Presidents Message Dear Colleagues Asalaam O Alaikum

It is indeed an honor and an occasion of happiness for me to accept the responsibility to serve as the President of APCNA. From the inception in 2004, the progress of our organization has been phenomenal. This is because, the vision was clear, the dedication was unshaken and now the results are promising. The acceptance of APCNA in ACC and its meetings with distinguished people recognizing and helping APCNA in such a short time is indeed a very gratifying and a proud moment for all of us.

Last year has been a very productive year, for APCNA (see the report inside). We thank the remarkable team spirit under the leadership of Dr. Wajid Baig for this. His leadership and resourcefulness has certainly been the driving force behind all this. I am sure he will continue to play a major role in this organization along with Javed Suleman for years to come. We also thank Drs. Immad Sadiq, Wamiq Yusuf, Zia Qidwai, Nadeem Afridi, M. Haseeb, Syed Mushabbir, Asif Rahman, Fazal Ur Rahman, Naeem A. Khan, Naushad Mohyuddin, Mazhar Majid, Nasir Rehmetullah and Shahid Usmani for their dedication and support for APCNA.

As premier in adovocacy by specialty organization, we have long ways to go. One of the corner stone of an organization is its membership base. Our goals for the year will be to increase our membership base, strenghthen our communication, optimize website and online options. We plan; to streamline our Pacemaker Bank project, to establish the basic BLS and ACLS program in Pakistan, to streamline our donation program of cardiology supplies for the needy patients in various institutions of Pakistan.

I urge all of you to please become active in APCNA and share your resources to help achieve our goals. There are many ways you can help. Please visit APCNA website and know more about APCNA. Your suggestions and comments are most welcomed.

Thank you Rizwan A. Karatela, MD FACCPresident APCNArizwan@karatela.com

PRESIDENTRizwan A. Karatela, MD, FACC

PRESIDENT-ELECT:Immad Sadiq, MD, FACC

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT:M. Wajid Baig, MD, FACC

GENERAL SECRETARY:Asif Rahman, MD, FACC

TREASURER:Fazal Ur Rahman, MD, FACC

BOARD OF TRUSTEE: ChairmanShahbudin Rahimtoola, MD, MACC S. Sultan Ahmed, MD, FRCP, SQAS. Tanveer Rab, MD, FACCZia Moiz Ahmad, MD, FACCJaved Suleman, MD, FACC

EDITOR:Munir A. Shikari, MD, FACC

ARTICLE SUBMISSIONWe encourage all APCNA members to please submit their articles for the publication through out the year. We are also seeking cardiology news, meeting information or any news that you would like to share with other members. Articles to be submitted by email to baigwajid@yahoo.com in word document, pdf or plain email format will be acceptable. The Editor reserves the right to edit all the submitted material.

APCNA: 11242 Edgewater CircleWellington, FL 33414561-714-8656, Fax 561-422-6018

APCNA Summer 2007

Association of Pakistani-Descent Cardiologists of North America

APCNAVolume 2 No.3

APCNA Summer 2007

A BANNER Year FOR APCNA The last year has been a very busy time for APCNA. We have moved on from being a small start up organization to one that is now regarded as a model for physicians belonging to a particular specialty. You will now see other organizations coming up with a structure similar to ours.

As your President last year I had the help of some of the most dedicated members you can find. I am very thankful to the EC and the Chairs of Committees who all did a phenomenal job and made each of our projects a success.

Our Annual Winter Conference in Lahore was memorable for many reasons. The attendance was a testament to the energy and commitment of our members, 16 Cardiologists from USA took the time to join us in Lahore. The local physicians both at Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) and at King Edward Medical University /Mayo Hospital have invited us back for a longer meeting next time.

The APCNA Annual meeting in New Orleans had the best attendance so far at any of our meetings. This just shows that we are growing strong in numbers and more physicians are becoming aware of the work we do. We were very fortunate to have Dr .Valentin Fuster as our keynote speaker. Dr. Fuster is very well known by all Cardiologists for his work and leadership in our field. I am thankful to all our members who attended this meeting. My special thanks to our Trustees Dr. Sultan Ahmed, Dr. Zia Moiz Ahmed and Dr. Javed Suleman (also the Immediate Past President at that time) who were present and encouraged us with their ideas and guidance. The meeting Co-Chairs Dr. Syed Fazal Rehman and Dr. Asif Rehman worked extremely hard in ensuring the success of this meeting. Their organizing committee (Drs. Wamique Yusuf, Naushad Mohyuddin, Rizwan Karatela, Javed Suleman, Immad Sadiq ) spent many hours to make sure things went on without a glitch.

