Section of Emergency Medicine

The Section of Emergency Medicine (EM) at Aga Khan University (AKU) strives to provide quality emergency care to all patients accessing our services regardless age, sex, cast and financial status. The section provides clinical services through the Emergency Department on Aga Khan University Hospital , Karachi (AKUH,K), Stadium Road Campus and an Urgent Care Center located in Clifton Medical Services, Clifton . The two facilities have a combined volume of over 55,000 patients per year. The section also run three follow up clinic in a week where those patients who were discharged from the Emergency are followed up in these clinics for continuity of care.

Initially, a purely service unit of the hospital, EM was established as an academic entity in 2004 as one of the Sections in the Department of Medicine. With recent increase in the number of faculty members in the Section, the care is supervised for a large part of 24 hours by an EM Consultant including weekends and other public holidays.

Currently, the section has 10 full-time and one part-time faculty representing both adult and paediatric emergency medicine. In addition there are six residents in EM at different levels of training.

Teaching / Academic Activities

The section offers a four-year residency training programme in EM making it the only place for such training in the country.

The Section offers a number of academic activities for the EM as well as non rotating residents from other specialities and includes review of core curriculum, journal clubs, mortality and morbidity meetings, resuscitation drills and small group tutorials.

In its second year, the section offers a mandatory clinical rotation for final year medical students of AKU. During this rotation the students undergo training in Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Bed-side case discussions, formal presentations and tutorials specifically for the medical students. They participate in patient care in the Emergency Department and get training in minor procedures like i/v cannulation, NG insertion and Foley catheterisation etc.

Research Activities

The section is actively involved in a number of ongoing research projects which includes trauma and injury prevention, suicide and self harm, toxicology, chest pain evaluation and infectious diseases.

The section is the recipient of the Fogarty International Center , National Institutes of Health award for Research Training in Injuries and Trauma. The grant in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University offers training to junior faculty and fellows in various aspects of injury and trauma research.

The Section is also the International Secretariat for the Road Traffic Injuries Research Network (RTIRN).

Section of Emergency Medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi