Featured Alumni Archives

Featured Alumnus: Dr. Abrar Qureshi, AKU ’93

December 23, 2018 By Saeed

As part of the 25-year anniversary celebrations for the Class of 1993, we are pleased to highlight Abrar Qureshi. As you will see from the conversation below, Abrar is another star alumnus and brings another level of community service. We are very excited to present this profile to you.

Faisal Qureshi, ’93
Past President, 2016 – 17

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Dr. Abrar Qureshi

1. Give me a quick summary of what you do exactly?

I am currently Professor and Chair, Department of Dermatology, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, and Professor of Epidemiology at the Brown School of Public Health – my time is split in the four main areas of academic medicine, including administrative (managing the operational and fiscal affairs of a department and interacting with a physician-led faculty practice plan as well as three hospital systems), clinical care (my special interest lies in auto-immune and inflammatory skin diseases), teaching (we have our own dermatology residency program, research fellows and lots of interest from medical students) and research (mainly molecular epidemiology in human studies, bridging clinical research and basic science).

2. What aspects of your education in AKU helped you the most in deciding your future trajectory? What skills did AKU help you develop to help you succeed now?

Looking back, there seem to be three facets of AKU education that have facilitated my career. First, our medical training was rigorous, both in terms of breadth (covered all aspects of medical specialties) and depth (emphasis on attention to detail). That training certainly has helped bring gravitas to every day clinical care and I think distinguishes all of us as thoughtful and deliberate clinicians. Second, we were ingratiated with pure grit – the expectations were so high and odds seemingly insurmountable that we became familiar with adversity and I think at times welcomed challenging situations. This has ensured dogged persistence in the face of adversity! Third, we had so much material and information thrown at us simultaneously that we became outstanding at multitasking while able to deliver on specific tasks along the way, an important skill set to have.

3. Success in academics is often associated with publications and you seem to have developed a good mechanism to continuously publish. Is there a secret?

Maintaining excitement about a disease area or disease process can certainly drive research interests and publications – there is nothing more inspiring than identifying a specific problem/question in the clinical setting, then going back to the lab to look for focused answers and come back to the bedside with life-style altering measures or therapeutic insights. This usually happens when least expected – could be an observation after seeing a small group of patients respond to an off-label therapy or managing an adverse outcome of therapy. However, keeping an open mind and developing a sensitive nose for these opportunities is vital.
The other secret to success on publications is attracting and mentoring smart young people (who are much smarter than you!). In order to train the rising stars, you do need to provide the environment with resources that enable success, e.g. IRB support for clinical researchers or core services for basic scientists. Mentoring junior faculty and fellows/residents keeps me at the cutting edge. I feel constantly challenged. The challenges lead into novel projects followed by development of new insights. If you are really fortunate and it all comes together, you may also end up publishing highly cited and high impact manuscripts!

4. You have been involved with many relief efforts across the world. Tell me more about that? What type of work do you do?

A few years back, as the Syrian crisis unfolded, my wife Laura and I wanted to help, to do something, anything. A number of dominoes fell at the right time, including a meeting with Dr. Hisham Al-Khunkun who had trained in medicine in Amman, Jordan and had worked in the refugee camps himself. Around the same time, we learned about the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS). Then I was off to my first mission trip to Amman, Jordan with SAMS in January 2016! As the refugees have been displaced for a few years, there was a major need for management of chronic conditions, including in mental health, dermatology, women’s health and primary care. It was a somewhat scary but fulfilling trip, where about 60+ physicians, dentists and nurses came together from all around the US and the world to work together. The morale was great and camaraderie was heart-warming! SAMS (see below) presence on the ground was impressive and I was at a refugee camp within hours of landing in Amman.

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While I have worked with SAMS, Laura and the kids have worked with two other NGO’s on the ground in Jordan, volunteering in makeshift camps, typically situated 2-5 miles from the Syrian border – see below (Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD) and United Muslim Relief (UMR)).

5. Your family has been very active with these efforts? What lessons have they learned and how can other families emulate your work?

Unplanned and unexpected, the humanitarian work has had an impact on our children. We have been back for two more trips and Laura suggested that we take our children.
The experience of working in the camps and interacting with other children their age was eye-opening for our teenagers, Afnaan, Daanish and Faizaan. Initial surprise and disappointment quickly transformed into hope and problem-solving. An important lesson they have learned is that when asked if they want or need something, displaced children do not ask for material ‘things’. Instead they want to be treated as just another child anywhere in the world, to play, and to listen to as well as tell their stories. In response, Afnaan and Daanish have co-founded a non-profit ‘Zumaan.com’ (implying ‘time’ or ‘era’) to enable displaced children anywhere to send in their stories via audio recordings. Even our younger children Iliyaan (11) and Zaahra (5) came back asking lots of questions, some of which we could not provide any answers.
We have been fortunate to have traveled safely and back a few times. Initially, it was a bit awkward explaining to people that we were taking all our children along on the trips – the immediate question always was, how do you know it is safe? Now that we have contacts on the ground, we would be glad to share any information we can to allow other families to be able to partake in this humanitarian work.

6. If an AKU grad wanted to get involved with your work, what should they do? How do they prepare and how can they reach you?

As a family we have worked with three organizations over the last couple of years, the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD) and United Muslim Relief (UMR). These organizations all have excellent presence on the ground, and have specific areas of focus. SAMS provides timely and much needed high quality medical care and medicines within the larger UNHCR managed camps as well as through local health clinics across Jordan. HHRD and UMR provide humanitarian assistance spanning basic necessities of living such as shelter, food and clothing, as well as education and rehabilitation. All our work thus far through these three organizations has been with Syrian refugees in Jordan, although we have plans to visit Bangladesh in the near future.
Our goal has been to be useful and helpful when we arrive at a refugee camp. Planning ahead and learning about the non-profits we were going to work with was very important a priority. We also had to know the rules various organizations work under, e.g. to work with SAMS as a physician, you need to be registered with the health authorities in Jordan long before arrival. Fortunately all the planning and research before each trip was very productive and helped prepare us well for the situation on the ground. We would be delighted to share this information if there is interest among the alumni.
We would welcome AKU alumni reaching out to each of these organizations and offer their help – I would also be personally delighted to connect our alumni with specific individuals at each of these incredible organizations. We would also love to learn about similar humanitarian work that other alumni are engaged in so that more opportunities are available to all of us. Much is needed and we can do very little individually, but collectively we can really have a major impact. Although we have felt overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the problems during and after each trip, there has some solace in the grateful smiles we were greeted with at each camp we visited and the relationships we forged with other volunteers from around the world.

7. How would you like to see AKUAANA engage with alumni? What aspects of an alumni association are most important to you?

