Maintaining a personal identity: the consultant radiologist

From an early age Jumana Hussain was told, “It doesn’t matter what background you’re from, it doesn’t matter who you are or that you’re a woman, you’re going to go and succeed.”

Hussain, who works for Everlight Radiology providing radiology reporting, says that teachers have had a big influence on her life. “I’ve been lucky to have had inspirational teachers throughout school and throughout training in medicine,” she says.

Hussain, who grew up in Croydon, London, thinks she landed on the idea of medicine partly because of her father’s experience of childhood polio, which left him wearing a leg calliper.

After studying at Cambridge University and King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education, she became conscious of a lack of female mentors as she approached her foundation years.

Coming from a small Muslim community called the Dawoodi Bohras, which includes around 2000 families in the UK, she wanted to talk to someone from the same culture about their experience in medicine.

“I had two friends from the same community training in medicine, and we’d looked around and felt like there was no one like us,” Hussain, who lives in Rickmansworth with her husband and two children, says. “It was difficult to understand how our lives were going to be as doctors, and how it was all going to fit together with our culture and identity. And as I had the privilege to be in this position, I wanted to show girls and women that there are ways through. That’s part of where the inspiration to mentor people came from.”

She and colleagues initiated a mentoring scheme in the UK through the international medical association for the Dawoodi Bohras community. “There have been two conferences for our association and also medical outreach events at mosques, offering services such as general health checks or the flu vaccine,” she says.

After core medical training, Hussain started in radiology, following her interest in the subject which began as a foundation trainee when she saw the transformative impact of diagnoses made by the specialty.

Prejudice against being a woman and a Muslim has been directed at Hussain during her career. She wears a rida—a garment which is unique to the Dawoodi Bohras and covers her hair and extends loosely over her shoulders—over a long sleeved top and a long skirt.

At one point, because of pressure from some members of staff at work, she moved to wearing more conventional clothing and a hijab. “I felt I had to do this for a few years to be accepted,” she says.

While things have improved, she says more progress is needed. “It wasn’t until recently, working with undergraduates and junior doctors, that I realised that many things we experienced were unacceptable,” Hussain says.

A satisfying five year stint as a consultant at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust until 2023 brought with it the opportunity to hold a role with the University of Buckingham medical school. Hussain supports more than 100 Buckingham medical students pastorally and academically during the two and a half years they spend on the clinical part of their course.

Hussain hopes to continue this role as she returns to the NHS as a consultant paediatric radiologist in Oxford.

When asked what makes her feel proud about her work, she reflects on honouring her identity throughout her career so far. “I’ve been able to maintain the non-medical side of me,” she says. “There are certain things that were hard but I haven’t had to sacrifice my identity to get where I’ve got.

“If it wasn’t for my community and my culture, I don’t think I would be where I am in my career. Everybody talks about Muslim women being oppressed and uneducated, but it’s absolutely the opposite for me. I have grown up with my community encouraging women.”