When Ali and Tanya Zaman were growing up in Demarest, NJ, they didn't really understand what their father, Taimur Zaman, MD, did for a living. They knew he was a doctor called a neurologist, but what that meant was a mystery. Sometimes at night they'd hear him talking to patients on the telephone, and they liked to play with the stethoscope and reflex hammer from his black doctor's bag.
It wasn't until Ali was 12 or 13 and started accompanying his father to work on the weekends and seeing his interactions with patients that Ali began to figure it out. “I don't remember my dad talking about his work when I was a kid, but I do remember some of my relatives having neurologic problems and my dad trying to help them,” says Ali, now 30, who has a master's degree in public health and specializes in building early-stage health care companies in the San Francisco Bay area.
Last November, the Zaman siblings self-published Neurology in a Nutshell, a book aimed at kids ages 5 to 9 that explains what neurologists do. They are portrayed as “detectives of the brain” who are “on the hunt for bandits & bozos up to no good”—in other words, the causes of neurologic disorders.
Earlier in 2021, Ali Zaman started a company known as Prime PD, a virtual fitness studio for people with Parkinson's disease. Before launching it, he consulted with his father about engaging with his patients. Those conversations got Ali thinking about how to explain to children what neurologists do. He asked Tanya, 28, a freelance storyboard artist for film and TV production companies in Los Angeles, if she wanted to collaborate on a children's book.
Over the course of six months, the siblings kicked ideas and pages back and forth. “It was a very fluid process,” says Tanya, who says she wanted to be a doctor like her father but was better at art and writing than biology and chemistry. “It was fun to work with my brother and see this creative side of him. And now what my dad does makes more sense to me.”
Neurology in a Nutshell has text by Ali and illustrations by Tanya. The cover features a picture of a walnut in a shell (which resembles a brain), and inside the book the neurologists wear deerstalker hats and use magnifying glasses, like Sherlock Holmes. The book shows how neurologists collect clues just like detectives, by asking patients about symptoms—such as headaches, shaking, forgetting things, or falling over when they walk—and performing physical examinations. They may tell patients to do “funny activities” like touching their noses, the book says, and may send them for testing, which “lets neurologists look into your brain. It's kinda like having X-ray vision.” The book also describes the training neurologists go through: “Neurologists spend a long time in school—to learn what all 86 billion neurons in the brain do.”
The detective analogy resonated with the Zamans' father. “In neurology, a diagnosis is never straightforward,” says Dr. Zaman, an attending physician in the department of neurology at Jefferson Health System in West Berlin, NJ. A consultation typically takes an hour, he says, and neurologists spend a lot of time thinking, poring over the data, and listening to patients to arrive at diagnoses—just like detectives on a case.
After the book was published, the Zamans sent copies to various neurologists so they could share it with others and spread the word on social media. Ali and Tanya were contacted by Tracey Milligan, MD, FAAN, professor and chair of neurology at New York Medical College and director of neurology at the Westchester Medical Center Health Network in Valhalla, NY, who set up a Zoom event for Ali and Tanya to read the book to members of her staff and their young relatives. Dr. Milligan believes the book can help “children feel invested in what their parents or family members do as neurologists,” given that it's an abstract field for young kids. “The book answers the question, ‘What is a neurologist?’ in a really engaging way,” she says. In the end, the book explains, “Being a neurologist is like solving a mystery in someone's brain using science.”
Six-year-old Vida Nevel, who read the book several times with her mother, Kathryn Nevel, MD, a neuro-oncologist at Indiana University in Indianapolis, says she loved it. “I especially liked the part about X-rays looking into the brain,” says Vida. “It taught me a lot I didn't know. I'm going to read it again.” Dr. Nevel, who received the book from her father, James Stevens, MD, FAAN, the past-president of the American Academy of Neurology, says the book makes a challenging topic kid-friendly. “Neurology is like putting a puzzle together from the exam and test results,” she says. “I personally love that part of neurology.”
“The book is a tribute to our dad,” says Ali. “Over the years we've heard so many stories about what a kind and compassionate physician he is.” Ali and his sister and father hope the book might initiate conversations between kids and their parents about what their parents do. It has another practical side, says Dr. Zaman. “A lot of kids unfortunately need to see a pediatric neurologist. This book will help them understand why they're there.”
Dr. Zaman is pleased and touched by the project. “It shows I had some influence—they were listening to me all those years.”