I am glad we have a vibrant alumni organization and kudos to you and others who have worked hard behind the scenes to make it happen! It is helpful to see AKUAANA helping connect us as a group, despite alumni now located all over the world. Couple of thoughts and resources that would not be very costly but may help bring us together in the real world:

1. Develop opportunities to volunteer/give back to non-AKU opportunities: It may be helpful to have a number of volunteer opportunities around the world (including Pakistan) where alumni can choose to volunteer. To get the ball rolling, I would suggest a brief one question survey of volunteer work alumni are engaged – this would help catalog a series of opportunities while simultaneously identifying a couple of leaders/resources for each opportunity. AKUAANA could be the hub for coordinating this effort!

2. Develop opportunities to volunteer/give back to AKU: We can create opportunities for alumni to volunteer in specific areas to boost AKU’s and other related organizations (e.g. AKF, AKRSP). Alumni could volunteer in their areas of interest that also fulfill AKU needs, such as development/advancement, education, research etc. To begin this process, a first step may be to begin formal conversations between the AKUAANA and AKU leadership, identify possibilities and set priorities before reaching out to the alumni to volunteer.

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The AKUAANA website will feature an AKU alumnus from the classes celebrating their 20th, 25th and 30th year anniversary, over the year. Our aim is for profiles to highlight various aspects of alumni careers/lives – academic and research, clinical, private practice, political achievements, social activism, philanthropy etc.

Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, send your nomination and information by email to president@akuaana.org

Featured Alumnus: Dr. Aasma Shaukat, AKU ’98

June 10, 2018 By Saeed

Dr. Aasma Shaukat

As part of the anniversary celebrations of our alumni, we are highlighting an alumnus from each class achieving a milestone. As part of the 20th year anniversary for the Class of 1998, we kick off this series with Aasma Shaukat, Class of 1998. She has achieved tremendous success since graduating and we are very excited to present this profile to you.

Faisal Qureshi, ’93
Past President, 2016 – 17

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1. Give me a quick summary of what you do exactly?

I am section chief of the gastroenterology section at the VA Hospital in Minnesota and I help run the GI fellowship at the University of Minnesota. I am a clinical researcher with focus on colon cancer screening and prevention.

2. What aspects of your education at AKU helped you the most in deciding your future trajectory?

AKU instilled in me the ability to think critically, question the status quo and come up with research questions and big picture questions that need to be answered to solve the world’s largest public health problems. AKU provided me with a well-rounded exposure to basic and clinical fields.

3. What started you in gastroenterology?

I developed a strong interest in clinical research towards final year and pursued an MPH and post-doc at Johns Hopkins before my clinical training. During that time, I developed an interest in colon cancer prevention, where I saw a large need and potentially big impact in reducing cancer incidence and mortality. I went into residency with the plan of pursuing gastroenterology and focusing on colon cancer both clinical and from a research interest.

4. What type of community work do you participate in?

I’ve worked with non-profits, such as Preventing Colon Cancer (PCC) to improve colon cancer awareness and screening. March is colon cancer awareness month and I have written articles for newspapers, given radio interviews and organized local events through the University to promote colon cancer prevention.

5. What about national work in gastroenterology?

I’ve served on various committees for our three main GI societies on work related to quality metrics for colonoscopy, enhancing colonoscopy practice and other issues important to gastroenterologists. I am the American College of Gastroenterology’s Governor for Minnesota, which means I get to collect information on issues faced by gastroenterologists in the state and present them at a national forum to look for solutions.
I have also met legislators in DC to advocate for improving research funding and removing barriers to colon cancer screening. I am a member of the US multi-society task force, which writes guidelines for colon cancer screening and surveillance for the US. I am a member of the VA’s field advisory committee, that advises central office on policy for the entire VA.
It seems like a lot and it is, but it really gives me an opportunity to influence policy in our field.

6. What advice would you give young graduates from AKU and especially our young women in choosing and maintaining careers? How about mentorship opportunities?

Follow your heart and if there’s a field or area that really pulls at your heart, pursue it. Try and see where you’d like to be in 10 years and set long term and short terms goals to get you there. Never take no for an answer and ask for help.
There is nothing that women can’t do these days as effectively as men. In fact, recent research indicates women may do many things in medicine better than men! Women should not feel they have to give up anything, and it is possible to have a work life balance, a family and a successful academic career.
My husband is a gastroenterologist as well, which makes for a busy household. It does take a village to raise a family! To make it work, I rely on help. I have a nanny, good friends I can count and occasionally rely on grandmas when in a pinch. I do online shopping, even for groceries and have them delivered. I plan the week ahead and do some prep work for meals and tasks on the weekend. My husband and I have a ‘divide and conquer’ approach to complete tasks, and we frequently trade off. We also try to be mindful of giving each other some personal time to do things that we are passionate about. My husband enjoys biking and I enjoy running and we have set days to do these activities.
We have to be creative some days to fit it all in, and it doesn’t always work, but we do our best. For example, some days when my youngest one wakes up at the crack of dawn, I put her in a jogging stroller and go for a run. Some days I will go for a short run after putting kids to bed. Being flexible helps but keep your goals in mind. I also travel a lot for presentations, conferences and meetings, which is tough with the kids’ schedule, but lining up help in advance helps. It is definitely a give and take, and as long as you are willing to be realistic in your expectations and organized, you can make it work. I am very fortunate to have a husband who supports me as much as I support him.

7. You pursued an MPH very early after graduating from AKU. How did this come about? What drove you to do this? How did it impact your long-term success?

I was inspired by several clinical faculty in medicine, psychiatry and yes, CHS. The field trips to ‘kachi abadi’ clinics during the CHS rotation exposed me to the concept of population health, and how we need to consider healthcare for the severely disadvantaged. I was also exposed to thinking about a clinical problem and framing it into a research project during the research project portion of the rotation. I knew I wanted to be a clinical researcher. During my electives one of my faculty told me that if I was serious about research I should pursue an MPH. I wanted to do it right away, and not interrupt clinical training.
It also helped timing-wise, since we graduate off cycle to be able to apply for residency. What better use of that time than an MPH! I came back from my electives in my final year and told all my class fellows that MPH is the way to go. I took the GRE and was fortunate to be accepted at Johns Hopkins that same year.
I focused on Epidemiology and Biostatistics during my MPH and learned the statistical software STATA. That enabled me to conduct studies independently and get an early start on my career. The MPH has been tremendously helpful in my career, for writing papers, asking a focused clinical question and designing study method and clinical trials. I am also able to appraise medical literature and research studies critically for patient care.

8. How many women division chiefs are there from AKU? Looking back, what aspects of your time at AKU prepped you to make the career leaps you’ve made?

I know of very few. Nasia (Class of ’95) is the chief of research at University of Wisconsin; My colleague Ayesha Irshad (Class of ’98) is the chair of psychiatry at AKU. I met Anita Zaidi, who is chair of Pediatrics at AKU now, but I got to know her before she left the US. I think AKU breeds ambition and that is what influenced me.

