Community Medicine

The Community Medicine Residency (CMR) Training Programme is the second residency Programme initiated by the Department of Community Health Sciences (CHS). The Programme was initiated in January 1997 and is approved by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan.

Mission
The primary goal of the Community Medicine Residency Training Programme at CHS, Aga Khan University (AKU) is to educate caring and skilled physicians who are well-prepared to enter graduate and specialty training programmes. They provide highly competent and compassionate, patient-centred care while demonstrating the highest level of professionalism and sensitivity to the diverse personal and cultural contexts in which medical care is delivered.

At the end of the training, graduates should be able to:

• Develop, implement and evaluate effective public health interventions and programmes in Pakistan and the developing world;
• Educate medical undergraduates and postgraduates and other health workers in the practice of public health;
• Develop and conduct research in public health issues;
• Deliver effective preventive and curative care including systematically improving quality of health care at first level care in rural and urban areas;
• Pursue continuous and self-directed professional learning to update and expand their knowledge and skills.

Goals

• Educational: Achieve excellence in education of students for careers in medical practice or research by providing broad knowledge and skills, developing appropriate professional behaviour, mastery of essential competencies and preparing students for continued intellectual growth.
• Research: Advance medical knowledge by conducting active programmes in basic and applied research.
• Service: Provide the highest quality of medical care, as well as ensure access to health and educational services for the local, national and international communities.

Benchmarks
National leadership in education will be evinced by exceptional learning and performance by:

• Future practicing physicians, our medical students;
• MBBS and MPH/PhD clinical investigators training for academic careers;
• PhD biomedical scientists preparing for careers in research;
• Residents and Fellows (CME) honing their skills as providers;
• Established practitioners (CME) maintaining and improving their skill levels.

Duration of Training
The programme is of four years duration.

Course Content
Specific curricula during the four-year programme will include Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Demography, Family Medicine, Social Health, Reproductive Health, Health Systems, Environmental and Occupational Health, social sciences, ethical principles and other relevant public health topics. The disciplines will be taught using a mixture of classroom teaching and applied settings. Classroom activities will include directed readings and discussions, facilitating tutorial of undergraduate students, etc. and experience in family medicine.

Off-Campus Duties
The training programme is designed to provide residents the opportunity to work in both urban and rural settings in block rotations of three to six months. The elective content of the training programme encourages the residents to take up electives in urban and rural settings, the Northern Areas of Pakistan and other provinces of Pakistan, institutions in other developing countries and in relevant public departments.

Alumni of CMR Programme
Since 1999, eighteen (18) residents have successfully graduated from the CMR programme. All of them are board eligible for College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan. All of them are employed at various positions as faculty, researcher or administration at AKU andvarious national and international universities and NGOs. They are teaching and managing research and service related projects of public health. The following is a list of some of the institutions where graduates of this residency programme are working:

• World Health Organisation (WHO)
• University of Liverpool, UK
• Research and teaching positions at AKU
  • Department of CHS
  • Human Development Programme
  • Department of Family Medicine
  • Department of Surgery
• Baqai Medical University
• Ziauddin Medical University
• Karachi Medical and Dental College

Career Options
The Community Medicine specialists have several career options, for example:

• The practice of public health at a local, regional, national or international level;
• The planning and administration of health services;
• Clinical practice in community settings;
• The assessment and control of locally endemic health problems;
• Teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students and other health workers;
• Research in Public Health and Medicine.

Full Time Faculty

Professors

• Dr Mehtab S. Karim; MA Chicago, PhD Cornell
• Dr Gregory Pappas; MD, PhD Case Western
• Dr Juanita Hatcher; MSc, PhD Toronto and Liverpool

Associate Professors

• Dr Muhammad Masood Kadir; MBBS Karachi, MPH Hawaii, MCPS, FCPS Pakistan, Programme Director

Assistant Professors

• Iqbal Azam; BSc, MSc (Statistics) Karachi
• Dr Syed Zafar Ahmed Fatmi; MBBS Karachi, FCPS Pakistan
• Dr Syed Muhammad Israr; MBBS Sindh, MSc Heidelberg, MPH USA, FCPS Pakistan
• Dr Sara Saleem; MBBS Karachi, MSc AKU, FCPS Pakistan
• Dr Ambreen Kazi; MBBS, MCPS, FCPS Pakistan
• Dr Sajid Ali; MBBS, MSPH, FCPS Pakistan
• Dr Shariq Khoja; MBBS Pakistan, MSc Canada, PhD Canada

Class of 2007

Dr Sarwat Abbasi
Dr Maliha Naseer
Dr Asma Rahman
Dr Shiraz Shaikh
Dr Tahir M. Taj
Dr Saima Zaineb

Class of 2006

Dr Nasra Badar
Dr Asaad Nafees
Dr Sadaf Naqvi
Dr Mubashir Aslam

Class of 2005

Dr Jamil Ahmed
Dr Ahmed Laghari