By Our Staff Reporter Karachi: Dow Diagnostic Reference and Research Laboratory (DDRRL), Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) on Tuesday organized a successful workshop on “Skills Enhancement and Professional Development for Health Care Workers” and CME session on “Detection and monitoring of viral hepatitis using PCR” at Dow collection point/ STAT Lab, Hyderabad . The aim of this workshop and training was to enhance the skills of the staff including phlebotomists and receptionists at different collection points of Dow Lab in interior Sindh and the objective of the CME was to increase the understating of Physicians and doctors about Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) for detection of viral hepatitis and monitoring of its treatment. In his opening remarks, Dr Saeed Khan, Associate Professor and Head of Molecular Pathology Department & Additional Director Dow Lab stated that the World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked Pakistan 2nd among the world with high rates of chronic infections. According to WHO 15 million Pakistanis have already infected with hepatitis viruses, contaminated syringes being a main source of transmission. Pakistan is among the top syringe consuming countries where 2.4 billion syringes are used every year. This scenario urged the importance and need for the trainings, workshops and lectures to increase awareness regarding hepatitis virus and safe practices among physicians and health care workers. This is the reason that DUHS organizes such events regularly not only in Karachi but now outreaching other remote parts of the province as well and the event in Hyderabad is part of these efforts. Furthermore, Dr. Saeed Khan delivered a very informative lecture on “detection and monitoring of viral hepatitis using PCR” and explained the PCR technique and its application in detection of viral hepatitis including hepatitis B, hepatitis C and hepatitis D, and for the monitoring of its treatment. In “Skills Enhancement and Professional Development for Health Care Workers” was consisted of a series of lectures from the experts, Ms Noor-ul-aine Maqsood (Biosafety Officer) delivered an informative lecture biosafety, covering different aspects of biosafety practices, sharps handling, waste disposal and incidents reporting to keep the workers and patients safe and to prevent spread of infections. Mohammad Zoon-Nou-Raine from PACSlink delivered lecture on role of IT and computer software in the quality and in time reporting. He also explained that how the system they have developed will give easy access to physicians about the patient’s reports, X-rays and other images and information which will save time and reduce time and cost. Shafait Ali Bugti Manager outreach, delivered a very informative lecture on guidelines for the receptionists and give important tips and suggestions to the receptionists how to deal with the patients. At the end, Sami and Mr Zoon-Nou-Raine gave training on the new software launched for patients services and answered the questions raised by the participants. It was a successful event in which more than fifty doctors, technicians, phlebotomist and receptionists participated from different parts of Sindh including Mirpurkhas, Sukkar, Shikarpur, Mithi TharParkar, Tatta, Karachi and Hyderabad. Professor Dr Ikram din Ujjan, Chairperson Pathology Department, Liaquat University of Health and Medical Sciences (LUHMS) was the Chief guest, he offered word of wisdom about the services of Dow University and congratulated the organizing secretary Dr Saeed Khan and his team on successfully organizing the workshop and CME session and urged the importance of organizing such event more frequently.
