Chicago: CHICAGO MUSLIM MEDICAL ALLIANCE, CMMA hosted its first medical conference and annual meeting on October 22nd in Chicago at Shalimar banquet hall.
Board of Directors Tajammul Hussain MD(President & Founder), Zaher Sahloul MD(Vice President), Imran Nisar Shaikh MD(General Secretary), Mohammed Ismail Shakaib MD (Treasurer &Co Founder) Baseer Qazi MD,Imran Ali MD, Danish Ahmed MD, Asima Hussaini MD, Mahjabeen Hussain, OD, Massarat Ahmad Bala MD, Mohammad Sajed MD, Javeed Ansari MD,Munavvar Izhar MD, Kalid Adab MD Mir Haroon Ali MD, Khursheed Ahmed MD, Naveen Imran MD, Rand Diab MD, Rumana Siddiqui MD and Muhammad Aamir Shahzad MD alongwith 300 physicians, dentists, podiatrists and optometrists along with prominent members of the community and elders of all major Chicago land Muslim centers attended.
Program started with CME “Emerging trends in medicine” which was jointly presented by CMMA physicians in collaboration with IMANA. The speakers were Dr.BaseerQazi, and Dr. Mohammed Ilyas Ahmed Khan.Dr. Imran Ali,Dr.Mohammed Sajed,This was extremely informative and well received by attendees
The main meeting started after Maghreb Salah.
There were several sponsors of the event, their stations were placed in the lobby, and physicians were visiting the booths with a lot of interest
At the outset was beautiful Quran recitation by Hafiz Omar Imran Shaikh Dr.Mohammed Ismail Shakaib, co founder of the organization kicked off the program.Dr. Imran Ali, the emcee for the evening invited Dr. Tajammul Hussain to welcome the guests and this was followed by a very thought provoking and inspiring speech by the president, which touched upon the rewards of service to the needy and the community we live in within the divine values of our religion.
The next speakers were the committee chairpersons.
Dr. Asima Hussaini, who leads the Outreach committee, updated the vision and the various achievements so far. The highlights were the participation of CMMA doctors on medical missions to Yemen and to the aid of Rohingya people in Bangladesh. Infact some of the CMMA physicians;Dr. Faiz Hussain and Dr. Kalid Adab are still in Bangladesh serving selflessly. One of our board members , Dr.Mohammed Sajed is leaving with others to Bangladesh soon.Local programs including the free van service for needy patients, Identifying nursing homes for our elderly Muslim patients werediscussed, as a community need. Dr. Rumana Siddiqui provided the details of this program. CMMA has identified at least two nursing homes that are ready to meet the needs
Of the Muslim community. Dr. Siddiqui gave details of what that would encompass.
Dr. Aamir shahzad presented the next set of slides, which highlighted the work pursued the need for assisted living for our seniors, and the programs for transitional housing for women with ICNA relief.
Dr. Baseer Qazi presented the next topic regarding mentorship and the assistance provided to our young and aspiring youth in the field of medicine, programs are being designed for students right from high school through medical graduates from America and abroad. Several prominent academicians from the Chicago land area are members of the committee and will provide advice and tools to help our youngsters interested or pursuing a career in Medicine
Dr. Massarat Bala, chairman of networking took the podium next, he highlighted the need for all the physicians to connect and use an easy platform for interactive communication as well as instant communication for broadcast messages. He highlighted the need for representation from all parts of Illinois and fair representation by both genders, and all ethnicities. Our Secretary Dr. Imran Shaikh followed this by an introduction of the various responsibilities of the members and the introduction of the committee members to the guests. There was a talk by Jay Godla re: entrepreneurship in Medical field
This was followed by a riveting,tear jerking fact filled lecture by World-renowned author and scholar Dr. Azeem Ibrahim, professor, and Harvard and Yale scholar on the topic of Rohingyas. The whole audience was engrossed in the speech and there were tears of sorrow and pain flowing from many members of the audience.
The conclusion of the meeting was closing remarks by Dr. Ismail shakaib which including the tentative future meetings, social gatherings and need for more participation. He also thanked the audience, the members, supporters and sponsors of the meeting.
Dr. Imran Ali who was the emcee for the event did an excellent job in introducing everybody and keeping the flow and decorum of the meeting at the highest professional level.
This was followed by a scrumptious Dinner,networking and socialization by the members. Many of the members and guests were of the opinion that this was a trailblazerstep in the Chicago land community to help the needy, sick,and infirm and the suffering and oppressed. This also provided its members a unified platform to execute these programs and network with other members. This could foster a new era of collaborationand camaraderie’ between members.
CMMA hosted first medical conference in Chicago