9. Writing grants and successful funding can be quite daunting; what tips do you have for our audience?

It is daunting! But like anything else, practice, practice, practice. Try to write every day, and like any other muscle, it improves with time. Try writing papers, reviews or anything that may interest you. Write with purpose and clarity. The best grants are the simplest ones. There are also grant writing workshops that can be helpful. Don’t be afraid of failure. Learn to handle rejection. The only thing funded people have over you is more rejections. Get a research team together if possible and ask for feedback on your writing.

10. Looking back at your still very academically active career, were there any specific branch points/mentors that helped you make those correct decisions?

Dr. Faiz Ahmed was chair of Psychiatry and mentor for my student research project that I presented at a student conference in Germany. I really enjoyed that experience and those were the earliest seeds of a research career. During my elective, after listening to my ideas, my attending suggested I do an MPH, which I decided to pursue. That was a pivotal moment. Dr. Aamir Khan (Class of 93) was a post-doc at Johns Hopkins and he gave me great advice on career and life! He also helped me find a research position.

11. Do you think that the balance changes as women start residency, then become faculty and then have older kids?

It sure does. Having a family and kids really changes your focus and adds complexity to your life. But there is also a richness that it adds and I do believe you can make them work together. Get help, get family and create a good social network. Don’t feel guilty about spending time with family or taking time off. I always have to remind myself that academic life is like running a marathon, not a sprint. You are in it for the long run, so take time and enjoy the journey.

12. If an AKU grad wanted to get involved with your work, what should they do? How do they prepare and how can they reach you?

Contact me and we can discuss your goals and interests and come up with something valuable for you to do. To prepare, it is always helpful to think of focused questions you want answered, that may be critical to your career at that point, and also have an idea of what you’d like to do. A well thought-out, put together plan is the first step to plotting your success to that 10-year goal.

13. What personal traits do you think have helped you succeed?

Hard work, perseverance, handling rejection and patience. I think we all have a healthy dose of grit in us, much of which was instilled during the (often grueling) years of AKU.

14. What do you think of AKUAANA? Where do you think the alumni organization is successful and what do you think it should be doing?

I support AKUAANA’s missions and I am very thankful for the services it provides for AKU graduates and alumni. I think it is successful at connecting people, providing good role models and inspiring the younger AKU generations. It could formalize the mentorship and pairing of students to alumni in North America. I have found AKU alumni to be very helpful and supportive and I try to do the same.

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Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, send your nomination and information by email to president@akuaana.org

Featured Alumnus: Dr. Anita Zaidi, AKU ’88

August 3, 2016 By Saeed

Dr. Anita Zaidi Photo credit: (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

It has been a while since we have had an alumnus highlighted on our website. To restart this feature, we are highlighting Anita Zaidi, Class of 1988, who is currently the Director of the Enteric and Diarrheal Disease program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Haider Warraich, Class of 2009, one of our past featured alumni put this interview together.

Faisal Qureshi
Immediate Past President, 2016 – 17

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When asked about the event that defines who she is, Anita Zaidi (AZ to those who have the privilege of knowing her well) doesn’t talk about how she was recruited by Bill Gates himself to join his foundation, nor does she tell me about when she was nominated the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at AKU, or when she graduated at the top of her class in medical school. She instead tells me of how, after graduating from medical school, she spent a year in Gilgit working to improve the health facilities there.

“I always had the seeds of interest in research but this brought it all together. We live such a sheltered life in Pakistan and are not exposed to the problems of poor people. I stayed in Booni, where they had a Shigella epidemic that was traced to a chashma (stream). There was a Measles outbreak in the Waacaan corridor right next to the border and I had to stay there too. This was my calling.”

Knowing AZ, this wasn’t surprising, but what I really wanted to know was how her parents allowed her to go in the first place. “I don’t even remember asking my parents, I remember just telling them. We were an all girls family and our parents really wanted us to reach our full potential. If anything, they were always trying to slow me down because I worked all the time, studied all the time.”

The role AZ’s parents played in her life is clear. Her father was an anesthesiologist by training but his true passion was sports. He trained himself in sports medicine and became an international authority on doping and performance enhancing drugs. He would eventually become a judge for the International Hockey Federation. It was her father who nudged her into picking AKU over Dow, a considerable risk given that AKU hadn’t yet finished the facility to house the students in. “I found out that I was the first person to come in and give my application.” She recalled the staff member who received her application telling her, “Hum baray khush hoye koi apply bhi kar raha hai (We are pretty happy that at least some one is applying).”

After graduating from AKU and after her year in Gilgit, AZ went to Duke University for a residency in pediatrics. At that time, her husband, Dr Saad Shafqat was completing his PhD in neurosciences. After finishing her residency, the couple moved to Boston for an Infectious Diseases fellowship at Children’s Hospital Boston. Once this concluded, she moved back to Pakistan where she joined AKU as a faculty member, and moved up the ranks until she was elected the Chair of the Department.

During her time at AKU, she was well-known as one of the best faculty mentors and helped many students such as myself advance their careers. Even as she got busier and busier, she made it a point to keep mentoring students and residents. “I really enjoy working with young people. Infectious Diseases was not an established field back then. Inspiring young people to go into this field and helping people in Pakistan develop interesting careers was very gratifying.”

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013: Anita Zaidi (center) who heads the pediatrics department at AKU, shows a project plan to her colleagues. She won a $1 million grant to fight early child mortality in a small fishing village in southern Pakistan in a contest financed by an American entrepreneur to find innovative ways to save lives, the Caplow Children’s Prize announced Tuesday. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

But it was an innocuous email, which she only glanced at before boarding a flight to Maldives, which lured her back to North America. The email was from the Bill & Melinda Gates Fund who were hoping to recruit her to be the Director of their global enteric diseases program. After months of deliberation, it was only after she flew to Seattle when she realized how much of an impact she could have in this position. A big selling point was Bill Gates himself who she spent an hour with. “He (Bill Gates) is a really amazing person – he knows so much it is mind blowing. Our conversation was very wide ranging.” She paraphrased him asking, questions from, “In Pashtun culture, it is completely alien to beat women; so why are they (the Taliban) attacking female polio workers?” to “What do you think of KESC as a consumer?”

In her current position based out of Seattle, AZ is leading an initiative with the bold ambition of ridding the world of diarrheal deaths in children by 2030. She told me that currently, diarrheal deaths affect 4 in 1000 live births and that their goal is to bring that down to 1 in 1000. While this sounds radical, countries such as Sri Lanka have already achieved rates of less than 1 in 1000.

While her strategy involves spreading the use of effective vaccines against rotavirus and developing new vaccines for other common organisms, she also hopes to understand the mysterious process of stunting – in which kids’ bodies and brains stop growing, primarily manifest as a lack of appetite. “We don’t understand it biologically: how does living in a fecally contaminated environment affect your gut leading to the syndrome in which you don’t get hungry? We think it is related to the exposure to highly contaminated environments leading to bacterial overload, leading to overcharged immune system, leading to appetite suppression.”

