Department of Medicine

Pulmonary and Critical Care Section

The Pulmonary and Critical Care Section provides state-of-the-art facilities for the management of pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine. The section has highly qualified pulmonary and critical care physicians and maintains close liaison with the cardiothoracic surgical team. The section serves patients with acute pulmonary and critical care emergencies, tuberculosis, asthma, pneumonia, chronic lung disease, lung tumours, respiratory failure and sleep apnoea. Special expertise is available in the evaluation of patients with sleep apnoea and non-invasive ventilation. Staff members are experienced in fibreoptic bronchoscopy and other specialised procedures.

Services

1. 24-hour state-of-the-art in-patient services for pulmonary and critical care patients;
2. Outpatient specialised clinic for patients with pulmonary and allergic diseases, six days a week;
3. Non-invasive ventilatory services;
4. Chronic ventilatory services;
5. Specialised clinic for smoking cessation and asthma;
6. A pulmonary function laboratory, which measures spirometry, transfer factors, lung volumes and a six-minute walk test;
7. Endoscopy suite for performing fibreoptic bronchoscopy, endobronchial biopsy and trans-bronchial biopsy under fluoroscopy control;
8. Sleep laboratory for diagnosis and therapy of sleep related breathing disorders;
9. Pulmonary Imaging for evaluation of patients with interstitial lung diseases, pulmonary embolism, lung tumours and other pulmonary pathology;
10. Well-equipped laboratory that performs tuberculosis, fungal and routine bacterial culture studies, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for TB and various serological tests used in investigation of pulmonary disease;
11. A comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation programme, which is particularly aimed to help pulmonary patients by providing customised exercises and education on a variety of topics, in a multi-disciplinary setting over six weeks.

Upcoming Services

1. Medical thoracoscopy - diagnostic and therapeutic
2. Interventional bronchoscopies

Research Activities/Programmes

All faculty members and trainee fellows are actively involved in research activities. A number of papers have been published by the faculty members in international and national peer-reviewed journals. all faculty members also actively participate and present their research work in various national and international conferences each year. The section has secured a number of research grants from national and international funding sources.

Pulmonology Residency Programme

The Pulmonology Residency Programme at Aga Khan University is an adult pulmonology training programme accredited by the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP). This rigorous accreditation process guarantees residents’ access to excellent training in both clinical care and research.

The total duration of training programme is three years. This meets the eligibility criteria for the sub-specialty training laid-down by CPSP. The training is structured to provide a balanced foundation of clinical and research training.

Pulmonary and Critical Care Section Aga Khan University