Day: September 8, 2021

Karachi, September 08, 2021 (PPI-OT):SONAM alumna Dr Salimah Meghani received the University of Penns​ylvania’s 2021 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching ​in May 2021. Established in 1961, the prestigious Lindback Award recognises outstanding teachers, and has been presented to only a select few faculty members in the university’s long history.

She currently serves at the University of Pennsylvania as a professor of nursing where her areas of expertise and passion lie in palliative care. She has taught and mentored many undergraduate, graduate and doctoral level students and is popularly known to be an inspiring teacher, encouraging research scholarship and out-of-the-box thinking for patient and family healthcare outcomes.

With research grants to her credit totalling over US$ 18.8 million, over 100 publications and prestigious international awards, Dr Meghani is recognised as an exemplary nurse scientist disseminating research to initiate change at public policy level.

Dr Meghani did her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1997 from the Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery, and then went on to receive her MScN (2000), PhD/MBE (2005) and a post-doctorate (2007) from the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

We asked her about her journey from a student and registered nurse in Karachi to an internationally acclaimed nursing professional. Dr Meghani also spoke about the role the School played in this journey, and what inspires her to give back to her alma mater to help fund students’ financial assistance programmes at AKU.

What are your aspirations for nursing in Pakistan?

There are two potential areas that nursing in Pakistan must grow in. First is to develop and strengthen the role of advance practice nursing in the country, especially in primary, family and community health. Pakistan is one of the few countries where there are more physicians per 10,000 people than there are nurses. This needs to change in order to address the large population health needs of the country. There is ample research done in the West and the National Academy of Medicine and other key reports suggest that advance practice nurses provide similar quality of primary care as physician colleagues. My aspiration is to see a strong role for advance practice nurses in the coming decades.

My second aspiration is to see nursing research further developed and strengthened in the country as it is bound to positively impact healthcare delivery with evidence-based solutions for local healthcare issues.

We still have a long way to go to raise the level of nursing as a profession in Pakistan. What advice would you give to young and aspiring students regarding it?

A lot of people say nursing is a noble profession. There are many noble professions. I do not look at nursing in that narrow way. My advice to young students joining nursing, or those who are on the fence, is to think of nursing as any other competitive profession that provides opportunities for higher education, professional advancement as clinical leaders, academics, and opportunities to pursue and lead many areas of research and practice. The sky is the limit!

In what ways did your AKU education change or transform your life?

Firstly, AKU gave me, and many others, an educational opportunity that few had available at the time, most certainly women. Secondly, AKU provided the highest quality of nursing education and training, which undoubtedly served as a staunch foundation for any subsequent successes I have had.

I do have to say that a lot of AKU’s impact on my career only became obvious in retrospect when I came to an Ivy League university in the United States to purse a master’s in nursing. I realised that I had already learned many advanced-level content and concepts during my undergraduate nursing education at AKU. This bolstered my sense of assurance in those early days of uncertainty when I had the tendency to question my audacity to come to University of Pennsylvania – a top-ranking university in the world.

Looking back, I would say that there is a lot of dormant talent and potential in individuals from diverse and modest backgrounds, but they need a medium to cultivate these talents and this is precisely what I believe AKU did for me.

What are some of your fond memories from time at AKU?

My most cherished memories at AKU most definitely include my time living in the girls’ hostel, moments shared with friends on campus and waiting for the favourite food to show up on the cafeteria’s weekly menu!

You are committed to your alma mater. What inspires you to give back financially to AKU as a donor?

Financial giving is a vote of confidence and trust. What inspires me to give to AKU is the trust that any gift to AKU would be the best use of the funds and financial resources. I recently attended a useful webinar on gift planning by the AKU Alumni Affairs’ office and decided to list AKU as part of my estate planning. AKU has about 40 years of history of doing impactful work and of charting a thoughtful and farsighted trajectory of sustained leadership in education and quality of healthcare.

For more information, contact:
Media Executive
Department of Public Affairs
Aga Khan University (AKU)
Stadium Road, Karachi
Tel: +92-21-34930051
Fax: +92-21-34934294, +92-21-34932095
Cell: +92-301-8258028
Email: rasool.sarang@aku.edu, public.affairs@aku.edu​
Website: www.aku.edu

Karachi, September 08, 2021 (PPI-OT):Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, of Aga Khan University (AKU) and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), has been awarded the 2021 Roux Prize, a US$100,000 award for turning evidence into health impact. He is the founding director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health and the Institute for Global Health and Development at AKU; and Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, Inaugural Robert Harding Chair in Global Child Health and Policy, and a Senior Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences programme at SickKids. His work has made an integral contribution to global policy to improve maternal, fetal and new-born health.

