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Do your religious beliefs affect your medical decisions?
For many people, they do. For example, Orthodox Jews may choose not to prepare medication (such as drawing up insulin) on the Sabbath. Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse to accept blood transfusions. Muslims usually want to abstain from medications during Ramadan. Many Hindus use herbal remedies which may interact with prescription drugs.

Maybe you have found it important to share something about your religious beliefs with a doctor because it affected how you received medical care, but didn’t because the opportunity never came. Many times doctors may not know how or even if they should talk about these issues with their patients. Yet, the doctor’s ability to understand their patients’ spiritual values and religious practices may significantly increase the healing process.

The first publication of its kind
As a major health care company in New York, we are in a position to positively affect the diverse communities we serve and beyond. In order to reduce the disparities in medical care to our members, we have sponsored The Medical Manual for Religio-Cultural Competency, written by the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, an expert in religious diversity and how it relates to health care.

This groundbreaking book is designed to help doctors and other health care professionals improve quality of care by addressing the needs of their patients whose health care decisions are influenced by religious and cultural beliefs.

For the first time, doctors can turn to one publication to find extensive information on 10 of the world's major religious traditions in order to promote effective communication with their patients. The Medical Manual has easy-to-read chapters, broken out by the following religions, all present within the New York metropolitan area: