Resea​rch

Pakistan​


The Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health and its key constituent bodies represent flagship research ​programs on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH). The Centre is well-placed to potentially address priority research issues of relevance to women and children in developing countries, with a large existing portfolio of work related to infectious diseases, perinatal health and outcomes, maternal and child nutrition, and early childhood development. 

The Centre of Excellence along with the Departments of Paediatrics & Child Health and Obstetrics & Gynaecology, has attracted almost US $75 million of research grant funding over the last 5 years and published over 700​ papers in peer-reviewed journals in the same time period. It also has two, state-of-the-art research laboratories namely the Nutrition Research Laboratory and Infectious Disease Research Laboratory. Both the research labs have indigenous capacities to address complex, high quality assays meeting international quality standards, vetted multiple times by foreign institutions for its maintained quality. Both the labs cater to the Centre's research needs and also offers specialized assays for other interested departments of the University. 

At the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health there is a great focus on high quality, high impact and relevant research which could improve clinical services and education and impact the national and international policies 

For a detailed document on the research capacity of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, please write to asghar.ali@aku.edu​.


Selected Published Works​

  1. Bhutta Z.A., Das J.K., Bahl R, Lawn J.E., Salam R.A., Paul V.K., Sankar J.M., Blencowe H., Rizvi A., Chou V.B. et al: “Can Available Interventions End Preventable D​eaths in Mothers, Newborn Babies, and Stillbirths, and at What Cost?” The Lancet, 2014. 

  2. Bhutta ZA, Das JK, Walker N, et al. Interventions to address deaths from childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea equitably: what works and at what cost? The Lancet. 2013.

  3. Bhutta ZA, Das JK, Rizvi A, Gaffey MF, Walker N, Horton S, Webb P, Lartey A, Black RE, Group TL, Maternal and Child Nutrition Study Group. Evidence-based interventions for improvement of maternal and child nutrition: what can be done and at what cost?. The lancet. 2013 Aug 3;382(9890):452-77.

  4. Heazell AE, Siassakos D, Blencowe H, Burden C, Bhutta ZA, Cacciatore J, Dang N, Das J, Flenady V, Gold KJ, Mensah OK. Stillbirths: economic and psychosocial consequences. The Lancet. 2016 Feb 6;387(10018):604-16.

  5. Haroon S, Das JK, Salam RA, Imdad A, Bhutta ZA. Breastfeeding promotion interventions and breastfeeding practices: a systematic review. BMC public health. 20​