Family Medicine - A Lifelong Commitment to Patients

The person-centred scientific discipline of family medicine is viewed as central to an effective and efficient delivery of health care in developed countries, where the need for high quality care at affordable prices, clinical competence, and lifelong, compassionate doctor-patient relationships are now firmly entrenched. Such expectations are also gaining strength in the developing world. 

It was this realisation which in 1984 prompted AKU to incorporate family medicine as a speciality in its undergraduate programme, making it the first medical institution in Pakistan to do so. Less than a decade later, in 1993, AKU pioneered the launch of a three-year (expanded in 2001 to a four-year)  structured training programme in Family Medicine. This was followed by the creation of a Family Medicine division in its Department of Community Health Sciences (CHS) in 1994. Since then, the division has been raising the benchmark through the expanding range and enhanced quality of its services to an ever-increasing number of patients. As of January 2003, it stands as an independent department, fully-equipped and strengthened by the spirit of teamwork, evident in the compassionate care the faculty and family medicine practitioners provide to their patients.

The promotion of an integrated health care system, with linkages across multi-clinical disciplines, engenders more effective clinical care to all socio-economic groups.

"It is through teamwork that the department strives to deliver the best possible curative, preventive and rehabilitative care to patients and their families," says Dr. Riaz Qureshi, the first Chair of the Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Qureshi and his team of consultants continue to reinforce family medicine as an integral part of the health care delivery system at AKUH.  

At the undergraduate level, the department is actively involved in problem and evidence-based learning, with the responsibility of teaching in all the three clinical years. At the postgraduate level, there are currently six residents each year in its four-year residency programme, and to date 27 have graduated. The anticipated development of a research unit within the department will also enhance the output and quality of clinical research by its faculty and residents, while encouraging inter-departmental projects. Educational activities in the department include development and implementation of the undergraduate Family Medicine curriculum and residency programme. They also include  establishment of academic and service linkages with national and international institutions, such as College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP); World Organization of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners/Family Physicians (WONCA) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), UK, which accredited the department's residency programme for the MRCGP, UK examination. Dr. Rukhsana W. Zuberi, Associate Professor, Family Medicine, was the Chair of the New Undergraduate Curriculum Task Force of AKU.

The Department of Family Medicine has been raising the benchmark through the expanding range and enhanced quality of its services to an ever-increasing number of patients.

The department's on-campus services range from Consulting and Executive and Community Health Centre clinics, to  student health, employee health, and pre-employment check-ups (for AKU and other organisations). Outside the Hospital premises, the department runs teaching and service field clinics at three sites in lower socio-economic areas, and integrated units combining Family Medicine, Pharmacy and Phlebotomy services. Off campus Family Medicine sites, including five Family Health sites in collaboration with Aga Khan Health Service, Pakistan (AKHS,P) provide important avenues for service, teaching and research. The promotion of an integrated health care system, with linkages across all clinical disciplines, engenders more effective clinical care to all socio-economic groups.

Dr. Riaz Qureshi (centre) and his team of consultants continue to reinforce family medicine as an integral part of the health care delivery system at AKUH.