North Medical Ward is the latest addition in the Medical Department of Mayo hospital Lahore. It was created in 1970. Dr. Ahmed Ali was first head of this unit. At present this ward is headed by Dr. Sajid Abaidullah who joined it from May 2011. It consists of male & female wards & High Dependency unit / Intensive Care Unit with total bed strength of 60. Currently there are 4 Assistant professors & 1 Senior Registrar working in this unit. There are 45 Postgraduate Trainees / Medical Officers & 35 House officers working in this unit. Departmental staff under the dynamic leadership of Dr.Sajid Abaidullah is actively involved in teaching undergraduate students enrolled in MBBS, BDS, Physiotherapy and B.Sc programs. The faculty is also supervising postgraduate students of FCPS, MRCP and MD (Medicine & Gastroenterology) with highest pass percentage in all programs. Students from other institutes related to health sciences are also attached with the department for clinical rotations. The unit handles Medical Emergency 36 hours a week & offers outpatient services twice a week. A state of the art High Dependency / Intensive care unit has recently been established providing critical care to seriously ill patients. Upper & Lower GI Endoscopic facilities are available twice a week where procedures like sclerotherapy and band ligation are carried out in patient as necessary. Bronchoscopy is carried out in patients on demand basis. Regular teaching is carried during these procedures to the attending Post Graduate Trainee and house officer on duty in the section. The unit not only caters for its admitted and outpatients but also provides consultations for other departments. Daily teaching rounds and clinical meetings including mortality and morbidity conference and journal club are held in the ward for teaching postgraduate students of FCPS, MRCP, MD & House officers. A computer lab with internet connection has been set up in the ward for updating of knowledge. A variety of books and journals are available online and in the ward library. Multimedia projector is also available for ward lectures. Basic Life Support course was carried out for House officers and PG students to improve the life saving skills of the doctors. Preparatory sessions for IMM-TOACS including mock examinations were carried out in the ward preceding the CPSP exam. This was heavily attended by examination candidates from all medical units. The pass percentage among the attendees was nearly 95%. An inter-ward quiz competition about the management of Dengue Fever was conducted by the ward. It was attended by all the four medical and the two peadiatric units. Dr.Somia Iqtadar, Assistant Professor, after being trained in Thailand Srilanka and Singapore on clinical management of Dengue Infections is also appointed as Dengue Master Trainer for Government of Punjab and WHO.She has trained thousands of health care professionals nationwide including GPs, House officers, Post graduate trainees, district physicians and airforce doctors.She has represented her institute at various prestigious national and international conferences and presented her research work. Few recent being ,WHO international conference on Dengue and its control Pakistan, Third Asia Pacific Dengue workshop in Singapore,44th APACPH Colombo Sri Lanka and Singapore International Conference on Dengue and Emerging Infections. She has also published a handbook on Dengue fever named “Hum and Dengue” in Urdu which is now being translated in English ,Hindi and Sinhalese. Dr. Zafar Niaz, Senior Registrar, an avid researcher with numerous publications to his credit, has contributed a chapter in book named Epidemiology, Pathogenesis & complications of Ulcerative Colitis edited by Mortimer B. O’ Connot
Dr. Munir Iqbal, a senior member of the ward, has recently compiled a book on clinical methods for undergraduate and postgraduate students named “Key to Success” which is under publication. Research is also be given due priority in North Medical Ward and numerous articles have been published in medical journals. Following is the list of completed research projects which were either published in 2012 or presented in various conferences.
1. Specificity of Hess test as a marker of DHF. Somia Iqtadar , Sami Ullah Mumtaz , Sajid Abaidullah , Razia Amanat, Mohsin Masud (Singapore International Conference on Dengue and Emerging Infections)
2. Frequency of asymptomatic Dengue Infections in Health care professionals of of Pakistan. Somia Iqtadar , Sumaira Majeed, Sajid Abaidullah (44th APACPH Conference Colombo,Srilanka)
3. Frequency of low calcium intake a risk factor for development of Metabolic syndrome and type 2 Diabetes mellitus in Pakistani women. Maimoona Ghias, Somia Iqtadar, Sajid Abaidullah (Pakistan Journal of Medical and Health Sciences)
4. Microalbuminuria in Stage 2 Hypertensive patients with Left Ventricular Hypertrophy. Somia Iqtadar, Sajid Abaidullah,Ali Asad,Ahmad Awais (Annals of KEMU)
5. Clinical Characteristics ,risk factors and outcomes in Elderly Experiencing Dengue Infections. Somia Iqtadar, M Nabeel Akbar Chaudhary, Sajid Abaidullah (Singapore International Conference on Dengue and emerging Infections)
6. Clinical audit of Dengue related deaths in 2011 – Mayo Hospital Lahore, Pakistan. Somia Iqtadar, M Nabeel Akbar Chaudhary, Sajid Abaidullah (Singapore International Conference on Dengue and emerging Infections)
The ongoing research projects currently being carried out in North Medical Ward are listed below:-
1. Knowledge, attitude and practices regarding medical law and ethics among doctors in a tertiary care hospital. (Dr Qurat-ul-Ain)
2. Efficacy of Injection Streptokinase in patients of Acute Myocardial Infarction with Raised ASO titres (Dr.Munir Iqbal)
3. Association between myocardial infarction and erythropoietin stimulating agents therapy in end stage renal disease patients on maintenance hemodialysis with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (Dr. Ali Asad Khan)
4. Incidence of internal carotid artery stenosis in cerebrovascular accidents. (Dr. Faisal Bashir Chaudhry)
5. Efficacy of Rifixamine vs. Neomycin in CLD patients presenting with Hepatic Encephalopathy. (Dr Sami Ullah Mumtaz)
6. Frequency of Acute Hepatitis & its effect on outcome of Patients with Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. (Dr Razia Amanat)
7. Frequency of Dyslpidemia in Patients of Chronic Hepatitis C (Dr.Mohsin Masud)
8. Frequency of Dengue Fever and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever in febrile patients with positive dengue serology and evaluation of total cholesterol levels in these patients. (Dr Sidrah Lodhi)
9. “Kala-Pathar” poisoning – a case report. (Dr Humaira Mubeen Afzal)
10. Pattern of bleeding in Dengue patients with low platelet counts. (Dr Sidrah Lodhi)
North Medical Ward continues its tradition of excellence in patient care, training and supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate medical students and also in creating an environment conducive for research.
