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This exploratory study aims to examine female Muslim immigrant patients’ expectations of physicians’ religious competence during clinical interactions.

In total, 101 female Muslim immigrants in Ottawa, Canada, completed an eight-item survey measuring patients’ expectations of physicians’ religious competence during clinical communication.

Results from the independent samples t-tests and one-way ANOVA suggested that female Muslim immigrant patients in this study expected their doctors to be aware of Islam as a religion and be sensitive to their religious needs, especially food/dietary practices during clinical communication. Although the participants did not differ in their expectations of physicians’ religious competence based on age, educational level, employment status and income level, they differed based on their frequencies of visiting doctors and their ethnic/cultural origin.

This study fills a gap in the literature by advancing understanding of religious competence during clinical interactions from female Muslim immigrant patients’ perspective. The findings can contribute to developing religiously competent and accessible health-care services for religiously diverse populations.

This study aims to investigate the perceived role of the Islamic medical care practice of Muslim doctors in Malaysian Muslim-friendly private hospitals.

Data were collection through self-administered questionnaires voluntarily submitted by the respondents. The survey covered selected major Muslim-friendly private hospitals in the country in the states of Kedah, Johor, Penang, Selangor, Kelantan and Kuala Lumpur. The non-probability purposive sampling was used, as the respondents and locations of the survey areas were predetermined.

Five dimensions of the Muslim-friendly medical care practice were identified, namely, medical etiquettes, physical examination, proper cleansing process of blood and body fluids, proper handling and treatment of infectious diseases and doctors’ advice to Muslim patients. The findings also indicate that the scale development analysis produced excellent results which can be used for reproducible or repetitive medical care purposes and for integration facts and figures for inclusion into wider medical care policy and practices.

The results from the study can further develop Islamic medical care practices and enable medical service providers to upgrade their performances to an enviable strategic status.

Islamic medical care is a new mode of healthcare service market, as there are very few studies on this topic from the perspective of Muslim patients or no obvious facts are known. This study has first explored Muslim doctors’ perceived role in Islamic medical care practice in Malaysian Muslim-friendly private hospitals. This empirical study can immensely contribute to the further development of Islamic medical care practice for Muslim doctors in particular and for the Muslim-friendly hospital service marketing strategy in general.

Emerging interest in medical tourism products offers a lucrative market and opens doors for Malaysia in positioning itself as a Muslim-preferred halal medical care center point. In spite of the tremendous capability of this industry, the Muslim-friendly medical tourism practice is rationally new idea, with endeavors to clarify such tourism product is inadequate. This paper aims to investigate the promoting Muslim-friendly medical tourism market mechanism and its prospects and challenges.

As the purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of the Muslim patient’s inspiration towards Muslim-friendly medical tourism market mechanism in Malaysia. This study uses structural equation modeling (SEM) technique for data analysis. The target population for this research comprised Muslim medical tourists coming to Malaysia seeking Muslim-friendly medical tourism. A total sample size of 231 is gathered through non-probability sampling method during the period between July and December 2015.

The outcome confirms that Muslim tourist’s perceptions play a critical part in travel intention to Malaysia for Muslim-friendly medication. Along these lines, Malaysia needs to promote the success of such medical tourism endeavors with proper practice and services they offer to pull in more outside patients.

Malaysia is a country that has long been a stronghold for Muslim leisure visitors. Differences in general and spiritual values raise challenges to Muslim-friendly medical care services. A comprehensive research is required on the best way to advance and set up emerging Muslim-friendly medical tourism market mechanism.

Muslim-friendly medical tourism is a rising advertising discipline. It is confident that the findings could expand information on Muslim-friendly medical tourism service sector and improve providers’ capacity to take advantage of the developing business sector, offering quality medical care services and opportunities that suit the Muslim patients’ needs. In addition, it is essential to understand the most ideal approach to outline Muslim-friendly medical tourism market to make it more useful to various spiritual and religious accept.

