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p r o f i l eOff the Beaten Pathwith Mr Shamsh Kassim-Lakhaand Dr Javaid Rizvi, the Head ofObstetrics and Gynaecology here inKarachi, to go and spend a year atAKH in Nairobi before coming backhere. I was the first graduate fromthe Medical College, Pakistan to gospend the first year of my residencythere.Dr Khalid Saeed Khan, MBBS ’88Tell us about your early days?It was 1983 and AKU hadcommenced its first medical schoolclass. I moved from Multan to joinAKU, one of 50 who had takenthe plunge to risk it with a new,promising institution. It was abelief in a brighter future that ledus here. In fact, AKU hadn’t evenopened its doors and classes werein rented space at the College ofAudiovisual Department AKUDr Khalid Saeed Khan, MBBS ’88 is currently Professor ofWomen’s Health and Clinical Epidemiology at the Centre forPrimary Care and Public Health, Barts and The London Schoolof Medicine. His academic expertise is in patient-oriented healthresearch and medical education. Dr Khalid has published over200 peer reviewed journal articles making contributions insystematic reviews, trials of treatments and tests, health technologyassessments and evaluation of educational methods.Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan.We graduated on time in 1988. Atour graduation ceremony, therewere a number of people fromthe Aga Khan Hospital (AKH)in Nairobi, including Dr KeharSingh, the Head of Obstetrics andGynaecology there. I had alwaysbeen interested in working in Africaand the opportunity was too goodto miss. So I made an arrangementIn the past in Pakistan, there havebeen a lot of societal barriers formale students going into obstetricsand gynaecology. Why did youprefer this field over others?I was inspired by my teachers.Dr Javaid Rizvi, my professor inthe Medical College, inspired a lotof students to train in this field. Onecould see that there was a role forpeople with expertise regardless oftheir gender.Secondly, the Medical Collegeexperience encouraged enquiry. So,together these motives combinedinto a career track that involvedclinical training and learning aboutresearch methods. At the end ofmy residency, I went for an MScin Health Research Methodologyat the Faculty of Health Sciences,McMaster University from 1994-95, partly funded by the AgaKhan Foundation. This is where Idiscovered the place for a clinicalacademic career pathway.Thirdly, the fact that maternalmortality was alarmingly high is aneye opener for any doctor. At AKU,we spent 20 per cent of our timedoing community health sciences.So we were inspired by the needto do more than just look after thepatients in the hospital. This wasa strong influence and I have eversince been concerned about not justaccepting things on face value butrather questioning opinions and thentrying to figure out the facts throughresearch wherever possible.1 4
p r o f i l eWhat was your future course ofaction?After McMaster, I went to the UKin 1995, did a couple of years ofclinical and research training, andthen became a National HealthService Consultant Obstetrician andGynaecologist, a post I enjoyed foraround five years. In the UK, peoplefocusing on delivering services areemployed by the hospital and thosefocusing on teaching and researchare employed by theuniversity. This is agood way to increasesynergy between ahospital and university.In 2005, I became aProfessor of Obstetricsand Gynaecologyat University ofBirmingham. In 2010,I moved to Barts andthe London School ofMedicine and Dentistry,which was formedfollowing the merger ofthe Medical Collegesof St Bartholomew’sHospital and theLondon Hospital.Your expertise lies in patientorientedhealth research. What isyour stance on this?Patient-oriented health research isabout research activity that directlyimpacts patient care, not justpublications in journals. Also termedas applied research, its intention isto benefit patients and the publicthrough projects that directly informpractice and policy. Nowadays,research funding focuses on thisbecause investment in scienceshould change the outcomes forpeople and society. This is whatexcites me most.For example, recently weresearched pulse oximetry, a verysimple test done on newborns tofind out the oxygenation level oftheir blood. Studying nearly 20,000babies, we established that this testprovides accurate screening and ishelpful in discovering congenitalheart diseases. It is now beingincorporated into standard clinicalpolicy across the world, includingUSA, Scandinavia and UK.Has any of your research projectinvolved AKUH, Nairobi?I’ve collaborated in discovering thecauses that lead to higher rate ofstillbirths or deaths of babies duringpregnancy. We found that one of“I was inspired by my teachers. Dr JavaidRizvi, my professor in the MedicalCollege, inspired a lot of students to trainin this field. One could see that there was arole for people with expertise regardless oftheir gender.Secondly, the Medical College experienceencouraged enquiry. So together thesemotives combined into a career track thatinvolved clinical training and learningabout research methods.”the most important factors was thedistance between where the motherlives and the nearest health facility.The farther away a mother livesfrom a health facility, the higherher chances of a complication. Thereason being that expecting motherswill either not seek care or they’llseek care too late. So the solutionsto health problems might comefrom outside the medical box, sayby developing a taxi service thatis available 24/7 for transport tohealthcare facilities.How are you involved with youralma mater?I’m conducting workshops withthe Department of Surgery at theUniversity Hospital in Karachi onhow to do systematic reviews, acost-effective type of research thatsynthesises evidence and is fruitfulin generating information relevantfor local clinical practice. We havealso had an AKUH resident visitingour hospital in Britain to train inmaternal medicine.As the main author of SystematicReviews to Support Evidence-BasedMedicine, what is your argumentin it?It’s a very successful book inevidence-based medicine that hasbeen around for nearlysix years. It wonthe British MedicalAssociation Medicalbook award. Its secondedition was translatedand published inEnglish and German.The main attractionof this book is itsusefulness for clinicianswho aren’t researchersand for students whoare new to research.It carries lots ofworked examples toshow its readers howresearch can be usedto improve or changepractice. It takes adecade for effective interventionsto be embedded in practice. Thingsneed to be speeded up and evidencebased findings need to be utilizedmore rapidly. This book providesclinicians tools with which to makerapid progress in incorporatingevidence into practice. •Haris ZuberiNominations Wanted!The AKU-NAMA EditorialBoard seeks nominations fordistinguished alumni profilesfrom all programmes, departmentsand entities.Please send a short profile of yournominee to: alumni@aku.edu1 5
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