I am also thankful to some of our esteemed guests who attended our meeting. They included; Dr. Shahryar Sheikh (President, World Heart Foundation) Prof. S. M .Rab; Prof. Mohammed Hafeezullah (Chief of Cardiology, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar) Ms. Sharon E. Tenn.; (Director, International Affairs, American College of Cardiology) and several other staff members from the American College of Cardiology. We also had several Cardiologists from Pakistan join us at our Annual meeting and Dinner.

Our membership is growing. I am confident that this year we will be able to contact many more cardiologists who are potential members. We need the help of each and every one of you. A personal call from you to a colleague will be much more fruitful than all our mailings. Dr. Wamique Yusuf and his Committee are working hard on

Wajid Baig, MD, FACC, Immediate PAst President,

APCNA

By Wajid Baig, MD, FACC

2 3

continued on page 3

APCNA Summer 2007

this project.Once again I will reiterate; our strength is in our numbers. We can achieve much more when our sponsors see our growth. The Pacemaker Bank project application is almost complete. Once Heartbeat International approves the application our partners the Rotarians in Pakistan are ready to move into the next phase. We are very excited about this truly life saving project. Dr. Nadeem Afridi has presented his feasibility report on the Nationwide BLS/ACLS project. The EC is reviewing this report to decide the best way we can implement this program.

I have handed over the helm of APCNA to one of the hardest working and dedicated physicians that I know. I am confident that Dr. Rizwan Karatela and his team will take our organization to goals we can all be proud of.

In the end I wish to thank all of you who helped me during my tenure as President. There are many names which I am sure I have missed. Without your team effort we could not do all that we did last year. I look forward to many years of service to the Association as we have only just started on this journey. The best is yet to come.

Con

tinue

d from page 2

Highlights of Events

Dr. Valintin Fuster Addressed at Fourth Annual APCNA meeting

March 25, 2007 in New Orleans

Internationally renowened Dr. Valintin Fuster was the Keynote speaker at the APCNA annual meeting in New Orleans, which was held at the ACC annual convention in New Orleans. He enlighted the audience with his insight into the global impact of Cardiovascular disease and the role of primary prevention in CV diseases. Dr. Fuster was then presented by APCNA two art pieces from Pakistan as a token of our appreciation for his gracious time given to APCNA members. More on this in on this on APCNA website www.apcna.net

APCNA

APCNA Cardiology Supplies Donations Over One Million Dollars worth of Supplies

With the generous support of many APCNA members over a million dollars’ worth of medical and cardiology supplies were co-ordinated and DONATED in Pakistan. These supplies are being used for the poor patients in Pakistan. These include cardiac catheters to pacemakers and prosthetic cardiac valves. Please let us know if you or any collegaues you know can arrange un-used medical supplies that can be donated. More on this on APCNA website www.apcna.net

2 3

APCNA Summer 2007

APCNA and BLS in PakistanNadeem Afridi, MD, PhD

APCNA and BLS in PakistanDr. Afridi is board certified in Internal Medicine with a sub-specialty in Cardiovascular Disease. He earned his medical degree from the Dow Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan. He completed his residency at Boston University Medical Center and his fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. He has been instrumental in setting up the pilot project for BLS in Pakistan.

Purpose:To Assess the need, feasibility, preparedness and cost of implementing BLS in Abbottabad a moderately large district in Pakistan.To assess support mechanisms in the USA for such an endeavor using resources of APCNA and AHA Credentialing BLS in Pakistan through AHA in conjunction with Local Health Ministry.

This study was conducted at Disaster Management Center (DMC) in Abbottabad, supervised by Naoman Siddiqui who I trained as BLS instructor and coordinator. The study was based out of DMC and involved Ayoub Teaching Hospital in Abbottabad, AIMS Medical Center in Muzaffarabad (Kashmir), and Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar.

So far we have trained 560 individuals which include medical students, house officers, doctors, nurses and paramedics. In addition a small number of school teachers have also been trained. 320 of the participants were women. My first task in training was to train three individuals as instructors of BLS according to the AHA guidelines.

The equipment was provided by me and some was donated from a few hospitals in Boston. The cost of one set of training equipment is about 1500 to 2000 US dollars and includes adult, child and infant mannequins, ambu bags of different sizes, masks, sterilizing materials, AHA BLS training CD’s, posters and pamphlets. The training material was bought from Channing Bete company. The equipment was kept at one center at DMC Abbottabad and trainers were sent to these sites for half a day visit.

