• Associate Professor, Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
• Director, Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, Hurley Medical Center, Flint, Mich.

Dr. Muhammad Jabbar is known for his pleasant personality and extensive knowledge in pediatric endocrinology and metabolism. And if you talk to him outside of work, he may tell you a tale or two about coming of age and attending medical school in war-torn Bangladesh. In fact, his memoirs about that time period recently were published by Palok Publishers, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2017): The Diary of the Wild Days, which is written in the Bengali language. He plans to begin an English translation of the work soon.

“All of us have a story,” said Dr. Jabbar. “This book tells about some wild things that happened during the war, when I was in medical school.”

Dr. Jabbar may have a few more chapters to write. In the past few years, he has been spotted training for Flint’s CRIM Festival of Races, for which he has run the 10-mile race two years in a row.

CRIM, launched in 1977 by Michigan House Speaker Bobby Crim, is now an entire festival of running, walking and health events centered in downtown Flint the fourth Saturday of August each year. With 3,000 volunteers and with Hurley as the medical provider, more than 15,000 people participate. That means 50,000 people head downtown for the events, generating $100,000 per year for the Crim Foundation (which funds health-related programs year round) and millions in economic activity for the community. It also boasts the largest pre-race training program in the nation, with 1750 participants in 2016.

Dr. Jabbar said the entire event is fun.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “You see families, the whole community, downtown, taking photos and running or cheering for others.”

Dr. Jabbar serves as a fitness role model for patients and families, young and old - and for resident physicians, who may want to squeeze in a few miles of walking or running as a way to stay well during residency.

His patients and their families appreciate his clinical acumen and his caring bedside manner. Here’s the story from one of his patients, a teen from Saginaw, as published online by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists in 2018.

Education

• Premedical College: Dhaka College, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Medical school: Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Rotational Internship: Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Pediatric Internship & Residency: Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Ill.
• Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism Fellowship: North Shore University Hospital-Cornell University Program, Manhasset, N.Y.
• Senior Fellow, Pediatric Endocrinology & Metabolism: Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Certifications

• American Board of Pediatrics
• Pediatric Endocrinology

Memberships

• American Academy of Pediatrics
• American College of Nutrition
• American Diabetes Association
• The Endocrine Society
• Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society

Research Interests

• Adrenal, growth and lipid disorders in children

Scholarly activity

• National studies:
  • Genentech National Cooperative Growth Study
  • Diabetes Prevention Trial (islet-cell antibody screening)
• Recent research:
  • Study of the effect of growth hormone therapy on dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) in children