Flood Relief Work
Flood Relief Camp in Dadu With the support of its Donors, Pakistan Navy and Service Sales Corporation, Shalamar Hospital organized medical camps at different villages of District Dadu, Sindh. The medical camps provided free medical treatment to 2386 patients of all age groups. Hospital teams worked tirelessly to provide relief to the flood affectees. Pakistan Navy provided security and logistical support to ensure the safety and peace of the healthcare workers. Flood Relief Camp in District Rajanpur Shalamar Hospital conducted 3 Day Medical camps in Lal Gagh village, Noshrawast village and Drishak village of District Rajanpur. The Administration and Medical team of Shalamar Hospital Lahore worked tirelessly in collaboration with Services Sales Cooperation (SSC) to treat 1180 patients in the medical camps. The majority of the patients came with the complaints AGE, AFI, HTN, DM, resistant Scabies, Generalized weakness and malnourishment.
Dr. A. Raouf Wahab Ali Alotaibi, the Vice President, University of Science and Technology, Sudan, visited Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences (SIHS).
Dr. A. Raouf Wahab Ali Alotaibi, the Vice President, University of Science and Technology, Sudan, visited Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences (SIHS). Mr. Shahid Hussain, Chairman Board of Trustees, Prof. Zahid Bashir, Principal, Shalamar Medical & Dental College, and Dr. Ayesha Nauman, Chief Operating Officer, Shalamar Hospital, welcomed the guests and briefed them on the quality of medical, nursing, and allied health education and health services provided to patients at SIHS. The foreign guest discussed opportunities for collaboration with SIHS in curriculum development, student and faculty exchange & research. He also visited different institute departments and met with staff and students. Dr. Raouf said that SIHS is one of the leading institutes in Pakistan’s health services and medical education, meeting international standards.
SEMINAR ON CAREER COUNSELING BY SMDC ALUMNI
SMDC Alumni department organized a Seminar on Career Counseling and IMG’s Pathway to the UK (OET/PLAB, MRCP/MRCS) for Medical Students of SMDC and House officers of Shalamar Hospital. Dr. Nouman Zaib (Batch 2018) and Dr. Humdi Muzammil (Batch 2018) were the Guest Speakers at the Seminar. They are a part of SMDC UK Alumni who passed their PLAB exams, got GMC Registration, and working in the UK as junior doctors. Furthermore, SMDC UK Alumni also extended their support for medical students and future alums of SMDC by creating an Online Forum on social media for any queries related to OET, PLAB, MRCP/MRCS, MTI Pathway, GMC Registration, UK visa, and Job application process.
LUMS and Shalamar Medical and Dental College (SMDC) Collaboration
Background Shalamar Medical and Dental College (SMDC) has initiated a seven-star medical education plan similar to the ones offered internationally in renowned medical colleges. Accordingly, SMDC launched a 1+5 year MBBS program for their students of Medicine. The students who get admission at SMDC have an option to spend the first year of their medical education at LUMS and then continue their 5-year MBBS program at SMDC. During this year, selected students from SMDC will take courses at LUMS in the subjects of critical thinking and logic, basics of cell and molecular biology, and laboratory methods courses. Students will also learn to use the tools for modern molecular diagnostics. It is being proposed that initially, only twenty students will be given this option, and over time, as the program gains popularity, more seats will be added to it. This proposal for collaboration has been discussed in depth with: Dr. Sabieh Anwar (Dean SBASSE) Dr. Amir Faisal (Chair of Biology) Dr. Muhammad Tariq (Associate Professor in Biology) Dr. Arshad Ahmad (Vice Chancellor LUMS) Mr. Shahid Hussain (CBOT Shalamar and Rector LUMS) Program benefits This program will help strengthen the fundamental concepts of biology required to understand disease development, disease progression, and diagnostics. The benefits of such a course will develop our doctors to be globally competitive with international doctors. Graduates from this program will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to contribute more to research. The faculty of biology at LUMS is consider that this initiative will open up such avenues for other medical institutes in Pakistan to follow the same pattern. The program will contribute toward the much-needed long-term change in the field of Medicine. Imparting such knowledge and skills in MBBS students will help initiate quality research in medical colleges and universities. This will help Pakistan to contribute toward new knowledge generation and discoveries in Medicine. Fee Structure for the 1 Year Education at LUMS LUMS has waived the admission fee and the School of Science and Engineering fee. Mr. Shahid Hussain has offered that the Shahid Hussain Foundation (SHF) will pay the LUMS fees of the first batch of twenty students from Shalamar.
