Dr. Dodani Receives Pakistan Academy of Medical Sciences Junior Gold Medal for Research on Chronic Diseases

Dr. Sunita Dodani (MBBS'92), Assistant Professor in the Family Medicine division of the Department of Community Health Sciences at AKU, was the recipient of the prestigious Pakistan Academy of Medical Sciences Award for the year 2000, conferred in December 2001.

Dr. Dodani is one of only four young scientists from the entire country to have been selected for this award. Focusing mostly on common chronic diseases seen often in family practice, particularly heart diseases, Dr. Dodani is now a senior author of five journal publications, and co-author of several others, which brings the total number of her publications in the last five years to 12, with three in the year in which she clinched the gold medal. It was this effort and her ongoing interest and work in research that qualified her for the gold medal.

Supported by a grant from Aga Khan Foundation, Canada, Dr. Dodani is currently pursuing her Master of Science degree in Community Health and Epidemiology at Canada's Dalhousie University.

She is conducting her thesis work at AKU on the prevalence and comparison of cardiovascular risk factors in Karachi, consistent with her aim of developing skills in the field of clinical epidemiology.