons in the UAE. The
implications arising from these findings suggest
consideration of broader testing of health
messages across multicultural populations.
Building on this framework, we are conducting
research in online health education for chronic
diseases including self-management of
diabetes mellitus. The study will explore issues
such as bilingual presentation, data formats
and assisted data entry with validation. It is
sometimes assumed that physicians have access
to guidelines and current medical information
in clinics and hospitals. Unfortunately, this is
not necessarily true and we have published
our observations to the contrary. Dr Hashim’s
research focus includes clinical decision support
for physicians to provide evidence-based
guidelines at the point-of-care. In addition, he
has on-going collaborations with researchers
in other departments as well as PhD students
for study design (sample size estimation) and
statistical analyses.
Honouring Simulated Patients
Action research cycles for online learning portfolios
Standard way-finding symbols used in healthcare can be
misinterpreted in a multicultural population