Moment of Pride
Dr. Saadia Shahzad, Associate Professor from the Community Medicine department of Shalamar Medical and Dental College; also holding the additional responsibilities of being Medical Educationist, and Bioethicist; made the organization proud by her achievement early this year. She presented her Bioethics Thought Paper in the International Chair in Bioethics 14th World Conference on Bioethics, Medical Ethics, and Health Law, in Porto, Portugal in March 22. Her Thought paper was titled: ‘Social inclusion and positive rehabilitation of children with Down syndrome is their basic human right: a thought paper in the contextual environment of Pakistani society’. This is a much needed work for our society where most of the time vulnerable population is not given their due basic human rights and social inclusion is denied to them. She was also invited as Chair Session, and chaired the session on ‘Human Rights ll’ in the said conference. It is a moment of pride that Dr. Saadia Shahzad as faculty of Shalamar Medical and Dental College represented this organization at an International platform.
Medical Observer ship Visit Johns Hopkins
Shahid Husain Foundation, Shalamar Hospital, and Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHMI) are working to build Pakistan’s first Women’s Health Center. Two doctors – Dr. Sadaf Ishaq, Asst. Professor of Surgery / Oncology and Dr. Eisha Tahir, Assistant Professor of Radiology – from Shalamar Hospital, visited the JHMI, USA, in the first week of June 2022 for Medical Observership training to learn about best practices. Recently they returned after their first observership visit and delivered presentations on their learning experience and their plan to improve their respective departments for the development of the Women Health Center. Here’s what Dr. Sadaf and Dr. Eisha learned from their Medical Observership visit to Johns Hopkins Medical International (JHMI), USA. “My visit to JHMI was centered in the breast imaging unit at the Johns Hopkins main, Green Spring Station, and White Marsh Center. I shadowed Dr. Emily Ambinder, Dr. Phil Di Carlo, and Dr. Babita Panigrahi. The focus of this visit was learning about the latest imaging modalities and interventional procedures related to breast cancer screening & diagnosis. During observership, I primarily concentrated on screening & diagnostic mammography reporting, breast MRI reporting, stereotactic biopsy, clipping and wire localization, and MR-guided biopsy and clipping. JHMI is equipped with the latest imaging modalities and follows the ACR guidelines in their diagnostic workup and follow-up. “My clinical observership was in the breast centers of Johns Hopkins Hospitals at Bayview, Green Spring Station, and Skip Viragh cancer outpatient center. Dr. Mehran Habibi is the director Breast center at Johns Hopkins, and he was my breast surgery mentor there. I learned and trained on developing breast centers and hands-on practice on the latest breast cancer surgery tools available at Johns Hopkins like Margin Probe, Endomag, axillary surgery updates, and Oncoplastic procedures. Johns Hopkins’s latest research on breast cancer diagnosis and treatments, including their liquid DNA biopsies for breast cancer recurrences and much more practice-changing trends over there, this clinical observership boosted my confidence as a Breast Surgical Oncologist. This collaboration is a perfect opportunity for the young consultants to learn from the latest evidence-based practices and broaden their professional horizons.” ~ Dr Sadaf Ishaque Here what they have to say about their visit and learning over there. It was a refresher for “best practice.” Including value-added services in Shalamar Hospital and frequent communication with the JHMI consultants and administration will pave the way for patient benefit in the future. I would add that since my expectations and learning objectives were evident before my visit, hence it maximized my experience there. I recommend the same for the consultants visiting in the next phase.” ~Dr Eisha Tahir
Dr Maryam Riaz Tarar Representing Pakistan at the 36th Meeting of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Commission for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication.
Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences (SIHS) is proud to announce that Dr. Maryam R Tarar, Professor of Pathology, Convener Infection Prevention & Control Committee (IPCC), and frontline team leader in fighting COVID-19, was nominated by the government and World Health Organization (WHO) to represent Pakistan at the 36th meeting of the “Eastern-Mediterranean Regional Commission for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication (EM/RCC).” The EM/RCC meets annually to discuss the data on polio eradication from 22 member states. The report to discuss this data is presented by National Certification Committee (NCC) Chair or a nominated member from each country. For this meeting held at Dusit Thani Hotel, Dubai, from 31st May to 2nd June, Prof. Tarar was nominated to present the Annual Progress Report for the year 2021 as a member of NCC Pakistan. The other team members comprised Pakistan WHO Team Lead Dr. Zainul Abedin Khan and National Poliovirus Surveillance Coordinator Dr. Shafique-ur-Rehman. The presentation covered five key subtopics: polio eradication strategies; the number of isolates of wild poliovirus (WPV) and vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV2) isolates; environmental surveillance network; surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) cases and poliovirus containment. The session on day 2 of the meeting provided to Pakistan and Afghanistan was one of the most extended and in-depth due to the endemic nature of poliomyelitis in the country. Prof Tarar received praise from WHO/EMRO Focal points/coordinator, Ms. Rasha Naguib, and other country representatives for her poise and speaking style as the “Face of Pakistan.” Prof. Maryam Tarar also attended the Training of the EM National Users (MoH Focal Persons/NCC) for Poliomyelitis Eradication – Electronic Annual Certification Reports System (e-ACR). This was mandated for chairs of NCC. This three-day course focused on providing the participants with all information necessary to report their findings from next year onwards digitally. As a representative of Pakistan, Professor Tarar will now act as a trainer for others in Pakistan on using eACR.
