Aga Khan University Alumni Association of North America

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Office Bearers: AKU Medical College Alumni Association – Pakistan | Middle-East | Asia-Pacific Chapter

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Dear Medical College Alumni,

I am delighted to share with you that the elections process for the newly formed AKU Medical College Alumni Association, Pakistan, Middle-East, Asia-Pacific Chapter was successfully concluded as per schedule on August 30, 2013. The elections itself included a physical voting process as well as an online balloting component which enabled alumni based outside Karachi to participate. With both phases completed, I am happy to share with you names of the chapter Executive Committee:

Dr Saad Shafqat, MBBS ’88 – President
Dr Saniya Sabzwari, MBBS ’92 – Vice-President – Under-Graduate programme
Dr Fyezah Jehan, PGME ’11, Master’s ‘11 – Vice-President – Graduate programmes
Dr Tayyaba Ansari, PGME ’11 – Vice-President – Post-Graduate programmes
Dr Amyn Malik, MBBS ’10 – Secretary
Dr Syed Asad Ali, MBBS ’01 – Treasurer

Foremost, I would like to thank all the candidates, nominees, as well as alumni voters for their participation, which truly reflects their ownership of the alumni chapter.

I further take this opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the work of the Steering Committee, where my fellow members, including Drs Anita Zaidi (Secretary), Asim Belgaumi, Adina Sajjad, and Sana Nasim, worked diligently and tirelessly to develop, publicise and execute a comprehensive elections process over the last number of months. This committee having completed its mandate to hold elections now stands dissolved.

I would also like recognise the contribution of Ms Charlotte D’Cruze and the Paeditarics and Child Health department for facilitating the steering committee meetings, and also AKU’s Information Services Department, including Mr Amran Chowdhry, Director, and his team, consisting of Kamran Nayyer, Anita Dharani and Karim Karamali, whose support was essential in operationalising the e-voting facility. Finally, our thanks to Alumni Affairs for facilitating the entire elections process.

Please join me in congratulating the Executive Committee and lending our support as they develop and execute a meaningful agenda for their term of office and which will serve as the very foundation for the chapter going forward.

Best regards,

Dr Hasnain Zafar
Chair, Steering Committee
AKU Medical College Alumni Association
Pakistan | Middle-East | Asia-Pacific Chapter

Steering Committee Members:

Dr Hasnain Zafar, MBBS ’91, Residency ’97, – Chair
Dr Adina Sajjad, MBBS ‘95
Dr Anita Zaidi, MBBS ‘88
Dr Asim Belgaumi, MBBS ‘89
Dr Sana Nasim, MBBS ’04, Residency ‘12

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AKUAANA President’s Message to Alumni, August 2013

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Eid Mubarak!

I hope all of you had a pleasant Ramadan and were able to get a break over Eid.

The Annual AKU reunion held at the APPNA summer convention in Orlando, Florida was a great success. We celebrated the 25th anniversary for the Class of ’88, and the 20th anniversary for the Class of ’93. We welcomed Dr. Farhat Abbas, Dean AKUMC, Dr. Saad Shafqat ’88, Dr. Anita Zaidi ’88, and Dr. Naseer Mehmood ’88 as speakers at the dinner.

I am pleased to inform you that we were able to successfully complete the election of the new Executive Council. As you are aware, the process was initiated several months ago. The positions of Secretary and Treasurer had single nominations. The position for President had two nominations. Prior to the reunion, an on-line vote was conducted. For the on-line component, only votes from dues-paying members were included. The final voting was conducted at the reunion dinner.

The new Executive Council, which will start its term in January 2014, is as follows:

  • President: Faisal Qureishi ’93
  • Secretary: Atif Shafqat ’93
  • Treasurer: Shazia Hussain ’90

I would like to thank Treasurer Syed Jawad Sher ’97 and Secretary Amna Iftikhar ’90 for their priceless contributions to the previous Executive Council.

At this time I would also like to thank Atif Jalees Khan ’99 for his work establishing and managing our web presence. He will be transferring his responsibilities to Abdul Basit Saeed ’07. Thank you both.

Ms. Shain Amershi, who for many years has been the force that has kept AKUAANA on track, is leaving us to pursue other opportunities. We are indebted to her for all the work that she has put in to developing a database, establishing the website, handling affairs with APPNA, organizing multiple reunions, and making the Executive Council look good. She has been passionate in her support of the association, both in thought and action. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors.

As far as other business is concerned, as we came to the reunion, we had record membership. If your dues are not current, I would encourage you to see to it. Your contributions help to keep the association and the website running smoothly.