As we age, not only do we start to grow into our future selves, we also start to outgrow those people or things we looked up to. When I was young, the most imposing thing I had ever seen was the fridge. If my mother wanted to prevent me from having something (candy, chocolates etc.) she would place them on top of the fridge. Soon though, I was tall enough to see the top of the fridge, and it turned out to be much dustier and boring than I had initially envisioned it. Something similar happens to the people we look up to, whose imperfections and inadequacies only become more evident as we grow older. Anita Zaidi, however, is one of the few people I know who only seems to get taller and more remarkable as time goes by.

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The AKUAANA website features an AKU alumnus every quarter. We want profiles to highlight various aspects of alumni careers/lives – academic and research, clinical, private practice, political achievements, social activism, philanthropy etc.

Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, email your nomination and information by email to secretary@akuaana.org.

Featured Alumnus: Dr. Uzma Iqbal, AKU ’96

February 15, 2015 By Saeed

Dr. Uzma Iqbal
Photo credit: Syracuse Woman Magazine/Cindy Bell, Focus Studio Inc.

We have featured many of our alumni on our web page. Publishing this quarter’s Featured Alumnus gives me great pleasure because it is our first female alumnus. Uzma Iqbal is a graduate of the class of 1996 and is a cardiologist in Syracuse, NY. I had to make some difficult choices in regards to what questions to ask her, but it turns out I should not have worried. She has answered with the level of grace that I am accustomed to when it comes to Uzma. I hope our alumni find her perspective as informative and inspiring as I have.

If you would like to nominate someone as a Featured Alumnus, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Faisal G. Qureshi

Give me a quick summary of what you do exactly?

I am a non-invasive cardiologist in private practice for the past 10 years. I am also the President of the Syracuse American Heart Association / American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA). My passion is the AHA’s Go Red Campaign to raise awareness among women about heart disease. I spend a lot of time in the community speaking to women’s groups as well as speaking about this topic in the media. I am also always on the lookout for leaders in the community who share the same passion and can help educate the public about heart disease symptoms and prevention. I am also helping to organize a women physician network for Syracuse.

What aspects of your education in AKU helped you the most in deciding your future trajectory?

Community Health Sciences was by far the biggest influence on my choice of career and my interest in increasing community awareness. One has to get to know one’s community to be able to bring any kind of change.

What started you in cardiology?

I got married during my third year of medical school and moved to the U.S. right after graduation. While studying for the USMLEs, I started working on research projects with an AKU alumna, Dr. Momina Mastoor, who was completing her cardiology fellowship at the Washington Hospital Center. Dr Mastoor introduced me to Dr. Joseph Lindsey, Chair of Cardiology at WHC, who took me under his wing and convinced me to pursue a fellowship. Dr. Lindsay became my mentor and I still seek his advice to this day.

What type of community work do you participate in? What about national work in cardiology?

When I first moved to the Syracuse area, there were very few female cardiologists in the area. I quickly realized that heart disease among women is where I wanted to focus, and if I was going to make a difference, I had to be more connected to the community. Shortly after I moved to the Syracuse area, I started talking to small groups of women in the community. I would basically accept any invitation to talk as long as there were people who would listen. It was at one of these volunteer talks that I was noticed by the local AHA/ASA staff. They asked me to join their board and later asked me to be the President.

Over the past three years, our organization has had a significant impact on improving community and strengthening the financial stability of the local chapter. The Syracuse AHA has become a community leader in year-round education and awareness campaigns relating to women and heart disease, the value of workplace wellness activities, and the instruction of Hands-Only CPR. The board also has a strong voice in New York State advocacy, helping the state pass the Pulse-Ox Bill and the Hands-Only CPR Bill. The first now requires all newborns to receive a non-invasive test at birth which can help identify predisposition for heart disease. The second calls for the State Board of Regents to require Hands-Only CPR as a high-school graduation requirement. Fiscally, the Syracuse Board has recruited community leaders to helm the two major fundraising campaigns – Go Red for Women and Heart Walk, and these campaigns have had steady four-year growth as a result of these efforts. My proudest moment was when the Syracuse AHA/ASA Board was recognized as a Gold Level Board by the National American Heart Association.

What advice would you give young graduates from AKU and especially our better halves in choosing and maintaining careers?

You have to do what makes you happy and excited. You have to embrace change because in Medicine everything keeps changing from the treatments you prescribe to the way we are allowed to practice. If you resist change, there tends to be a lot of frustration which leads to physician burnout.

How do you balance your home life and career? Is it harder or easier to have a spouse who is not in healthcare?

I learned early on that one can’t have everything. If you really want to have some balance, it is important to have a good support system at home – whether it’s your spouse, household help, family, neighbors or friends. You cannot advance in your career, and be a perfect housewife, mother, friend, cook etc. As a woman, it’s even more difficult because we have more responsibilities early on in our careers with bearing and raising children. I feel lucky that my husband is a self-employed businessman and can adjust his schedule so that we can share the responsibilities of raising our children.

Do you think that this balance changes as female graduates start residency, then become faculty and then have older kids?

Absolutely. Each stage has its own challenges and hence the advice to embrace change. We as AKU grads start out coming to a new country with big dreams. Being a woman poses different issues to be addressed, starting with when to have kids, how to find a job that would allow enough time for the kids, and how to move your career forward when your kids are still small. You have to take each stage and face the challenges it poses. I think what really helps is to be able to talk to people with similar experiences and thankfully we have enough AKU graduates in every field that would be more than happy to help out.

What advice would you give our young graduates?

Do what you love. Find time to network as much as you can to find your niche. It helps to talk to people and share their experiences. Be open to all opportunities. Do dream big but start out small by creating your place in the community you belong to.

If an AKU grad wanted to get involved with your work, what should they do? How do they prepare and how can they reach you?

I would be pleased to help out anybody looking to work with the American Heart Association or in cardiology. They can reach me by email at .

What personal traits do you think have helped you succeed?

Finding my passion and being a good listener. The first one was the toughest for me but once I found my passion, the opportunities kept coming.

Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, email your nomination and information by email to .

Featured Alumnus: Dr. Khan Mohammad Siddiqui, AKU ’96

July 31, 2014 By Saeed

Dr. Khan Mohammad Siddiqui

I have known Khan for over 20 years now. At AKU, we shared an ethnic background and the same home town of Hyderabad. It gave us an opportunity to develop a natural friendship which has grown over the years. What escaped me however, was his explosive growth in informatics and software development over the last 15 years. This growth has allowed him to move from a clinical faculty position in Radiology to the President/CTO of a multimillion dollar healthcare startup. Higi.com is perched at the interface of healthcare and social media. We thought he would make a wonderful addition to our growing roster of featured alumni at AKUAANA.org.

