asha
shajahan
Director of Health Equity and Health Disparities
About asha
Asha Shajahan is a board certified family physician. She is an assistant professor in the department of family medicine and biomedical sciences at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine. She also has a master’s degree in Health Services Administration. She completed a faculty fellowship in underserved populations at the University of California, San Diego. She is the medical director of community health for the Beaumont Hospital in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and also, the Graduate Medical Education Director of Health Equity and Health Disparities. Her interest in health policy and health disparities led her to intern for former United States Senator Carl Levin in Washington DC. She was also a senior healthcare intern for the Office of the former Governor Jennifer Granholm where she worked to augment healthcare access for the uninsured in Detroit. She has volunteered at several underserved health clinics and non-profits in the Detroit-area. She sits on numerous nonprofit boards.
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Dr. Shajahan is dedicated to educating physicians on improving community health through understanding the social determinants and cultural dexterity.
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Dr. Shajahan is a Joyce Ivy Foundation 2019 Woman of Impact award recipient. Also, a 2017 Crain’s Detroit 40 under 40 winner for her work in disparities. She has a passion for improving health opportunities for underserved neighborhoods through multi-disciplinary partnership and an emphasis on prevention. She was also named the Diversity Champion for Beaumont Health in 2018 by the Race Relations and Diversity Taskforce of Michigan. She has taught unconscious bias across the Beaumont medical education system and also at Oakland University School of Medicine. She has received numerous recognitions including Faculty Excellence in Service Award in 2016 from Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine and Faculty Teach of the Year awarded in 2014 from Beaumont Grosse Pointe’s Department of Family Medicine.
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Dr. Shajahan is the founder of Dance Medicine, MD a volunteer organization of health professionals that serve predominantly underserved populations who cannot afford to pay for exercise, have limited access to cultural dance forms, and those striving for social connection. She co-designed the 8 Dimensions of Wellness course that has been taught in various communities and colleges across Metro-Detroit.
She is also the co-host of Beaumont Health’s first podcast, Beaumont House Call. Within six months the podcast has 10,000 downloads, and has won a platinum award from Maecom and Gold for eHealthcare Leadership awards. Beaumont House Call focuses on various health topics to empower the community to live smarter and healthier lives.
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CAREER
What is your role as Director of Health Equity and Health Disparities like?
My primary responsibility is to ensure that medical residents and fellows are being trained in health disparities, social equity, unconscious bias, and health literacy. I’m ensuring that future physicians incorporate the social determinants of health in their work as they grow into actual physicians. Social determinants of health include food, housing, transportation, education, and environmental and social factors.
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I’m also trying to be more innovative. I want to get residents excited about community health and how social factors play more of a role in health outcomes than actual medical factors. Meaning, whether you go to see your doctor or get your screening test are important. But, evidence shows that more of what influences your health are factors like where you live, the community that you grew up in, and the school that you went to. I really want residents to understand that.
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A big part of this role is doing projects that help with health disparities. For example, during this pandemic, we look at the hospital data to find out where affected patients are primarily coming from. Based on this data, we try to figure out how we can intervene in those communities by educating people more about the coronavirus. This includes how to save face, how to avoid getting sick, and what quarantine really means. Overall, I’m focused on the social determinants of health and connecting that with delivering healthcare.
"Evidence shows that more of what influences your health are factors like where you live, the community that you grew up in, and the school that you went to. I really want residents to understand that."
why did you want to become a physician?
It’s an interesting story. Initially, I wanted to be a pediatrician. I love kids and want to make sure kids are well. But, when I went to college, I became involved in many service and social justice organizations and was able to do things like volunteer at Indian reservations and homeless shelters. I became exposed to so many social issues that patients have. At that point, I actually thought I wanted to go into policy. So, I pursued an undergraduate degree in Health Administration and Policy.
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This interest in health policy and health disparities led me to Washington, D.C. where I interned for former United States Senator Carl Levin. That was really interesting for me because I started seeing how healthcare policy and social policies—things like education and gun control— influenced health. I thought I could make a bigger impact in this line of work because I could help change the policies that influence patients.
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However, I had a mentor at the time who worked for Senator Levin. He essentially told me, “If you want to make a difference in health policy, you need to be a doctor. The problem is that policymakers who may have public health degrees or lawyers who don’t practice medicine are trying to create the policies. That is why the policies tend to fail. Because they don’t have the firsthand experience or the medical knowledge behind it.”
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I thought more about what my mentor said. Maybe I should go into medicine and become a doctor. After becoming a doctor, my goal was always to work in social spaces. With my undergraduate degree in Health Administration and Policy and my experience in Washington, D.C., I had a more global picture of what health was.
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Many physicians, not all, see health as a doctor and patient in the office. But, I see healthcare as living outside the walls of the hospital, outside the walls of the clinic, and being everywhere. Everything that you do. Having that perspective, I think, makes me a little bit of a unique physician. I think that's why I decided to go into Family and Community Medicine: I really wanted to impact communities more than individuals.
"I see healthcare as living outside the walls of the hospital, outside the walls of the clinic, and being everywhere. Everything that you do. Having that perspective, I think, makes me a little bit of a unique physician."
What is the most enjoyable part of your job?
I get the privilege to hang out with people. I think that’s the coolest part of my job. I get to be a part of people’s lives. I always think it's such a privilege to be a doctor because the people you don't even know are telling you such private things about themselves. I feel like that is the best part of my job because you learn about people. You learn how to respect all people of different backgrounds and different views. In medicine, you don't choose your patients, right? They just come to you from all walks of life. Every day I hear a story, and no day is the same. It's a lot of fun.