Some of these sessions were also supported by a group of Pakistani physicians from Ireland (DRIP) who gave a stipend to participants ranging from 350 rupees to 500 rupees. The training was incomplete to some extent because we were not able to obtain AED trainers for BLS. Each AED costs from 2500 to 3500 dollars.

This training has generated a lot of interest in medical students, doctors, and nurses who have been spreading the word at different institutions. AHA would have no issues with giving BLS certificates to the participants as long as the instructors have been certified by AHA.

The Ayoub Medical College has asked DMC to start training medical students for a fee and this is the model which would lead to its self sustainability. Although it is feasible to do BLS training at a small scale, at larger scale the cost would be prohibitive. The big question is, how do you take this concept and apply to the country at large?. To do this at a larger level and make it a part of training for all medical personnel (doctors, nurses, dentist’s, schoolteacher) health policy has to be brought up to date at the government level. This is indeed a bigger question.

To answer these important questions and to address these issues in a comprehensive way, we will need a team of few dedicated people, pooling of our resources here in USA and in Pakistan and certainly collaboration at various levels. APCNA will need to work on the short-term goals and long term plans to embark on this project. More on this on the website …

4 5

APCNA Summer 2007

APCNA at the ACC 2007

Dr. Valentin Fuster Professor of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY

Dr. Sultan Ahmed with Professor Rab from Pakistan

Dr. Fuster was presented with artwork from Pakistan as a token of appreciation at the APCNA meeting at the ACC

New Orleans

Dr. Asif Rahman and Immad Sadiq managing the membership drive

Dr Valentin Fuster delivering the lecture at the APCNA annual meeting at the ACC in New Orleans

APCNA at the ACC New Orleans: Left to Right: Dr. Javed Suleman, Dr. Wajid Baig, Dr. Immad Sadiq, Dr. Wamique

Yusuf and Dr Rizwan Karatela

4 5

APCNA Summer 2007

Meet the BOARD of Trustees of

CHAIRMAN: Shahbudin H. Rahimtoola M.B., F.R.C.P.,M.A.C.P,,M.A.C.C., D.Sc. (Hon)

Dr. Shahbudin Rahimtoola was born in Bombay, India and graduated M.B.B.S from Dow Medical College in 1954. He received the MRCP from the Royal College of Physician of Edinburgh in 1963 and he was awarded the Fellowship in 1972. He came to the United States in 1963 and became Co-Director of Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Mayo Clinic. He was Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois and Chief of Cardiology, Cook County Hospital from 1969 to 1972, Professor of Medicine at the University of Oregon from 1972 to 1980. From 1980 to 1992, he was Chief, Division of Cardiology, University of Southern California. In 1984, he was appointed the first George C. Griffith Professor of Cardiology. In 1993, he was awarded the title of Distinguished Professor, University of Southern California. He was Chairman, Council on Clinical Cardiology, American Heart Association and he was Trustee of the American College of Cardiology.

Currently, he is the Distinguished Professor of University of Southern California. He is also the George C. Griffith Professor of Cardiology and Chairman, Griffith Center, and Professor of Medicine. He is Editor-in-Chief of a book series, Current Topics in Cardiology.

He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation and numerous other journals. He was Editor of Clinical Cardiology, a publication of JAMA and of Modern Concepts of Cardiovascular Disease, a publication of AHA.

He has received numerous awards and citations including the Commissioner’s Special Citation and Harvey W. Wiley Medal from FDA. From the National AHA he has received Citations for International Service and for Outstanding Service; from the AHA Oregon Affiliate a special “Salute to Research” in 1985; and from the AHA Los Angeles Affiliate the Award of Merit and a Special Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to the study and practice of Cardiology.

For teaching, he has received William Osler Award from the University of Miami; from American College of Cardiology, the Gifted Teacher Award in 1986; and from the International Society of Heart Failure, the Melvin L. Marcus Memorial Award as Gifted Teacher in Cardiology, in 1996. He received the James B. Herrick Award from the American Heart Association/Council on Clinical Cardiology in 1989. He gave the Bishop Lecture, American College of Cardiology, 1992. The American College of Physicians conferred on him Master of the College in 1996. He was appointed to the International Advisory Committee, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award, Mayo Foundation in 1998. The American College of Cardiology conferred on him Master of the College in 1999. He received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American College of Cardiology in 2001. He was awarded D.Sc. (Hon) by the University of Karachi in 2002.

He has given 1420 national and international presentations and lectures. He has edited 11 textbooks and he has published 513 scientific articles. These include 67 “editorial”, 120 book chapters and 316 original and other scientific articles.