Faisal G. Qureshi
President,
AKU Alumni Association of North America
August, 2014

Give me a quick summary of what you do exactly?

My full-time job is that of an entrepreneur, building software startups. Currently, I am the President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of a healthcare technology startup in Chicago called Higi. I joined Higi as the founding CEO and board member in 2012. Higi is a healthcare technology company that empowers and motivates people to actively engage with their health. It does so by bringing basic vital screening to the masses with a self-service health kiosk and aggregating fitness data from wearable devices and tracking apps. Higi then incentivizes and motivates consumers to live a healthy lifestyle through its challenge and rewards program. As Higi’s CTO, I am responsible for all research, product development and strategy for the company.

Additionally, I am also co-director, Center for Biomedical Imaging and Informatics, and Visiting Associate Professor at The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology & Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University. I am the current Chair of the IT and Informatics Committee and member of the Commission for Research and Informatics for the American College of Radiology. In this role, I am involved with multiple boards for various technology companies in the US. I am also advisor for Chicago Health 2.0 and MATTER Chicago (a health tech incubator in Chicago).

Before joining Higi, I was Physician Executive and Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, responsible for engineering execution in the Health Solutions Group for cloud health products as well as personal health records. One of my key achievements at Microsoft was stimulating computer vision research that allowed Xbox Kinect to recognize human anatomy in video frames.

I am a Radiologist by training. Before Microsoft, I was at the University of Maryland Medical Center as Program Director for MRI and Radiology Informatics.

What aspects of your education at AKU helped you the most in deciding your future trajectory?

While at AKU, it never occurred to me that my career would lead me towards informatics, Health IT, software development nor that I would be building software startups. In hindsight, training in AKU helped develop a framework for critical thinking and problem solving and it provided key mentors who influenced the career trajectory I am at today.

What type of work do you do in Pakistan? With AKU?

In the past I have mentored AKU faculty and staff interested in health IT and cardiac imaging by sponsoring them as fellows at University of Maryland in Baltimore. Currently, I am an advisor for the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America (OPEN) in Chicago and advise Pakistani entrepreneurs on various aspects of growth of their startups as it relates to technology and healthcare. I also advise the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Ministry of Commerce, Pakistan and Pakistani Embassy on issues related to healthcare technology. On a regular basis, I have Pakistani entrepreneurs reach out to me for advice regarding anything from funding to technology architecture, to market penetration in US or global markets.

What advice would you give medical students in choosing a career in healthcare IT?

My advice would be for not just those who want to pursue a career in healthcare IT but for all in healthcare. At the heart of it, clinical care is Informatics i.e., information science. We collect data, filter it into information and transform information into knowledge every day. For example, imagine a patient’s blood pressure is 100/50. That’s data. Suppose that patient has a ten-year history of blood pressures of 150/100. That’s information. Suppose that the patient has a known history of coronary artery disease and is now experiencing chest pain. The sudden drop in blood pressure could indicate a serious myocardial infarction in progress. That’s knowledge. Taking IT tools to collect data, extract information from it and transform it into knowledge is Informatics.

As physicians, we need to change the way we think about healthcare. In the current healthcare landscape, every facet of clinical practice involves health IT and informatics. This is true for both developed and emerging markets. The next big phase in healthcare revolution is dependent on biosensors and big data analytics driving clinical decision. Some level of knowledge of health IT and understanding of its application in clinical practice is extremely important for the future of healthcare. It is important for healthcare practitioners of the future to be able to communicate with their technology partners to implement or create effective tools. Disease surveillance, treatment adherence, clinical decision support, contextual delivery of knowledge at point of care all require understanding of informatics and health IT.

Success in academics is often associated with publications. You seem to have developed a good mechanism to continuously publish. Is there a secret?

Curiosity! Always ask questions and figure out how things work and why? My research has evolved in a spiral – i.e., one paper leads to more questions, which leads to more research and hence more publications and on and on. Whatever I have done in my career has been tied somewhere to something in the past. For example – exercise physiology modeling work that I did with Dr. H.R. Ahmad (Professor of Physiology) at AKU in the 1990s ended up leading to my understanding of how we can estimate calorie consumption during game play with Xbox Kinect at Microsoft. As I mentioned earlier, one of the key technologies I worked on at Microsoft was to automatically recognize human anatomic structures in medical images. While we were doing this work, the Xbox team was trying to solve a similar problem of recognizing human anatomy in video frames for a project called Natal (now called Kinect). They ended up using the same techniques that we built for recognition of human anatomy during game play. As we continued to work with the Kinect team, one of the ideas we had was to be able to measure calorie consumption during game play (even for non-fitness games), by recognizing muscle movement, measuring work effort by each body part and converting that into calories burnt. We used the same techniques to measure O₂ consumption and CO₂ production during the development process that I used in the Physiology Lab at AKU during our exercise physiology experiments with Dr. H. R. Ahmad. For me, this was an example of how knowledge from one domain can be applied into a completely different domain to innovate and create amazing experiences.

If an AKU grad wanted to get involved with your work, what should they do? How do they prepare and how can they reach you?

First and foremost, keep an open mind. You never know where you start and what that will lead to. The key to success is to identify the problem you are trying to solve. AKU grads or students interested in exploring entrepreneurship or a career in clinical informatics can reach me at .

What personal traits do you think have helped you succeed?

Not sure I can pin point one myself. What others tell me is my ability to communicate across boundaries of domains and knowledge, help simplify the problem others are trying to solve. I do try to practice certain traits, although I will admit I’m not consistent. First, is to always be a student, look for self-improvement and learn new things. I think this habit is what has enabled me to succeed in a career in Technology. Second, not to be afraid of failure, but fail fast and move on. Third, surround yourself with smart people, if you don’t know something, ask those who may know. Lastly, be humble and listen to others – young or old. You never know who gives you the best idea, correct answer or solves your problem. All these things are great, but none of this would be possible without having a supporting spouse and family. I have been very lucky to have an amazing spouse (AKU alumnus Faaiza Mahmood, ’97), who has supported me to make some difficult decisions including leaving full time clinical medicine.

Editor’s Final Thoughts: Khan is being quite modest. He has always had a desire to learn new skills and not allow any barriers to diminish his craving to succeed. Khan is also a great teacher, an innovator and above all a great friend. There is nothing he would not do for his colleagues and his friends. I strongly recommend anyone from any background with an interest in Medical Informatics to reach out to him for advice and direction.

The AKUAANA team looks forward to Khan’s continued success and hopes that he continues to inspire us all.

Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, email your nomination and information by email to .

