Pharma Veterans

Quitting Tobacco Use – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #988 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #988 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Alexandar Andreev Credit: Antoni Shkraba Credit: Eren Özdemir Credit: Thibault Luycx World Health Organization has issued “WHO clinical treatment guideline for tobacco cessation in adults” in July 2024. Link at the end. I was a good (read heavy) smoker for many years before I quit about nineteen years ago. Of course, I still carry a soft corner for smokers, particularly, when I see them being restricted from all public places like restaurants, parks, hotels, airports, and so on. Life is not enjoyable for smokers anymore. There was a time when tobacco chewing was part of culture and lifestyle, and smoking was iconic and related to real men. Almost all adults and elderly men

Healthcare Landscape in Pakistan – Diagnostic Laboratories – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #985 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #985 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Unknown Credit: Pavel Danilyuk Credit: Thirdman Diagnostic labs have become an integral part of medical treatment. Unlike previous times, when few labs did manual testing and the only imaging available was x-ray, the diagnostic facilities have come a long way. Along with this development, the doctors’ dependence on lab tests has increased to the extent where almost 100 percent patients are prescribed multiple tests. While it has improved clinical outcomes, it has also added to the cost of medical treatment hugely.  In this blogpost, I shall explore the status of medical diagnostic labs in Pakistan. National Laboratory Policy Whi

Healthcare Landscape in Pakistan – Blood(y) Business – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 984 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 984 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Amornthrep Srina Credit: Beyza Kaplan Credit: Diego Romera Credit: Gustavo Fring Credit: Karolina Kaboompics ‘Blood is the lifeline’ is as old an adage as may be traced in history. ‘Blood loss must be replaced with blood’ had been in practice for decades but the situation changed somewhat after the introduction and intense promotion of plasma substitutes which could at least make up the volume. Blood transfusion remains essential in conditions like severe anemia particularly in pregnant women, extreme blood loss in serious injuries, prolonged surgical procedures, and blood disorders like Thalassemia, Hemophilia, blood and bone marrow di

Healthcare Landscape in Pakistan – Facilities for Disabled – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 983 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 983 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Antoni Shkraba Credit: Eren Li Credit: Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz Credit: Sany Nur Credit: Shvets Production World Health Organization – WHO – states that people with disabilities, throughout the life course, have unequal access to healthcare services, have greater unmet healthcare needs, and experience poorer levels of health compared with the general population. As a result, people with disabilities have poorer health outcomes than the general population.  People with disabilities frequently experience preventable diseases and report high incidence of risk behavior such as obesity, smoking, and physical inactivity. It means a parent

Healthcare Landscape in Pakistan – Healthcare Professionals – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 982 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 982 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Dr Adel Credit: Funkcinės Terapijos Centras Credit: Haguy Paulemon Credit: Mikhail Nilov Credit: Saulo Leite Credit: Yan Krukau A healthcare professional, or healthcare worker is a provider of healthcare treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. “Health professionals maintain health in humans through the application of the principles and procedures of evidence-based medicine and caring. Health professionals study, diagnose, treat and prevent human illness, injury and other physical and mental impairments in accordance with the needs of the populations they serve. They advise on or apply preventive and curative

Healthcare Landscape in Pakistan – Regulatory Structure – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 981 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 981 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Edward Jenner Credit: Andrea Piacquadio Credit: Imad Clicks As is the case in other government functions, there are several institutions who are supposed to regulate various components of healthcare. After 18th Amendment, health was devolved to provinces. So, now there are federal and provincial bodies supposed to regulate healthcare. The state of healthcare, however, is anything but satisfactory. The major reason is that the regulatory bodies do not coordinate with one another and keep blowing their own trumpets without achieving anything concrete. The biggest problem with government agencies and particularly regulatory bodies is th

Healthcare Landscape in Pakistan – Burden of Disease – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 980 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 980 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com . Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Cliff Booth Credit: Marcus Aurelius Credit: Mateus Souza Credit: Rene Terp Credit: Shotpot Burden of Disease Burden of Disease – BoD – is the impact of health problem as measured by financial cost, mortality, morbidity, or other indicators. It is often quantified in terms of Quality-Adjusted-Life-Years – QALY – or Disability-Adjusted-Life-Years – DALY. Both of these metrics quantify the number of years lost due to disability, or disease, or years lived with disability/disease. One DALY can be thought of as one year of healthy life lost. In simpler words, the sum of mortality and morbidity is called the burden of disease because both c