Muslim docs plant health seed that continues to blossom

It's nearly midnight in the midst of another 80-hour work week when 66-year-old Dr. Azher Quader picks up the phone and enthusiastically launches into what could be the most challenging part of his medical objective.

"Marketing," Quader admits, "can be difficult."

But the urologist with practices in Arlington Heights and Chicago says he cares so deeply, and the cause is so important, he'll tell this story whenever and wherever he can.

"My night does not get ended until 3 o'clock in the morning, maybe 5 o'clock in the morning," Quader says. "I'm in a capacity where I can give back to the community and I'm glad I can do it."

When he came here 15 years ago after a quarter-century of doctoring in a modest Ohio town, "it was an eye-opener," Quader remembers.

Many Illinois patients didn't have insurance or money to pay for treatment. Many were immigrants who wouldn't visit doctors who didn't speak their language or understand their culture. They'd put off preventive health care and doctor visits, and end up with expensive hospital emergency room treatments for which they could never pay. Special clinics that catered to the poor were expensive to establish, could be inconvenient for the doctors and often not in the same neighborhoods as the people who needed them.

"We can all complain and sit around and talk about how bad it is. But doing something about it makes more sense," says Quader. A Muslim originally from India, Quader organized a handful of other Muslim doctors, who agreed to conduct free monthly health screenings at Chicago's Muslim Community Center, testing patients to find those at risk of diabetes, hypertension and coronary artery disease before they ended up with life-threatening, expensive, catastrophic incidents.

"Boom, we do the first blood test that finds out they are diabetic. There are always people in the diabetes range, maybe three or four of them at every screening," says Quader, noting there are free screenings in Des Plaines and Waukegan this month. "One out of four people had high blood pressure they didn't know about. There was a young man in his 40s who was diagnosed with prostate cancer because of these screenings."

Telling people without insurance that they have health problems isn't enough.

"It was one thing to make the diagnosis, it was another thing to get them treatment," Quader says. "A lot of doctors we knew of would be willing to share the responsibility."

Using their regular offices and staff, Quader and his fellow Muslim physicians saw these patients at reduced prices, and provided a "continuity of care" with patients who otherwise would have waited for hours in an emergency room to see a physician they might never see again.

The doctors founded the Compassionate Care Network in 2004.

"The idea seemed to take hold. We talked to more and more people and sent out some e-mails," Quader says. "Our push is to get more patients to primary-care doctors."

The Compassionate Care Network now boasts 100 physicians, including dentists, optometrists, chiropractor, podiatrists and medical specialists sprinkled through the city and suburbs of Cook, Lake and DuPage County, and Quader says he hopes to expand to Kane, McHenry and beyond. The number of patients enrolled in the program now tops 1,500.

"That's a very small number," Quader says, noting studies that show one in seven Illinois residents has no health insurance, and that rate is worse among minorities. "We'd like to see a lot more enrolled."

Recognizing the needs of the "working poor," Quader says they treat people with incomes four times the federal poverty guidelines. In the suburbs, that means some families with a breadwinner making $60,000 will qualify for the program. Individual patients pay $10 a month, families pay $15 a month, and every office visit with a doctor costs $25, or $35 for a specialist.

What started in the Muslim community has spread to all religions and ethnicities. Doctors don't ask patients for immigration status, and patients often find doctors who speak Spanish, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic or less common languages such as Somali or Burmese.

"It's gratifying," Quader says, "that we are able to do some good for these people who would not have access" without the Compassionate Care Network.

For names of participating doctors, upcoming screenings or more information about the program, phone (773) 775-3600 or visit www.ccnchicago.com.