Featured Alumnus: Dr. Adnan Ali Hyder, AKU ’90

April 22, 2014 By AdministratoR

Dr. Adnan Ali Hyder

I have had the pleasure of knowing Adnan Ali Hyder (MBBS, Class of 1990) for the last 25 years. At AKU, he was 3 years my senior and at the time our interaction was very polite. Fast forward 5 years later and he opened up his home to me when I first moved to Washington DC. During that time Adnan arranged the first AKU Alumni Association Reunion at former Dean James Bartlett’s house in 1996 and his contribution to our Association has been constant.

Adnan has prospered over the last two decades and as I understood more fully his sphere of influence, I felt that he would be a perfect candidate for our Featured Alumni section at AKUAANA.org. As you will read, Adnan has reached the pinnacle of academia in the world yet when you meet him, your interaction will leave you inspired and proud of this AKU graduate.

Faisal G. Qureshi
President,
AKU Alumni Association of North America

Give me a quick summary of what you do exactly.

I have many titles and responsibilities so I am just going to list them for your readers.

I am a tenured professor of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA.
I am the Director of the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU), a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Injuries, Violence and Accident Prevention. I helped establish the unit in 2008 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to respond to the growing burden of injuries worldwide. We work to identify effective solutions to the growing burden of injuries in low- and middle-income populations, influence public policy and practice and advance the field of injury prevention throughout the world through research, collaboration and training.
I am also the Director of the Health Systems program, within the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health. The principal goal of Health Systems is to improve the capacity of communities to deliver the best possible preventive and curative care to their respective members. Our multidisciplinary faculty work with local governments / community leaders, ministries of health, community-based health and human service agencies, universities, and research institutes to achieve this goal.
I am also the Associate Director for Global Bioethics at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. In this position I provide strategic guidance for global engagement for research, education and service in bioethics. This position allows me to continue my passion for bioethics – one that I have had since doing Community Health Sciences (CHS) rotations at AKU! I also co-direct the NIH/Fogarty sponsored African Bioethics Training program which has been running since 2000.
Finally, I have been a consultant on public health, strategy and research for international organizations such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the United Nations.

What aspects of your education at AKU helped you the most in deciding your future trajectory?

My first response is to say the entire AKU experience – all 5 years with the rotations, calls and interactions – has shaped me and my thinking. Of course, within that sphere of experiences some affected me more than others – the revealing visit to a katchi abadi, the first patient I clerked, the anxiety of a medical rotation with Dr. Vellani, and the stress in surgical rounds with Dr. Muhstaq – stand out. The mentoring I received from our faculty taught me discipline, attention to detail, and handling stress (this last point is a really important task). However, the single most important impact on me was the influence of Professor Jack Bryant, our chair of CHS. Through him I imbibed the love for causal analysis, social justice and population based inquiry – and eventually public health.

People may not know that my first job out of medical school (1990) was with Aga Khan Health Services in Gilgit, Northern Pakistan, as manager for a primary healthcare program. This experience – where I was responsible for upgrading a medical centre for surgery, a staff of 20, and even the architecture (we developed a soak pit for the refuse) – influenced me to think about a career where clinical and public health work might co-exist. That thought evolved later but it was a great goal to chase for my early career. Living and working in a remote area and being an independent decision maker in a micro-health systems helped shaped my interest in systems of care for populations.

What type of work do you in Pakistan? With AKU?

I have been fortunate to work in Pakistan since I was a doctoral student – and have worked with both public and private health sectors – in public health training, research and service. For example, I have helped the Pakistan Medical and Research Council, the Health Services Academy, and the Ministry of Health in various research studies and programs over the years. These efforts have helped with curricular innovations in the masters of public health in Islamabad; analysis of the first national health examination survey of Pakistan; and developing terms of reference for a national ethics committee in the country.

I have also been privileged to work with AKU since 1998 – when I did my first joint research on child health – through the Geneva based Global Forum for Health Research. Since then I have been lucky to have maintained an active portfolio of work with AKU. I have worked with AKU to conduct research on ethics and run short term training programs; and served as advisor to the development of the masters in bioethics program at AKU. I have worked on child injuries, analyzed information collected in emergency rooms all over Pakistan, developed an injury hazard assessment tool, and helped pilot test a home injury prevention program.

Research capacity development in trauma and injuries has been the core of my work in recent times; and this has involved close collaboration with the Department of Emergency Medicine and my friend Junaid Razzak (MBBS’94). This Johns Hopkins-AKU collaboration that we run is now 9 years old and has been continuously funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s Fogarty International Center – and helped us conduct sentinel research on emergency care and train a cohort of professionals at AKU. In fact we have 5 trainees this year (2013-14) in our program and to-date they have been a majority of very smart young women health professionals.

What advice would you give medical students in choosing a career in public health?

I prefer to brainstorm with people and not “give” advice – but I believe that medical students have an array of opportunities in the 21^st century. Medicine is not a single field but a composite of several disciplines and professions that work together for human health – one individual at a time. It is therefore critical for students to appreciate that medicine is based on evidence – and the collection, analysis and interpretation of evidence is a vital skill and the sooner they acquire it the better. Second, medicine is a set of technical skills which can be used for multiple types of careers such as medical practice, clinical research, public health, human rights, bioethics, genetics, bioengineering, m/e-health amongst others. Medicine gives us the “opportunity” to access these pathways, explore them and focus our energy to one or more of them for a lifetime. And finally, there is no short cut to hard work – putting in the hours, perseverance, dedication – these are hallmarks of future success, irrespective of the specific career.

I hope young professionals think about these issues and appreciate that they are privileged and with that status comes responsibility – to themselves, their families and society – and public health allows one way to fulfill these goals. Public health can be a career, or a part-time job, or a passion – in all cases our contributions should be high quality and exemplary.

Success in academics is often associated with publications. You seem to have developed a good mechanism to continuously publish. Is there a secret?

There is no secret, but two things are needed – putting in the time and the necessary hard work. I tell my junior faculty and colleagues to work on a paper every day; to put aside some time (even 30 minutes) every single day (nearly!) to work on a paper or a proposal – both are critical for academic success. Two other ingredients help – collaboration and diversity. Collaborate with colleagues and professionals in your field; help them write and they will help you publish – define “win-win” partnerships. And diversify the types of papers you write – original research is a must, but add systematic reviews, policy papers, teaching experiences, and enrich your portfolio. Write at all times and learn to enjoy it.

For me, writing is a moral imperative – I see it as an essential and ethical way to share knowledge, learning, lessons and experiences with colleagues around the world.

If an AKU grad wanted to get involved with your work, what should they do? How do they prepare and how can they reach you?

I have had a long history of engaging AKU grads and have had the privilege of having many of them work with me or on my projects. I am always interested in collaboration if it is a good fit. Younger colleagues should carefully review what I do, read the materials on our websites, and flip through some of my papers. Then formulate a brief and succinct email which clarifies who they are, what is their goal and why they are approaching me. Ask a specific question or ask for specific assistance. I travel extensively, and that means that I have little time and often check emails at airports or in hotels – so I truly appreciate a focused email which I can quickly review and then respond.