The Roux Prize is administered by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and is funded by founding board member David Roux and his wife, Barbara. Launched in 2013, it is the world’s largest award for evidence-based public health achievement and has drawn nominations from across the globe. “Professor Bhutta has had a tremendous impact on maternal and child health, as a researcher and a leader,” said Dave and Barbara Roux. “We are thrilled to honour his incredible work and commitment to reducing health inequities.”

Professor Bhutta’s work has focused on newborn and child survival and undernutrition, with a particular emphasis on reducing health disparities and reaching underserved populations, including health care in conflict settings and humanitarian emergencies. He has played a crucial role in developing global consensus on interventions to address undernutrition in mothers and children, with publications that have informed World Health Organization (WHO) policy and global funding priorities. With his research team, he published guidance to prevent stillbirths and improve newborn survival that now is a core part of the global Every Newborn Action Plan.

“Professor Bhutta has been at the forefront of generating relevant evidence for public health policies in low- and middle-income countries,” said Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at WHO. “He is one of a handful of people globally who have successfully conducted large randomized controlled trials, which have resulted in changes in policy and practice, leading to significant improvements in health outcomes.”

Professor Bhutta was one of the first AKU faculty, and since beginning his career there in 1986, has managed to build a research programme on maternal and child health and nutrition with national and global impact, despite the challenges of political turmoil and economic insecurity in the country.

Between 1996 and 2002, he undertook a community outreach and research programme in an urban slum of Karachi and several rural areas of Pakistan, and for the past 15 years he has collaborated with the government of Pakistan to assess effectiveness of health care in real-world settings through partnering with public sector community health workers.

Many of these large community-based cluster randomized trials led by Professor Bhutta have generated findings that changed global policy, most notably the finding that using chlorhexidine for cord care among home births was associated with significant reduction in the risk of neonatal sepsis and death, and that public sector community health workers could successfully work with communities to reduce perinatal mortality. His team also worked with community health workers in tribal areas of Pakistan to improve polio and routine immunization coverage.

“Dr. Bhutta is a powerhouse of knowledge,” said Dr Adil Haider, Dean of the Medical College at Aga Khan University. “His contribution to the field of medicine and research as a whole is invaluable, with his exceptional work having phenomenal impact not just at the Aga Khan University, but across Pakistan and truly around the globe. It has been an absolute pleasure getting to work alongside him, learning from him, and marveling at his zeal and determination. He strives for excellence in everything he does, and I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this prestigious award.”

Professor Bhutta has taken on unique joint appointments at SickKids and the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, in addition to his role with AKU. He has succeeded in creating strong international collaborations and growing support for research on maternal and child health, and currently leads a consortium of 14 academic centers worldwide focused on improving health care in areas affected by conflict.

“Dr Bhutta is one of the world’s foremost experts in child and maternal health and nutrition studies, whose contributions have led to direct and significant impact on health care and policy in communities worldwide,” said Dr Stephen Scherer, Chief of Research at SickKids. “SickKids is proud to be home to Dr Bhutta’s ground-breaking translational research, which not only exemplifies our vision of ‘Healthier Children. A Better World,’ but continues to have a profound impact in science and in the lives of people around the world.”

Professor Bhutta is a designated Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan and the co-Chair of the Maternal and Child Health oversight committee of the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office.

“Congratulations to Dr Bhutta for this important award and recognition for his contribution as an advocate, a researcher and a passionate practitioner on maternal and child health and nutrition,” said Dr Ahmed Al Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region. “His striving to translate data to information and his operational research into policy and best practices, from Pakistan to global-level commissions, is commendable as he brings in tremendous value reflecting priorities and challenges from the field programmes level, clinical practice and community-based projects in addition to his commitment to polio eradication efforts in our region.”

“Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta is one of the outstanding child health researchers of his generation,” said Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet. “His work on child survival and nutrition has shaped international policy and practice for two decades. He has built a world-class team of child health scientists in Pakistan, conducted ground-breaking primary research to advance children’s health, and used that evidence to provide a rigorous and reliable foundation for advocacy and action. He richly deserves the recognition provided by the Roux Prize.”

The Roux Prize is intended for anyone who has applied health data and evidence in innovative ways to improve population health. Nominees may come from anywhere in the world and could include, but are not limited to, staff in government agencies, researchers at academic institutions, volunteers in charitable organizations, or health providers working in the community.

For more information, contact:
Media Executive
Department of Public Affairs
Aga Khan University (AKU)
Stadium Road, Karachi
Tel: +92-21-34930051
Fax: +92-21-34934294, +92-21-34932095
Cell: +92-301-8258028
Email: rasool.sarang@aku.edu, public.affairs@aku.edu​
Website: www.aku.edu