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Biomedical subjects

Sunita Dodani

Publications and source records attributed to Sunita Dodani.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

Brain drain from developing countries: how can brain drain be converted into wisdom gain?

Brain drain is defined as the migration of health personnel in search of the better standard of living and quality of life, higher salaries, access to advanced technology and more stable political conditions in different places worldwide. This migration of health professionals for better opportunities, both within countries and across international borders, is of growing concern worldwide because of its impact on health systems in developing countries. Why do talented people leave their countries and go abroad? What are the consequences of such migrations especially on the educational sector? What policies can be adopted to stem such movements from developing countries to developed countries? This article seeks to raise questions, identify key issues and provide solutions which would enable immigrant health professionals to share their knowledge, skills and innovative capacities and thereby enhancing the economic development of their countries.

Clinical Competence↗

Distribution and determinants of coronary artery disease in an urban Pakistani setting.

OBJECTIVE: We assessed the distribution of coronary artery disease (CAD) and its association with the major biological risk factors and behaviors among Pakistanis presenting at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. METHOD: An epidemiologic cross-sectional study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital (a teaching hospital) in Karachi, Pakistan. A total of 600 adult (> or =18 years of age) patients visiting family practice clinics for general check-up were included. The association of biological risk factors with CAD (smoking, obesity [body mass index (BMI)], hypertension, family history of ischemic heart diseases [IHD], sedentary lifestyle, diabetes mellitus, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein [LDL] levels, high density lipoprotein [HDL] levels, and triglycerides) were assessed. RESULTS: On univariate analysis, age > or =40 years, early menopause, BMI > or =29.9 kg/m2, diabetes, high cholesterol, and positive family history of IHD were independently associated with CAD. We found age > or =40 years, diabetes, and positive family history of IHD strongly related with CAD on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Looking at the strong association of major risk factors with CAD, the unique characteristics of Pakistanis must be studied in depth, with focus on high-risk groups.

Adult↗

Web quality control for lectures: Supercourse and Amazon.com.

Peer review has been at the corner stone of quality control of the biomedical journals in the past 300 years. With the emergency of the Internet, new models of quality control and peer review are emerging. However, such models are poorly investigated. We would argue that the popular system of quality control used in Amazon.com offers a way to ensure continuous quality improvement in the area of research communications on the Internet. Such system is providing an interesting alternative to the traditional peer review approaches used in the biomedical journals and challenges the traditional paradigms of scientific publishing. This idea is being explored in the context of Supercourse, a library of 2,350 prevention lectures, shared for free by faculty members from over 150 countries. Supercourse is successfully utilizing quality control approaches that are similar to Amazon.com model. Clearly, the existing approaches and emerging alternatives for quality control in scientific communications needs to be assessed scientifically. Rapid explosion of internet technologies could be leveraged to produce better, more cost effective systems for quality control in the biomedical publications and across all sciences.

Commerce↗

Distribution of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in adult women.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the distribution of lower urinary tract symptoms in adult women and the frequency with which the women consulted a health care provider for their symptoms. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analytical study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Community Health Center of Aga Khan University Hospital from November 1st to 30th, 2002. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A trained interviewer administered a structured questionnaire to women patients or attendants aged 18 years and older coming to the center. RESULTS: Fifty-two percent of the study subjects reported having at least one or more urinary complaints in the past. Stress incontinence was the highest reported complaint (38.4%) followed by burning (34.4%), frequency (26%), painful micturition (20.4%), urge incontinence (18.8 %), incomplete emptying of bladder (14.4%), dribbling (12.4%) and poor stream (8.4%). Forty-three percent of the women with LUTS never consulted a health care provider for their problem. CONCLUSION: Although the distribution of LUTS among females was found to be high, the patients did not consider it important enough to consult a health care provider. There is a need to create awareness among females regarding LUTS and the need to consult a health care provider for their problems.

Adult↗

Prevalence and awareness of risk factors and behaviours of coronary heart disease in an urban population of Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan: a community survey.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate the prevalence and awareness of risk factors and risk behaviours of coronary heart disease (CHD) in the lower middle class residing in urban localities of Karachi, a mega city of Pakistan. METHODS: The design consisted of a cross-sectional community based survey in the lower middle class urban localities of Karimabad, Garden and Kharardar in Karachi, Pakistan. One thousand four hundred adults (18 years and above) registered with the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) participated in the survey. Life style, self-reported risk variables, blood pressure and anthropometric measurements were recorded. RESULTS: Prevalence of hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes were 38.5, 10.7 and 9.1 per cent, respectively. 52.2 per cent of the sample was overweight or obese; 64.8 per cent never exercised; 11.9 per cent had two or more major risk factors of CHD. CONCLUSION: The communities studied showed a very high prevalence of hypertension, obesity and a sedentary life style. Despite a high literacy rate, awareness regarding CHD risk factors was low. This underlines the need for measures to increase awareness regarding CHD and its risk factors and a healthy lifestyle in the developing countries.

Adolescent↗