What personal traits do you think have helped you succeed?

This is a tough one – one can never be sure – but I suspect that dedication, attention to detail, hard work and intellectual curiosity have helped. Passion helps a lot – and I am truly passionate about my work – I get up every day excited that I can conduct more research or teach a class or travel to another field site – this ensures sustained and (I hope) life-long effort. Scientific integrity is also vital – a commitment to quality and scientific rigor – and willingness to apply strong criteria to my own work always allows me to do better next time. Public health is not a job for me – it defines me – and I love being part of this global health movement.

Thank you!

Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, email your nomination and information by email to .

Featured Alumnus: Dr. Haider Javed Warraich, AKU ’09

March 4, 2014 By AdministratoR

Dr. Haider Javed Warraich

A few weeks ago, I read an interesting article in the New York Times about the use of Google Search by physicians to learn about their patient’s backgrounds prior to consulting on them. The author was Haider Warraich, an internal medicine resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. I did what anyone would do, I googled him. I was very pleasantly surprised when a list of his publications popped up and I realized that I had read his articles in the past but never paid close attention to the author. What I did not expect was that he was a graduate of the Aga Khan University Medical School, Class of 2009.

I reached out to him and recommended highlighting him as a featured AKU alumnus. Clearly, Haider is well accomplished as a young physician with 34 indexed publications in Medicine (remember he graduated in 2009). But what makes him truly unique is the fact that he has already published a first novel, “Auras of the Jinn”, and several articles for outlets such as the New York Times, the LA Times, the Atlantic, the Guardian and Foreign Policy.

He was very humble when I spoke to him. He told me of his love for writing as a young boy and how his parents encouraged him to pursue his calling. Married and applying for a Cardiology fellowship this coming year, he was kind enough to respond to some of my questions.

We are very pleased to highlight Haider as our featured alumnus and look forward to his continued success.

Faisal G. Qureshi
President,
AKU Alumni Association of North America

What got you interested in writing?

Very early on when I was ten, I drew a comic book about a crime fighting mayor in Karachi. Stuck by sentiment, I gave it away to one of my friend who was moving away. I followed that up with a few stories I wrote in a notebook about death on K2, anacondas, detectives and other fantastic ideas. My first publication was a poem, published in the Nation the day after India’s nuclear test in 1999. I followed that up with a series of articles for the News and Dawn. It was at Aga Khan University that I wrote my novel “Auras of the Jinn”, which was published by an Indian publishing house and distributed in both India and Pakistan. Aga Khan University really provided me with the environment, both intended and unintended, to become the person and writer I am today.

What type of writer do you think you are? Investigative, fictional, medical?

I started out as a pure fiction writer. It was when I started writing research papers that I became much more analytical. Writing fiction is much more forgiving than writing a paper. I appreciated the need of precision as I wrote manuscripts and having them shredded apart by reviewers. Over the years my writing has evolved and I have found a happy marriage between storytelling and analysis. Providing facts can inform readers but telling a story evokes a more primal response.

Which do you prefer?

I haven’t written fiction in years. I finished my novel in the summer of 2006 and have never really been struck by the bug since. Writing fiction is a consuming process; it never leaves you, and everything you do is colored by it. In many ways, it makes you vulnerable to your most primal senses: you see more, smell more, feel more, remember more. Being that open is burdensome and not always compatible with being a productive human being. Writing non-fictional observational pieces are far less taxing. However, I miss writing fiction and wait for the calling everyday.

As a resident, where do you get the time, the ideas?

During internship, I did little more than work, eat and sleep, and I barely wrote anything. But more than time, as an intern I had little idea about what was going on around me. As a resident however, not only have I had more time, I feel much more capable of understanding how medicine works, what patients feel, and what makes doctors tick. Every day I go to work, I am bombarded with ideas. The difficulty lies in picking out what is relevant, original and interesting.

What was your first major piece, where?

My first major piece was written in the aftermath of the Boston marathon. Having been very close to the events, caught in the stampede, I reported my experience that was published in the New York Times Op Ed the day after the tragic events. The piece received international attention. I was on call in the intensive care unit the next day. My pager, which was signed over to one of my co-residents, was beeping constantly with correspondents from CNN, BBC, NPR and PBS. It was a minor distraction as I tried to get through rounding on a long list of sick patients. But I was glad the article got the attention; it was the first time the experience of being a Muslim was published in a major American outlet and represented not only the experience of paranoia that I felt but resonated with anyone anywhere who had experienced discrimination of any sort.

How did you get involved with the New York Times, Atlantic Journal? Boston Globe?

My first major piece was a story I wrote for the New York Times. I wrote it during a few long dark winter nights while I was rotating in Dana Farber. At any given time my team would be taking care of a lot of chronically ill patients at the end of life. As one of the most prominent tertiary care cancer centers, patients came from far and away fuelled with hope of a good outcome in the face of a very poor prognosis. At the same time, I would read so many articles in the media about the enduring power of hope, but as a physician I saw hope leading many down a path of more procedures, more interventions, and more shattered dreams. The piece, titled ‘The Cancer of Optimism’ was accepted for publication in the Sunday Op Ed by the New York Times. This piece was accepted before the piece about the Boston Marathon bombings but published afterwards.

After that, and due to the additional time I had as a resident, I started to write extensively for publications I enjoyed reading. I published more pieces for the Times, as well as the LA Times, the Guardian and the Atlantic amongst others.

Anything else we should know about you? Your other interests?

Within medicine, I get my creative outlet in clinical research. Going to Aga Khan University was the only reason I could develop an acumen and interest in research. I was lucky to work with Anita Zaidi, and used the experience to maintain my connection with research to remain productive. My research and my writing are complimentary – both inform each other in unexpected ways. Research relies on clearly expressed ideas while good writing that informs readers benefits from the rigor of accuracy that forms the basis of research. Amongst many benefits, my research allowed me to match into a prestigious residency program. Providing strong research training during medical school and access to mentorship can help train medical students for successful careers in academic medicine. The alumni can have a major role in opening up access to research mentorship which can provide a pathway for medical students to succeed.

Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, email your nomination and information by email to .

Featured Alumus: Dr. Saad Omer, AKU ’98

November 27, 2012 By AdministratoR

Dr. Saad B. Omer

Dr. Saad B. Omer is an Assistant Professor of Global Health, Epidemiology, & Pediatrics at Emory University, Schools of Public Health and Medicine. He received his medical degree from the Aga Khan University in Pakistan (Class of 1998) and his PhD from Johns Hopkins and has worked on studies in the United States, Guatemala, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uganda and South Africa. Dr. Omer’s research portfolio includes clinical trials to estimate efficacy and/or immunogenicity of influenza, polio, measles and pneumococcal vaccines; studies on the impact of spatial clustering of vaccine refusers; and clinical trials to evaluate drug regimens to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Africa. He has conducted several studies to evaluate the roles of schools, parents, health care providers, and state-level legislation in relation to immunization coverage and disease incidence. Dr. Omer has published widely in peer reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, the Lancet, British Medical Journal, Pediatrics, American Journal of Public Health, and American Journal of Epidemiology.

