Large number of invited speakers expected from overseas as well as Pre & Post conference workshops also planned all over Pakistan
PSIM & AKU sign MOU to promote Standard Treatment Guidelines
KARACHI: Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine is organizing its 6th Annual International Conference at Karachi from February 14th to 16th 2025. A preliminary meeting was held here on Sunday September 1st 2024 to discuss various issues related to the organization which was chaired by Prof. Javed Akram President of PSIM. Dr. Shabnam Naveed President of Karachi Chapter who is the local coordinator for this event had extended invitation to physicians from most of the medical institutions in the city who participated.
Prof. Javed Akram President PSIM and Prof. Adil Hyder Dean AKU signing a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the Standard Treatment Guidelines
for various diseases during PSIM meeting held at Karachi on Sunday
September 1st 2024.
Addressing the participants Prof. Javed Akram said that Karachi has numerous medical institutions and a large number of internal medicine physicians and we wish to give them due representation in the society so that they can take up the leadership role in the days to come. He thanked Dr. Shabnam Naveed for inviting so many eminent physicians who are present on Sunday which shows their commitment to academics and interest in PSIM. He requested Dr. Shabnam to identify focal persons in all the institutions and they should then all work as a team to make the conference a success.
He also highlighted the achievements and accomplishments of the PSIM during the last four years ever since its inception and pointed out that it has emerged as one of the most active specialty organization which has established its chapters all over the country and overseas as well. Aap Ka Clinic established at Lahore provides not only free consultation but also investigations and drugs to the deserving patients. We have arrangements with Jamia Ashrafia from where the scholar comes and identifies the patients who needs to be treated through Zakat funds or donations. We have been able to provide this service with the help and assistance of donors, philanthropists and our friends in the pharma industry. Members of PSIM provide consultation there by rotation. All those drugs with expiry of six months are donated to us and then we use them in time so that it does not go waste. We have identified a building off Tariq Road in Karachi and hope to start a similar clinic here in the days to come. We wish to ensure that the building where we provide this service is transferred to the society to avoid any problems in future. He invited the friends from Karachi to visit the Clinic functioning at Lahore to see how it operates so that they can then plan how to manage the clinic at Karachi. Their suggestions to improve the service will also be welcomed.
Some of the participants of a recent meeting of PSIM
held at Karachi on September 1st 2024.
He also disclosed that today we will be signing an MOU with Aga Khan University and their Dean Prof. Adil Hyder is present here to promote Evidence Based Medicine. The AKU has been working preparing Standard Treatment Guidelines for various diseases so that patients in the country get standardized care. We will now promote this through PSIM. We will be signing yet another MOU with Pinnacle Biotech for academic collaboration. We had visited their factory yesterday. Close collaboration with the industry and academia, he stated, is extremely important to conduct clinical trials, promote academic medicine. We believe in professional ethics and wish to promote ethical practices. At present different physicians even in the same institution are managing the same disease with different protocols and we wish to bring this practice to an end. He also requested the participants to offer Fateha for the beloved mother of Prof.Adil Hyder who expired recently.
He congratulated Dr. Shabnam Naveed for making excellent arrangements for the meeting and hoped they will do much better working as a team for the upcoming annual conference. Prof. Adil Hyder thanked the PSIM for the invitation and stated that one finds Appnaiat in Pakistan which is not seen overseas for how many years you live there. This is the strength of our culture. My mother for whom you have just offered Fateha was actively involved in Domestic Violence protection and then started the Club Foot programme with the assistance of Indus Hospital through which over the last sixteen years over seventy thousand children have been treated. If you do something good, others also come forward and do even much better.
Group photograph taken during the PSIM meeting held at a local hotel in correction with the forthcoming PSIM International Annual Conference during February 2025.
Speaking about the standard treatment guidelines Prof. Adil Hyder said we tried to do it from the Center for Clinical Best Practices. We had over fifty faculty members and others involved in this academic exercise. We had lot of discussion and then prepared these guidelines. We had representatives of PM&DC, CPSP, AKU and PSIM on board. Once it is approved, these will be continuously updated and then implemented throughout the country.
Prof. Aftab Mohsin highlighted the Mission and Vision of PSIM which is to promote professionalism, Networking, Fraternity, working as a PSIM family and collaboration with all others who are interested. Prof. Farid Al-Zafar President of Society of Gynaecology Oncology also highlighted the functioning of their society and promised to work in close collaboration with PSIM and its leadership. Prof. Azizur Rehamn talked about the Journal of PSIM which is recognized by HEC and PM&DC and invited those present to contribute their research papers for publication. Later suggestions were asked from the participants for the forthcoming PSIM conference wherein many of those present offered their services to act as focal persons in their respective institutions. It was also agreed to organize Workshops on Scientific Writing and Peer Review in collaboration with Pakistan Association of Medical Editors (PAME) in different cities. Dr. Shabnam Naveed thanked all those present and the pharma friends for their cooperation.
Later MOU was signed between PSIM and AKU which was represented by Prof.Adil Hyder while another MOU was signed with Pinnacle Biotech. PSIM delegation had visited the Pinnacle Biotech Plant on August 31st while the company also hosted a dinner in honour of the visiting PSIM delegation at a local hotel.