This study aims to examine customer preferences toward Sharia hospitals and to provide a new viewpoint by looking at consumers’ perspectives on choosing health-care services. Despite the growing demand for halal products, halal services, particularly hospital and Sharia-based health-care services, receive very little attention in the literature compared to other Sharia-type services such as Sharia banking, insurance or even hospitality. Previous research on health care discussed under the Sharia perspective mainly focused on service quality, directing discussions to the service providers’ perspectives.

This study uses choice-based conjoint analysis to examine customer preferences toward Sharia health-care service. There are five attributes with three levels each. To reduce respondent fatigue, the authors used SPSS Orthoplan to generate an orthogonal factorial design, which resulted in 21 choice cards. Cross-sectional data were collected from an online survey using a platform from Populix, an independent panel survey provider, to ensure no sample selection bias. A total of 270 responses were obtained to represent Muslim populations across Indonesia.

The results showed that the highest preference is highly rated to the familiarity and certification of the hospital brand that implies trust and guarantees to add value with the existence of halal certification for hospitals. In addition, this study revealed that Sharia services have higher positive signals over the physical infrastructure in determining preferences. On the other hand, add-on components that support the integration of other halal industries, such as halal culinary tourism, halal tourism and integration with transportation and halal accommodation, are still minor in the current preference.

Previous research on health care discussed under the Sharia perspective mainly focused on service quality, which directs the discussions to the service providers’ perspectives. This study provides a new point of view by looking at consumers’ perspectives about their preferences and decisions to choose a Sharia hospital.

A simple strategic marketing framework is developed based on responsiveness to purposes of travel. It entails identifying purposes of visit associated with a specific destination for potential tourists, shaping tourism development policy decisions based on them, and attracting tourists by directly fulfilling their wishes. Its focus is on what a destination can already offer and is contributory to short- to medium-term tourism development. A structured recognition of purposes of visit is suggested − encompassing 16 categories across four focus areas. To demonstrate the approach, generic strategic action plans are provided for each category. The framework is further applied to Iran, a country associated with a range of attractions as well as certain restrictions.

Reproductive health is critically important for women and yet minority women in Canada are less likely to use preventive health care services. The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding of the health behaviours of this minority population and, in particular, identify barriers to accessing reproductive health care services.

This study qualitatively analysed data from focus group discussions with 22 Muslim immigrant women in Ottawa, Canada.

The theme of modesty emerged as one of the main barriers in the health seeking behaviour of Muslim immigrant women when it comes to reproductive health and, therefore, the gender of the physician was very important. Focus group participants also discussed a preference for family physicians from the same ethnic and cultural background. Adaptation, or the need to be flexible if there was no alternative to a male doctor, emerged as a theme throughout the focus groups. Emergencies were frequently cited as a reason to adapt.

The findings reveal that while religious rules do play a predominant role in the health behaviour of Muslim immigrant women, communication by health care providers, government and health agencies can offer strategies to increase the uptake of preventive reproductive care.

This study offers unique insights into the very personal experience of reproductive health care through rich, qualitative data. Given the impact of culture and religion on perceptions and practices, in particular related to reproductive health, this study contributes to more effective communication strategies with Muslim women.

This study aims to examine the perceptions and evaluations of Muslim COVID-19 survivors and health workers regarding the halal, business and ethical attributes of hospitals during their interactions related to COVID-19 treatment.

Descriptive qualitative research with semi-structured online interviews was used to gather insights from COVID-19 survivors and health workers who treated COVID-19 patients. The findings were then compared with existing literature on hospital services and Sharia attributes.

The study found that patients and health-care workers in hospitals are concerned about whether the hospital follows Sharia law, the quality of health-care and hospital services and the ethical conduct of hospital staff. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when patients are more anxious about religious conduct and the afterlife.

Hospitals need to address halal attributes in all aspects of their services for Muslim patients and business attributes such as standard health-care quality, service quality and ethical attributes. Participants indicated that when these needs are met, they are more likely to revisit the hospital and recommend it to others.