Chairman APCNA

6 7

APCNA Summer 2007

S. Sultan Ahmed, M.B., B.S, FACC, SQA

Dr Sultan Ahmeds’s He is Director of Stress Lab in NJMS / UMDNJ. Dr Sultan Ahmed is a Dow Graduate 1963, Professor of Medicine, UMD NJ Medical School, Newark, NJ. His career spans over many years which include, 25 Grants as investigator and and co-investigator from NIH, American Heart and other foundations, 128 Publications and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals, chapters in 8 books and authored one book 200 presentations at local, national and international meetings. Awarded “Sitara Quide Azam (SQA)” by President of Pakistan for meritorious service (1993) Lifetime Achievement Award, Principal & Faculty, Dow Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan (2003) “2005 Faculty of the Year” by faculty of New Jersey Medical School. ....

Meet the BOARD of Trustees of

Syed Tanveer Rab, M.B., B.S, FACC

Dr. Rab is an Interventional Cardiologist at Emory Hospital practicing at the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Emory Hospital. He received his Medical degree in 1979 from the University of Karachi Pakistan. Between 1980 and 1983 he trained in the United Kingdom at Hammersmith Hospital, London, Edinburgh. Between 1983 and 1986 he completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit , Michigan. He trained at Emory University between 1986-1990 in Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology. In 1998 joined the Emory faculty. ...

Zia Moiz Ahmad , M.B., B.S, FACC

Dr. Zia Moiz Ahmad is an Interventional Cardiologist in practice in Saint Louis, MO. He is a graduate of Dow Medical College, class of 1982. He completed his rotating housejob in Medicine and Surgery in Civil Hospital Karachi. Zia completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky in 1990. He completed his Cardiology Fellowship at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, North Carolina in 1993.Zia then joined the V.A. Medical Center in Asheville, North Carolina from 1993 to 1996. He then moved to Saint Louis in 1996 and has been in private practice in Saint Louis as an Interventional Cardiologist.

Javed Suleman, M.B., B.S, FACC, FSCAI

Members APCNA

6 7

Javed Suleman, MD, FACC, FSCAI, is an Interventional Cardiologist and the Director of Interventions, Mount Sinai Queens, New York. He is Assistant Professor of Medicine / Cardiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He has private practice in Queens, NY and works part-time at Jamaica Hospital, Jamaica, Queens as Associate Director of Cardiac Catheterization Lab. He is Board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology. Javed Suleman graduated from Sindh Medical College , Karachi, in 1986. He completed Residency from Salem Hospital - North Shore Medical Center (an affiliate of Harvard Medical School) in1996. Cardiology Fellowship was at the Saint Vincent Hospital - University of Massachusetts Medical School Program, Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1996 - 1999. And from 1999 - 2000 he did his Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY.

APCNA Summer 2007

The EVENTS for 2007

ACC Lagislative ConferenceSeptember 16-18, 2007 in Washington DC Registration is open at www.acc.org. Register for this conferenc and participate in advocacy. Make a connection that counts. One of our key objectives has been to participate in ACC conferences and support the association’s activism for cardiology related important issues.

APCNA

APCNA Winter Meeting in PakistanDecember 17 & 18, 2007 Peshawer and Abbotabad APCNA will hold its Fourth Annual two-day Winter meeting at Khyber Medical College (December 17) and Ayub Medical Colllege (December 18) this year. Lectures, hands on workshops and Clinical rounds covering various aspect of cardiovascular health care needs in Pakistan.

APCNA at ACC 2008 in ChicagoMarch 25, 2008 Please note that at the ACC annual convention APCNA also organizes its annual meeting. We urge everyone to please keep this in mind when planning your trip for ACC annual convention. Our an-nual meeting at the ACC is the main meeting of APCNA where we sum up our years activities and plan for the future events.

8

Become APCNA member We request all Pakistani Cardiologists to become APCNA members.Why Should you join APCNA

1. To foster scientific development and education in fields related to the cardiovascular system.2. To institute ways and means to cooperate with other similar organizations in North America, Pakistan and at other world forums.3. To participate in medical relief and other charitable activities both in Pakistan and in North America.4. To arrange donations of medical literature, medical supplies, and by arranging lecture tours, medical conferences, and seminars in Pakistan. 5 To institute ways and means to cooperate with other similar organizations in North America, Pakistan and at other world forums.6 To participate in medical relief and other charitable activities both in Pakistan and in North America.7 To inform and educate decision makers and opinion making leaders in problems confronted by the medical community in general and Pakistani- American cardiologists in particular

Contact: 561-714-8656, membership@apcna.net

www.apcna.net