Workshop on Research and Public Health Ethics – The Essentials
The department of Research & Innovation, Shalamar Medical & Dental College (SMDC) in collaboration with Centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC) organized two days’ workshop on “Research and Public Health Ethics-The Essentials.” The workshop was facilitated by Alumni of CBEC i.e. Prof. Aamir Jafarey, Ms. Sualeha Shekhani, Dr. Natasha Anwar and Dr. Mariam Hassan, and Dr. Farkhanda Ghafoor. The workshop focused on Ethical Governance, study designs & ethical issues, clinical trials, public health surveillance & public health research, data ownership and privacy concerns. It was attended by 28 registered participants, including members of scientific committee and ethical committee, faculty members, clinicians and research supervisors, from all disciplines of Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences. The participants were enthusiastic and rated the overall workshop as “Excellent”. They reflected that the workshop was a great learning experience which provided them a detailed insight on various aspects of research; they found it useful, informative and well planned. The interactive sessions were challenging as well as captivating as real time case studies were discussed. The participants found the real scenarios pretty helpful in dealing and solving many ethical issues while performing professional responsibilities. Moreover, the participants demanded such workshops to be conducted in future, if not on quarterly basis but at least biannually.
World Diabetes Day 2021
World Diabetes day is celebrated every year on 14th November for the awareness and prevention from diabetes. For this reason, SIDER (Sakina Institute of Diabetes and Endocrine Resarch) department of Shalamar Hospital in collaboration with Business Planning and Development department organized an awareness walk, seminar and free medical camp for the patients in which the patients were educated about preventive measures for diabetes. Patients were offered the facility of blood sugar test along with free medicines. The Chief Executive (CE) of Shalamar Institute of Health Sciences, Brig (Retd.) Anis Ahmed, Principal Shalamar Medical and Dental College (SMDC), Mr. Zahid Bashir, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Shalamar Hospital, Dr. Ayesha Nauman, In charge SIDER, Dr. Maria Javed attended the event along with various doctors, nurses and students of SMDC. Dr. Maria Javed addressing the seminar stressed upon the importance of an awareness campaign about prevention from diabetes which cannot be possible without government`s support. She further added that the prices of the medicines should be controlled so that the patients can easily consume them. Dr. Rozina Arshad told the audience about the SIDER department`s way of working. On this occasion, SIDER`s nutritionist Ms. Asma Shahid said that one of the major reasons of diabetes is unhealthy lifestyle. The Chief Guest of the seminar, Deputy Head of Mission from the German Ambassy, Dr. Philip Deichmann and Chairman Board of Trustees, Mr. Shahid Hussain also addressed the audience. The General Manager Marketing, Mr. Usman Suleman and In charge SIDER, Dr. Maria Javed thanked the pharmaceutical companies, staff members and other guests for their presence at the seminar and camp.
Cardiac Awareness Seminars
Cardiac Awareness Seminars A series of cardiac awareness seminars were conducted by Shalamar Hospital at TEPS Institute of Arts & Deign, FC College, Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) and Jazz on 7th March, 15th March, 11th April, and 26th April, 2018, respectively. The seminars were led and conducted by various faculty members including Head of Cardiology Department Dr. Kamran Babar, Associate Professor of Cardiology Dr. Javed Ashraf and Assistant Professor of Cardiology Dr. Naresh Kumar, who presented educational seminars on cardiac heath, its risk factors and timely management. They also offered free medical consultation to attendees. In addition, Associate Professor and Head of Cardiovascular Surgery, Dr. Ammar Hameed Khan, and Assistant Professor Dr. Muhammad Muneeb also provided heir consultation services to attendees without charge. Various free tests including blood screening tests, cholesterol tests, BMI tests, uric acid tests were also made available through collaboration with several distinguished pharmaceutical companies.