Also at the reunion, we proposed and agreed to formalize the process of setting up host-committees for events. It was established that:

‘For all APPNA associated AKUAANA events, after the APPNA host committee has been established, all AKU alumni on said committee will be asked to join AKUAANA host committee for that event. This group will select one point person for purposes of communication with Executive Council. In the event the group does not select this person, the Executive Committee will do so.’

As always, we are looking for alumni to contribute to the website with blogs, opinion pieces, news etc. Please, let those ideas out onto paper (or screen) and share them with us!

In APPNA news – an anonymous donor, alumnus of Nishtar Medical College, has pledged to match up to $1,000,000 for donations to a newly established scholarship fund. Within the fund, each participating medical school will have a sub-account. A minimum of $10,000 from alumni is required to receive a matching contribution from the donor. The scholarship monies are allotted at the discretion of the particular alumni group and their medical school. I think this is an excellent opportunity for us to be able to give back to our Alma Mater. Please review the information at this link on the APPNA website.

In news from AKU – the Pakistan- Middle East chapter is in the last phase of its establishment. There is an election scheduled for later this month, after which the association will be fully functional. Our sister association is led by a President (Saad Shafqat ’88), Vice-President Under-Graduate (Saniya Sabzwari ’92), Vice- President Post-Graduate (TBD), and Vice-president Graduate (TBD). The Steering Committee (Chairman Hasnain Zafar ’91, Secretary Anita Zaidi ’88) has done a fantastic job with sorting through the very complex task of University and region-wide nominations and elections. They have been ably assisted by Abdul Haq Wahedna, Manager Alumni Affairs. We look forward to an excellent relationship with the association.

That’s all for now.

Engage, participate, own.

Sincerely,
Sadaf Khan ’92
President, AKUAANA

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Patients’ Behbud Society for AKUH launches new website

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Mohammad Ahmed Baloch, the child to survive with an artificial heart. Photo Credit: Express

Mohammad Ahmed Baloch, the child to survive with an artificial heart. Photo Credit: Express

The Patients’ Behbud Society for AKUH has recently launched their own website.

The Patients’ Behbud Society for Aga Khan University Hospital (PBS) is an independent, charitable society responsible for collecting and disbursing zakat to help mustehiq patients so they can receive high quality medical treatment at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), its clinics and medical centers.

The Society, in its brief history has been able to support more than 18,000 mustehiq patients who belonged to extremely underprivileged segments of our society. The PBS is a legal entity managed by a group of volunteer members who are prominent citizens and well-respected in the country. These members ensure that mustehiq patients are identified through a meticulous process and zakat is disbursed strictly according to shariah.

Every single paisa of collected zakat is spent on the treatment of mustehiq patients and none of the PBS related administrative expenses are charged to the zakat fund.

The PBS accounts are audited annually and are available to general public.

To learn more about the Society and its initiatives, please visit their website.

For further Information:
The Patients’ Behbud Society for AKUH, Stadium Road, P.O. Box 3500 Karachi, Pakistan
Tel: +92 21 3486 2961/2903, Cell: +92 332 314 2060
Email: patients.behbud@aku.edu

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AKU-NAMA inviting contributions for upcoming issue

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Reach for your favourite pen or the nearest keyboard and let’s get started!

The magazine will continue to reflect the breadth and depth of alumni experiences and successes and highlight unique attributes and achievements throughout the World. Materials worth contributing are as diverse as AKU’s amazing alumni body! From exciting career options to achievements in research; from initiatives in public service to unusual interests. Letters to the Editor, travelogues, book reviews, opinion pieces in modern technology and trends in education are always welcome! Article length should be approximately 500-600 words and can be submitted at the Article Submission Form on the AKU website.

Accompanying photographs are welcome but they must be high resolution digital photographs (jpeg files over 1 MB). You can submit photos at akunama.photos@gmail.com.

Class Notes: Let your classmates and colleagues know what you are doing – submit material for class notes at the Class Notes Submission Form on the AKU website.

We ask that you kindly forward this mail to friends and colleagues, encouraging them to submit articles. Last date for submissions for the next issue is September 8, 2013.

Please note that the AKU-NAMA is primarily circulated in electronic format. However, a limited number of printed copies will be made available as well. If you would like to receive a paper copy, kindly indicate so on the Update Your Information Form on the AKU website or email at alumni@aku.edu.

Looking forward to your contributions!

 

Adeel A. Butt
Editor-in-Chief
On behalf of the AKU-NAMA Editorial Board

AKU-NAMA

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AKUAANA Officers: vote for the President

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Elections

Dear Alumni,

The Term of Office for current AKUAANA officers comes to an end in December 2013.

Online elections for officers for the next term will end on 30 June 2013; elections will also be held at the AKUAANA Reunion on 05 July.
All alumni can vote, however, only votes from dues paying alumni and those in attendance at the Reunion will be counted.

