Oncology | Dr. Irman Ahamd – Healthy Living Magazine

Dr. Irman Ahamd

What do you do differently than your peers as an oncology and hematology specialist?

Honestly speaking, I tell everybody I haven’t got the magic pill that’s going to cure everything. I don’t do anything different specifically from anyone else, but the one thing I’m trying to bring to society is the fact that I can treat my patients as patients rather than numbers.

And also, the unfortunate, and fortunate, thing about medicine is that it has become very compartmentalized. So, there’s a hematologist, an oncologist, an endocrinologist—everyone’s separate. Sometimes things get lost in translation, so I’m bringing a lot of communication with the primary care doctors, making the extra effort, so we’re all on the same page before I do a more comprehensive, holistic approach of care for my patients.

And I always tell the patients, “This is your body, your life, your disease, your mind, so you need to know exactly what’s going on.” I take extra time to explain things, I show diagrams, give them reading material, which is enough to bore anyone to sleep, and people don’t need their sleeping medicine after that.

I explain everything to them and then give them the treatment options, give them what their options are, the side effects, and then help them choose. I don’t impose anything on them, but I help them choose based on what would be best for them, as it’s their disease. So that’s the kind of approach I’m bringing.

And I think that’s what’s lacking because we have become these workhorses who treat symptoms, who treat diseases. We don’t look at the patient as an individual a lot of times, so I’m trying to do that.

I sit down and talk to the patients. I know about their family; I show my family pictures with them. No magic pill; the only thing is what I will do, the only thing I can promise to my patients is that I do what is best for them, and not what is best for anyone else, and I will always do that. And I will be their strongest advocate.