Healthcare: A Human Right for All
Why Nasir Malim Chose Medicine
What I'm doing right now at Touro is getting a foundation to be able to practice medicine to essentially improve the health of people that I feel drastically need help. From the medical side of things, we don't necessarily think of the social conditions that would cause disease, like socioeconomic status, education, and, of course, racial discrimination. But ultimately, it would very much come down to that.
When I think about some of these other factors that go into medicine, it's the practice of osteopathy. It's thinking of the individual as more than just that presenting symptom, thinking of them as a whole. And also, through extension, thinking of their society that they're brought up in, thinking of the society that they're living and how that's impacting their health
Touro has a mission that is oriented towards uplifting the community through health, not only acknowledging that there are social conditions that impact people's health, but acknowledging the role of physicians to go out into the community to have a very direct role in improving people's health. I think that's one of the things that definitely drew me here. And this goes back to why I wanted to be a physician.
Growing up in an impoverished household, TouroCOM student Nasir Malim had a firsthand look at the way income disparity affects quality of healthcare.
“When I think about health disparities I think about things that aren’t present for some communities that are present for others,” explained Malim, OMS II, a member of TouroCOM’s class of 2019. “My role as a physician is to reinforce that health care is a human right for all.”
Malim graduated from the University of California Irvine with a degree in African American studies. Afterwards, he pursued a Masters in Public Health from the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles where he saw more of the consequences of income disparity on health care.
“From the medical side of things, we don’t necessarily think of the social conditions that would cause disease like socioeconomic status, education and racial discrimination,” Malim stated. “But ultimately it might come down to that.”
While searching for a medical program, Malim discovered TouroCOM and the school’s mission of service appealed to him along with his beliefs in the holistic treatment of illnesses.
“TouroCOM’s osteopathic medicine program allows us to think about the individual as more than just their symptoms,” he said. “We think about our patients as a whole and, by extension, the society that they were brought up in and the society that they’re living in now and how that impacts their health.”
“TouroCOM’s mission is oriented towards uplifting the community through health,” continued Malim. “Not only acknowledging that there are social conditions that impact people’s health but acknowledging that the role of physicians is to go out and have a direct role in improving people’s health. This is why I wanted to be a physician.”
