Grand Rounds organised two experts in autism field to speak at WCM-Q
- 3 years ago
The Experts in the areas of autism and the role played by the study of the humanities in medical education discussed at the recent instalments of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar’s (WCM-Q) Grand Rounds.
The professor of clinical psychiatry, clinical medical humanities and bioethics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, Dr. Laurence Guttmacher spoke on the vital ways that study of the humanities can assist the students in medicine line to obtain transferable skills that will improve them to become better physicians in the future.
Dr. Guttmacher said that, “At a time when stress on physicians is mounting rapidly, where talk of burnout is all the more frequent, and where lots of forces are taking us away from the very thing that we entered the field of medicine, which is our work with patients, the humanities can be of great help.”
“For me, one of the greatest benefits of making use of the humanities is that it reminds us of the joy of working with our patients and really doing some good,” he added.
After Dr. Guttmacher’s sessions was over, Grand Rounds heard from Dr. Fatima Janjua, division chief of developmental pediatrics, senior attending physician in neurodisability at Sidra Medicine, and assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at WCM-Q. In a session titled ‘The Whats, Whys and Hows of Autism,’ Dr. Janjua spoke about the core symptoms of autism disorder, highlighted the various types of autism spectrum disorders, and gave recommendations about how to apply some simple autism-specific behavioural strategies.
Dr. Janjua also mentioned that this disorder was characterized by difficulty with language, communication, social awareness and interaction. People suffering from autism always shows repetitive behaviours, have narrow interests, and suffers from sleep disorders or be clumsy. There is therefore a broad variation in difficulties and strengths of each person affected with autism, with nearly 75 percent being classed as high functioning.
Dr. Janjua further added that, “Autism is a developmental condition affecting the way the brain affects information. It occurs in varying levels of severity and is a lifelong condition – it is hard, but we have to explain to parents very clearly that autistic children become autistic adults. But this does not mean that their difficulties will continue the be same for the rest of their lives; there is actually in many cases an excellent prognosis for some of these children.”
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