June 2007
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Destination Children's:
Maher Seleman, MD, international patient rep
As both an accomplished physician and an immigrant to the United States, Maher Seleman, MD, has a combination of medical expertise and "migration experience" that makes him a welcome face to the international patients who find themselves seeking care at Children's Hospital Boston. "Sometimes you have to look at information and know how to relate it to which department," he says, explaining that while patients need help getting around the hospital and understanding the language, they need medical direction as well.
After running a successful medical practice in Cairo, Egypt, for seven years, Seleman and his wife, an interior designer, decided to make the journey to the States, where they could join family members already here. Although the immigration process can be complicated and frustrating for many, Seleman didn't have much trouble settling into his new life. "I can adjust myself to any situation," he says. Also, since he had grown up speaking English and had attended a medical school that was taught in English, language barriers weren't an issue.
However, he understands that for some people, coming to a new country and navigating a foreign health care system can be overwhelming. So, he works to make patients who come through the International Center as comfortable as possible by offering advice on assimilating to a foreign culture and insight into navigating the immigration process. For example, for Ramadan, the International Center put together a celebration especially for Muslim patients and their families, and invited the patients' physicians to participate. This non-medical interaction was not only helpful in showing the Muslim patients the understanding Children's has of their culture, but was also a means for them to interact with their physicians in a more personal, humanizing environment. "It was a way to show them that they are not alone," he says.
Upon arriving in the States, Seleman first worked at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and joined Children's in 2006. Here, he believes that his work is important to improving the experiences of international patients, and that it takes "specific skills" to relate and to communicate with them about how best to address their concerns and needs. After all, as he says, "It's about carrying the responsibility of representing Children's."
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