We have two candidates for President, please vote at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LVS99MR

We have one actively interested alumnus for each of the following positions, which results in them being appointed to the position. Here is what each of the appointed officers had to share:

TREASURER: Shazia Hussain, Class of 1990, Memphis, TN

I am a graduate of AKU, class of 1990. I did my residency from Lebonheur Children’s Medical Center. I am board certified in Pediatrics and have been in private practice since 1994. I live with my husband and children in Memphis, TN. For the past few years I have been involved in fund raising with different organizations benefiting Pakistan. I want to change focus and get involved more with my Alma Mater, and give back to an institution that helped shape who I am today.

SECRETARY: Atif Shafqat, Class of 1993, St.Louis, MI

I believe in maintaining strong ties with our Alma Mater and consider it a privilege to serve if selected for this position. With the organization still in the nascent stages, I see the main focus to be on building a thriving, sustainable membership.

WEB MANAGER: Abdul Basit Saeed, Class of 2007, Lahore, Pakistan

I have been involved with community building websites since the last 10 years. Having been a part of the team that revamped the AKUAANA website altogether, along with my knowledge of platforms such as WordPress and XenForo that we are currently using on the website and discussion board, I believe that I can help making our online presence much more meaningful and beneficial to our very diverse community of AKU alumni all over the world.

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ChildLife Foundation

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBzEuqJL1Uc

Attached below is a report of the work that ChildLife Foundation has been doing for the last three years.

ChildLife Foundation was triggered by comments made by CNN medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta during his visit to the Pediatric ER at Civil Hospital Karachi in 2010. This year ChildLife Foundation is well on their way to serve a quarter million children free of cost.

ChildLife Foundation

Please contact ChildLife Foundation directly to participate with your expertise or donations. This will help towards giving quality care to the poor and sickest children in Pakistan. All contributions in the US are IRS tax exempt through the I-Care Fund. They have a robust zakat program in place. Two outreach clinics are being supported by the communities in Austin TX and Ft Lauderdale FL.

Naseer Mahmood (’88), Managing Trustee or ChildLife Foundation will be at the Reunion in Orlando.

[gview file=”https://akuaana.org/AKUAANA/Documents/ChildLife_Foundation.pdf” height=”900px”]

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Inauguration of a new patient care building at AKU – the Jenabai Hussainali Shariff Building

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The Aga Khan University inaugurated the Jenabai Hussainali Shariff Building on its sprawling 84-acre Stadium Road campus in the hub of Karachi today.

Located right next to the main Hospital entrance to the campus, the five-floor, approximately 132,000-square-foot JHS Building – part of an ambitious expansion plan that envisages a series of ambulatory care buildings along the southern end of the campus – will allow the University Hospital to significantly expand the health care services it offers. The building will house outpatient clinics providing medical, same-day surgery and chemotherapy services.

The building was constructed over a two-year period starting October 2010 with generous donations cumulating to US$ 14.5 million from individuals and donor groups in Karachi and abroad, and from the hospital’s own contribution.

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Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Physicians come out on top

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Immigration Reform

By Naveen Bhora, Esq.

This week the U.S. Senate, led by the so-called “gang of eight,” released the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act”that has won the cautious approval of the White House and of advocates seeking an overhaul of the broken immigration system and, principally, a roadmap to citizenship for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.The bill also incorporates many provisions advocated by the International Medical Graduate Taskforce to protect physicians who practice in medically underserved communities and physicians engaging in graduate medical education.The provisions include:

  1. Greater contractual protections for physicians participating in the J-1 waiver program, such as a limit to number of on-call hours per week and malpractice insurance coverage.
  2. J-1 waivered physicians practicing in an underserved area whose employment terminates have a 120-day grace period to file a petition to commence employment at a new health care facility located in a medically underserved area.
  3. The number of Conrad Waiver slots allocated per state increases from 30 to 35 and can be further increased by 5 waivers slots per year based on usage.
  4. Physicians coming to the U.S. for graduate medical education or to take USMLEs can express dual intent (i.e. the intent to immigrate to the U.S.) and no longer need to profess to ties to home country.
  5. Physicians completing graduate medical education will automatically receive extension of status and employment authorization until October 1st when a request for continuation of nonimmigrant status has been submitted (such as an H-1B petition).
  6. J-2 spouses and children will no longer be subject to the two-year home residence requirement.

It is too early to celebrate. This bill still has a long road to travel before becoming law — it needs to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee, pass a full vote (60) in the Senate and be reconciled with a corresponding bill from the House of Representatives, which has yet to be introduced. Accordingly, we encourage all physicians to contact senators and house representatives to support these provisions.

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