Pakistan participation at Mumbai

February, 2012

Three senior faculty members from Family Medicine department, Aga Khan University participated in the Wonca South Asia region conference, held in Mumbai. They were Dr Sameena Shah, Dr Seema Bhanji and Dr Samreen Kausar. Professor Waris Qidwai, Chair of International Committee for the conference was not able to attend because he was invited speaker at Wonca Eastern Mediterranean region conference, in Dubai.

Dr Sameena Shah also represented College of Family Medicine, Pakistan. Dr Seema Bhanji and Dr Samreen Kausar attended official Wonca South Asia region (SAR) meetings where strategies for collaboration in academics and research between Wonca SAR countries were discussed.


Some of the doctors from Pakistan in a group at Mumbai

In the introductory session on the first day, an overview of Family practice Education and Training in Pakistan was given by Dr Samreen Kausar, followed by perspectives by other countries and the future directions for the upcoming family doctors in The Spice Route young doctors’ forum. Following this four workshops were organised simultaneously, one of which was the research workshop which was facilitated by Dr Seema Bhanji and Dr Samreen Kausar along with Ms Vasumathi (from India) in which orientation to formulation of a research project along with literature searching and reference writing was discussed. Simultaneously, Dr Sameena Shah presented on Family Medicine training in Pakistan.


Asst Prof Sameena Shah presenting with the Drs JV Shah, Vibhakar Adhvaryu and Pratap Prasad looking on

Dr Samreen and Dr Seema also attended the first The Spice Route meeting where they were made executive members of The Spice Route Movement with the task of forming national teams. Dr Seema was assigned additional responsibility of research liaison for The Spice Route.On the second day of conference, a presentation on Performing clinical audit in family practice was given by Dr Seema Bhanji, followed by a talk on Malaria-Evidence based practice by Dr Samreen Kausar. Dr Sameena Shah deliberated on Effective counseling skills in clinic.


Dr Samreen Kausar presenting in Mumbai

On the third day of conference, a case-based workshop on Evaluation and management of hypertension was conducted by Dr Seema, Dr Samreen and Dr GC Dhar, from Bangladesh.

Dr Sameena Shah met Dr Janaka Ramanyake, Head of Department of Family Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka and discussed on-line distance learning programs for family physicians. She also met Dr Mohsin, invited delegate from Bangladesh, regarding the development of family medicine in Bangladesh and Pakistan and how they can collaborate and learn from each other’s experience.During the three days of conference we had multiple discussions with doctors from United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India for further development of family medicine in the region and exchanged ideas of research collaboration. Overall it was a wonderful experience to attend the Wonca Mumbai conference and meet people from different regions, exchanging experiences, making new connections and plans for better family medicine prospects.

Dr Sameena Shah, Dr Seema Bhanji & Dr Samreen Kausar