Karachi, The 25th National Health Sciences Research Symposium (NHSRS) hosted by Aga Khan University (AKU) has set a new precedent in the medical community by emphasizing the importance of evidence-based medical guidelines tailored to Pakistan’s unique healthcare needs. This flagship conference, attended by national and international experts, aimed to address the pressing need for contextually relevant medical treatment guidelines, a crucial step toward improving patient care across the country.
According to The Aga Khan University, the symposium highlighted the collaborative efforts of AKU’s Center for Clinical Best Practices (CCBP) and over 150 specialists who have worked together over four years to review, adapt, and create a Manual of Therapeutics using the internationally recognized ‘GRADE-ADOLOPMENT’ process. This manual aims to standardize clinical practice across various healthcare sectors in Pakistan, from primary to tertiary care, acknowledging the country’s diverse population of over 250 million people, encompassing a wide range of cultures and ethnic groups.
The event underscored the challenges posed by the lack of standardized clinical practices and the reliance on global guidelines that fail to address the specificities of Pakistan’s healthcare landscape. Factors such as race, ethnicity, financial resources, and other social determinants of health can introduce biases and variability in clinical care, making the development of contextual guidelines imperative.
Keynote speakers, including Professor Mahmood Ayyaz, Vice Chancellor of King Edward Medical University, Lahore, and Professor Maj General Sohail Sabir, highlighted the transition from disease-oriented to community-oriented guidelines as essential yet challenging. They emphasized the need for maintenance and improvement mechanisms within the system to ensure the guidelines’ effectiveness and sustainability.
The symposium also featured insights from Professor Dr. Javed Akram, President of the Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine and Health Minister of Punjab, who stressed the importance of ethical, transparent, and locally adapted clinical guidelines rooted in research. Such guidelines are crucial for addressing the overwhelming disease burden and resource constraints in Pakistan, where prevention is as important as the cure.
Distinguished speakers, including Prof Dr. Khalid Masood Gondal, Professor Dr. Rizwan Taj, Dr. Bushra Mirza, Professor Dr. Shabeen Naz Masood, Major General Irfan Ali Mirza, and Professor Dr. Shehla Naseem, contributed to the symposium’s success. The event featured presentations on guideline development for common ailments, panel discussions on the impact of guidelines on healthcare, oral presentations of shortlisted abstracts, poster presentations, and awards recognizing the specialists’ contributions to the manual of therapeutics.
The 25th NHSRS at AKU has laid the groundwork for a more standardized, equitable, and effective healthcare system in Pakistan, marking a significant step forward in bridging global health disparities through the development of contextual medical guidelines.