Trajectory
What issues are you passionate about, and how did you discover them?
Service. I love volunteering. When you volunteer, in a homeless shelter for example, you get to hear these fascinating stories about people's lives and how they ended up where they were. When I volunteer in different communities, I see different cultures, different socioeconomic classes, and a lot of variety. You realize that the world is so much bigger than yourself.
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I think my passion just started with me wanting to help make the world a better place and asking myself, How can I do that? For me, it was through health, because you can't really live an amazing life if you're not healthy. You could have all the money in the world, but if you're unhealthy, you can't do anything with it. You can have all the friends in the world, but if you’re unhealthy, you can't spend time and hang out with them.
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My passion is around being healthy and helping everyone have the opportunity to be healthy. I learned that through service. I didn't know that right off the bat. As you grow through your experiences in college, you see the purpose of different organizations and their outcomes. Then you're like, Wow. This is really cool. Suddenly, you're with other people that have the same passion as you, and you see how you can make an impact.
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For example, I love dancing. I started Indian dance when I was little. Today, I teach dance in the community. I encourage medical students to teach dance in the community, too, because it helps people become healthy. But, when I was younger, I never thought that I would use Indian dancing in my professional career. When you're in college or high school, you have more freedom of time and freedom of opportunity to just try a lot of different things. Just try it! You can join all these different things and get a taste for different passions that you might have or talents that you didn't know you have. Later on in life, you'll realize that those talents were given to you for a purpose. You can use that talent to give back to others.
What challenges have you faced during your journey to medicine, and how did you overcome those challenges?
In my third year of college, I just didn’t want to do medicine at all. I wanted to do law. After moving to Washington, D.C., I really thought either I wanted to get a degree in public health or become a lawyer. I felt like everyone kept telling me to be a doctor. It wasn’t coming from within me. That was a big struggle. I also started questioning whether or not I was even good enough to become a doctor because classes were hard. It was also competitive. I'm extremely social, and I'm not a competitive person. I'm competitive within myself.
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I just felt like I didn't fit in. I felt like it wasn't the right career for me. But, once I got into rotations and started interacting with patients, I was like, This is why I want to be a doctor. It rekindled my purpose. I was back to where I thrive: with people. When I did my residency, I transformed there. I ended up doing extremely well on my exams and in the clinical settings. I think it finally made sense. I finally wanted to practice medicine.
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I think that's a huge difference. A lot of times people will feel pressured to do certain careers based on what they think they want or based on what they think they should do. If you don't want to do it, you’re not going to do well. Once you’re really into doing it, you will do well. Always ask yourself why. What is the purpose of this? How is it going to benefit you?
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It can get really discouraging when you don’t feel that smart anymore and when you start doubting yourself. You don't have to always get straight As to make it through things. You can be extremely successful as long as you keep your mission and purpose in mind. Don't get frustrated if there are bumps in the road because those bumps will make your journey so much more worthwhile. I value my degrees so much more because it was very hard for me. When you coast through, you don’t think about how difficult it is and the value of your degree.
What advice would you give to young women who are interested in working in the medical field?
I would spend a lot of time shadowing in different roles. Many people think doctor and nurse, and that's it. There's a lot of different roles in healthcare. You could be a doctor, physician assistant or nurse practitioner. There are so many different things. Unless you shadow each person, you don't realize what the different roles are. I also think you have to realize how much school you're willing to do. With medical school, you have a long journey.
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You should just be excited for the chaos in your life because things just never go perfectly. Things never go as you plan. Those are the moments that teach you the most about yourself and help you develop your character. Don't be so stringent on your plan. Let life take you along the path. And if it's meant for you, it will eventually work out.
self
What are some of your favorite things to do?
​I love traveling, especially international traveling. I love people and learning about other cultures. I like spending time in nature, taking walks, and being by any body of water.
What inspires you?
I get inspired by leaders. Some leaders that inspire me are Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, and Mother Teresa. They have accomplished so much, but they are still such humble people. I'm impressed by people whose accomplishments impact other people. That is really inspiring to me.
I’m also inspired by women leaders because you can identify that there is a glass ceiling that needs to break. If a woman can get ahead and actually fulfill her dreams and passions despite all of the barriers, that is really inspiring to me.
If you could have dinner with any three people from history, who would you choose and why?
Harriet Tubman. I would want to learn all about the Underground Railroad. It would be phenomenal to learn and hear about it, especially from the perspective of an African American woman.
Mother Teresa. She made such a profound impact on the United Nations. How was she able to do that? I think she’d be a fascinating person to talk to.
Lastly, Abraham Lincoln. I think he would be an interesting character to talk to. I would like to hear about the challenges of slavery and his take on the country at that time in history. I think a lot of what we learn in our society is based on a lot of his leadership principles.
What advice would you give your younger self?
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Have the courage to be yourself.
A lot of times your whole life is self discovery, but you're initially afraid that who you really are is not going to be accepted. I'm a social butterfly that likes to dance and talk to people. Sometimes I’m like, How does that fit in with my life? I think I was always afraid that everything wasn't going to work out, like it would be the end of the world if my plan didn't work out. You don't really know what you need in life until you figure out who you are.
Be flexible.
Have the courage to accept yourself and just do what makes you happy instead of trying to please other people all of the time.
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