This study contributes to understanding the expectations of Muslim patients regarding hospital services that meet Islamic ethical and business requirements. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study broadens the understanding of how to better serve Muslim customers.

This paper aims to examine challenges and prospects of the Malaysian Islamic medical tourism sector and suggests strategies to leverage the strengths and opportunities as well as overcome the weaknesses and threats.

A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Islamic hospital managers. Information collected was transcribed and content analysis was used to group the variables into the four SWOT categories.

The SWOT analysis identified several strengths (e.g. great hospitality, country’s characteristics and development of Islamic compliant hospital), weaknesses (e.g. low international certifications), opportunities (e.g. growing Muslim populations, Sept 11 incidence) and threats (e.g. competition from major medical tourism market and non-uniformity of Islamic medical tourism standards).

This paper could provide understanding of the sector and fundamental on the Islamic medical tourism market. Yet the SWOT analysis does not indicate how to achieve competitive advantage and result may become obsolete, with the dynamic environments.

This paper could serve as a guideline for the industry stakeholders to have better understanding in their business environment.

This paper is the first of its kind to integrate SWOT analysis and Islamic medical tourism industry. Hence, the findings could broaden knowledge on Islamic medical tourism industry and facilitate firms in tapping the growing market.

The purpose of this monograph is to present the first English translation of a unique French colonial report on women living under colonial rule in West Africa.

The issue begins with a discussion of the contribution this report makes to the history of social development policy in Africa, and how it serves the on‐going critique of colonisation. This is followed by the English translation of the original report held in the National Archives of Senegal. The translation is accompanied by explanatory notes, translator’s comments, a glossary of African and technical terms, and a bibliography.

The discussion highlights contemporary social development policies and practices which featured in identical or similar forms in French colonial social policy.

As the report demonstrates, access to basic education and improving maternal/infant health care have dominated the social development agenda for women in sub‐Saharan Africa for over a century, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future in the Millennium Development Goals which define the international community’s agenda for social development to 2015. The parallels between colonial and post‐colonial social policies in Africa raise questions about the philosophical and cultural foundations of contemporary social development policy in Africa and the direction policy is following in the 21st century.

Though the discussion adopts a consciously postcolonial perspective, the report that follows presents a consciously colonial view of the “Other”. Given the parallels identified here between contemporary and colonial policy‐making, this can only add to the value of the document in exploring the values that underpin contemporary social development practice.

Suicide and attempted suicide is an important health issue and the number of people who die of suicide exceeds that of conflicts. Kashmir has been suffering from a low intensity war since last 20 years in which thousands have been killed or injured. There has been phenomenal increase in cases of psychological disorders along with suicide and and suicide attempters. Suicide in a conflict zone is viewed with indifference due to focus on the physical part of trauma. Difficulties faced by the suicidal patient and his attendants are seldom highlighted. 1408 patients who reported to emergency room for suicide attempt from 2000 to 2008 were taken for the study. All the patients underwent the hospital protocol for poisoning management. Patients were subjected to detailed psychiatric evaluation and questions were specifically asked about the difficulties encountered during management. Most of the cases were females with 92.11% belonging to the Muslim religion. 76.20% cases were from a rural background. 32.5% had been referred because of the lack of specific antidotes. Forty-three percent required arrangement of transportation by their own family members. Fifty-seven percent had been stopped for security checks along the way. Seventy-three percent felt that the attitude of the staff hostile. Twenty-three percent of patients had to share a bed. Almost all patients were questioned by security agencies within the hospital. More than 68% patient reported hostility amongst their neighbors. Suicidal poisoning is a significant health problem in Kashmir and management of these cases is fraught with difficulties across the spectrum of health care. Educating the doctors at primary care about first aid, improvement in community services followed by long term resolution of the conflict would go some way in alleviating the difficulties faced by a suicidal patient and his family in a conflict zone.