Pregnant women, fetuses, and young infants are high risk groups for morbidity and mortality after influenza infection. Dr. Omer was first to document the effect of influenza immunization in pregnancy in preventing pre-term and small for gestational age births. He was one of the investigators who, for the first time, demonstrated that vaccinating pregnant women against influenza protects their infants against this disease. These findings formed the evidence base for national recommendations in multiple countries and for the WHO’s recent recommendation for global introduction of influenza vaccination –particularly among pregnant women. Dr. Omer was first to demonstrate that spatial clustering of vaccine refusers is associated with outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases. This work and other related studies influenced laws and policies in multiple states in the United States.

In 2009, Dr Omer was awarded the Maurice Hilleman award in vaccinology by the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases on his work on impact of maternal influenza immunization on respiratory illness in infants younger than 6 months – for whom there is no vaccine.

Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, email your nomination and information by email to .

Featured Alumus: Dr. Saad Shafqat, AKU ’88

September 21, 2012 By AdministratoR

Dr. Saad Shafqat

A member of the inaugural medical college class, Saad Shafqat graduated from AKU in 1988. He obtained a PhD in neuroscience from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and completed his Neurology Residency and Fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. Saad celebrates his AKU experiences for motivating him towards the neurosciences. During the pre-clinical years, neuroanatomy taught by the late Prof. Ahsan Karim, neurophysiology taught by Prof. Neil Davidson, and neuropharmacology taught by Prof. Amin Suria, created a heady mix for Saad that kindled an enduring affinity for the study of the nervous system. In clinical years, this was further cemented by exposure to the debilitating spectrum of neurological illnesses, under the able guidance of neurologists Drs. Aziz Sonawalla and Irfan Altafullah, and neurosurgeon Dr. Rashid Jooma. By the time he graduated from AKU, Saad was convinced that a combination of basic neuroscience postgraduate education and advanced training in clinical neurology was the right path for him.

In late summer of 2000, Saad returned home to Karachi and was appointed Assistant Professor of neurology at AKU. At the time, several friends and classmates questioned his decision to return and cautioned him, but Saad says he has absolutely no regrets. It is generally felt that obligations to one’s aging parents are the prime motivating factor behind repatriation, but Saad sees it differently. He points out that such family obligations are common to everyone; so this alone cannot be enough, and there must be some extra attribute that makes a small minority of US-based AKU graduates relocate back. In a recent article published in the newsletter of the American Academy of Neurology, Saad wrote that he simply felt a “visceral urge” to go back home.

For all its ups and downs, living in Karachi and working at AKU have been very gratifying and rewarding for Saad. In 2008 he was appointed Head of Neurology, and in 2012 he was promoted to Professor. Neurology at AKU has always been one of the Department of Medicine’s busiest and academically vibrant sections. At present, it comprises 6 full-time and 8 part-time Neurologists, many of whom were trained in the US. During his tenure as chief, clinical volumes have seen a steady growth; inpatient mortality has been cut by half; and major extra-mural grants have been secured, including a US$ 500,000 stroke research training program funded by NIH. Saad credits each one of his sectional colleagues for enabling an atmosphere of transparency, collegiality, academic distinction, and clinical excellence, which has made neurology one of the very few clinical specialties at AKU that has not lost faculty to attractive job offers that keeping coming from the Middle East and North America.

A prominent feature of Saad’s activities has been his extra-curricular contributions. He has written on social issues for the lay press, and is a key member of AKU’s Sixth Sense Forum, which organizes lectures, readings and discussions on non-medical topics for the university community. In Pakistan’s favorite pastime of cricket, Saad has become something of a public aficionado, contributing a regular column to Dawn and to the ESPN website Cricinfo, and frequently appearing as a cricket analyst on television. His book “Cutting Edge,” the co-authored life story of Javed Miandad, appeared in 2003 and became a bestseller. He has also penned a fictional medical thriller that has been published in India and is due for release in the coming weeks.

Saad is married to his AKU classmate, Anita Zaidi, who is Professor and Chair of AKU’s Department of Pediatrics and Child Health. They have two children, Zehra (19) and Adil (12). Looking ahead, Saad says he is keen to play a greater role in Alumni Affairs. In particular, he would like to mentor young alumni who are returning from the US and joining faculty ranks at AKU. His key message to younger colleagues, for whom faculty life can sometimes appear to pose byzantine complexities, is not to be discouraged. “All you have to do is stay at the wicket,” he urges in his signature cricket-speak, “and the runs will come.”

Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, email your nomination and information by email to .

Featured Alumnus: Dr. Javed Butler, AKU ’90

April 18, 2012 By AdministratoR

Dr. Javed Butler

Dr. Javed Butler is currently Professor of Medicine at the Emory University and the Deputy Chief Science Officer for the American Heart Association. His clinical interests includes management of patients with advanced heart failure including those who undergo cardiac transplantation or mechanical circulatory assist device implantation, and his research interests include risk assessment, prediction modeling, and early phase clinical trials with novel molecules. He is on the Editorial Board for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiac Failure, American Heart Journal, Current Heart Failure Reviews, and Congestive Heart Failure. He serves on the American College of Cardiology/ American Heart Association as well as the Heart Failure Society of America’s Heart Failure Guidelines Committees. He has published over 150 original research papers and has served in various committees for multiple professional organizations, the National Institutes of Health, Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality, and The Joint Commission. Dr. Butler is the principle investigator for the National Institutes of Health funded Heart Failure Clinical Trials Network at Emory, and is also funded through 3 other NIH grants. He has participated in over 50 clinical trials.

Dr. Butler graduated from the Aga Khan University with the Class of 1990. He completed his residency and chief residency at Yale University, Masters in Public Health from Harvard University, and cardiology fellowship from Vanderbilt University. He subsequently also completed an advanced heart failure and cardiac transplantation fellowship from Vanderbilt University and cardiac Imaging training at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, Advanced Heart Failure, and Nuclear Cardiology. Prior to his move to Emory University, he was the Director for Heart Transplant and Heart-Lung Transplant Programs at Vanderbilt University.

During his stay at Vanderbilt and Emory, Dr. Butler has supervised multiple graduate and doctoral students and mentored countless young Pakistani students and physicians with an interest in Cardiology. He is married to Dr. Asma Khalid Butler, who is a geriatrician at Emory University and has a daughter, Sophia.

Profiles of other alumni highlighted on the website over the time can be viewed under the “Featured Alumni” category.

In order to nominate someone or self-nominate, email your nomination and information by email to .

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