Sunday, April 27, 2008

45 per cent haemophilia patients end up with disabilities

A roughly estimated 45% of all haemophilia patients end up with various types of disabilities owing to lack of proper care and education, making it essential for home-based caregivers to reinforce doctoral treatment by improve understanding of joint problems and disabilities resulting from constant internal bleeding.

Taking a step in this direction, an educational workshop on physiotherapy-related issues was organised at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) here on Saturday, with haemophilia patients and their families in attendance. The workshop was the second in a series of six sessions planned under the Haemophilia Education Project (HEP) launched in February this year.

The first workshop aimed at providing basic but crucial information on haemophilia and doable home-care skills, while the second focused on sharing of information and knowledge about joint problems and resulting disabilities due to continuous internal bleeding. The need for specific exercises and physiotherapy to overcome the joint disabilities was also highlighted.

The workshop is being organised by Pakistan Haemophilia Welfare Society (PHWS), Haemophilia Centre of PIMS, and Novo Nordisk Haemophilia Foundation (NNHF).

The HEP is focused on awareness-raising, and improved preventive care to reinforce the care offered by medical doctors. The strategy includes development of effective simple-to-understand educational materials in local language, transfer of skills to patients and families for day-to-day homecare and management of emergencies among patients.

The themes for the workshops are selected from various clinical problems faced by haemophilic patients particularly those dealing with educational aspects such as basic information about haemophilia, physiotherapy, dental and orthopaedic care, bleeding disorders in women and psycho-social aspects of the disease, etc.

The workshop was divided into three sessions — plenary, educational and technical, and had Hassan Managi, Director National Council of Child Welfare, and executive director of PIMS Dr. Abdul Majeed Rajput as the chief guests. A patient Mohammad Daud shared his experience related to physiotherapy and its positive effect on his joints.

Welcoming the participants, consultant haematologist-PIMS Dr. Tahira Zafar presented a review of Haemophilia care in Pakistan and the problem faced by patients. The other two sessions focused on the educational aspects of physiotherapy. The PHPWS, which has its affiliation with the Haemophilia Centre at PIMS, is also involved in taking care of these patients.

The educational session focused on identifying problems and issues related to physiotherapy during home-care. The participants were encouraged to make suggestions or remedial measures in management of patients with possible disabilities (joint problems). The Visualisation in Participatory Planning (VIPP) methodology was used for maximum interaction. This process provided a comprehensive checklist of problems as expressed by the participants. These issues were taken special note and were dealt effectively by Dr. Farkhanda Nazli and her team of physiotherapists in the technical session.

The workshop was attended by 85 participants (45 male 40 female) — most of them patients, parents and family members of those afflicted with the disorder. The participants were divided into working groups headed by facilitator to invoke maximum dialogue. These facilitators belonged to the physiotherapy ward of PIMS.

An Urdu booklet on physiotherapy, with simple instructions on various exercises and homecare was handed out to the participants for reading; the facilitators were asked to assist in case of difficulty in comprehension. An in-depth discussion on the contents was encouraged for full understanding.

The second part of the session saw physiotherapists demonstrating desired exercises of common joints such as ankle, knee and elbow to address problems like stiffness and swelling of joints and inability to move. The participants keenly learnt the simple exercises with the assistance of the facilitators.

In the end, the workshop was evaluated to assess its impact. Like the previous workshop, the participants showed a marked difference in their initial knowledge base. They were particularly excited over having learnt various exercises. The workshop was facilitated by Yasmin Ehsan

Sunday, April 13, 2008

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Monday, April 7, 2008

PIMS holds educational workshop for patients

The first of a series of six educational workshops for Haemophilia patients and their families was held at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) here on Saturday.

Planned under the Hemophilia Education Project (HEP) launched in February this year, the workshops are being arranged in collaboration with the Haemophilia Centre of PIMS, the Pakistan Haemophilia Welfare Society (PHPWS) and the Novo Nordisk Hemophilia Foundation (NNHF).

The managing director of Pakistan Baitul Mal, Brigadier (r) Sarfraz Ahmad was the guest of honour at the workshop’s inaugural session, which was also attended by the executive director of PIMS Dr. Abdul Majeed Rajput; consultant haematologist and director of PIMS Haemophila Centre, Dr. Tahira Zafar, and a patient Fauzia Kausar, who shared her case history with an emphasis on the psycho-social challenges faced by her.

The workshop was facilitated by Yasmin Ehsan while Dr. Tahira Zafar and Dr. Nadeem Ikram acted as resource persons and mentors for the 50 plus participants.

“The themes for the workshops have been selected from various clinical problems faced by the haemophilic patients, particularly those dealing with psycho-social aspects of the disease, physiotherapy, dental and orthopaedic care, and bleeding disorders,” Dr. Tahira told this correspondent.

The HEP is focused on awareness raising and improved preventive care to reinforce the care offered by medical doctors. The strategy includes developing effective, simple-to-understand educational materials in local language, transfer of skills to patients and families for day-to-day home care and management of emergencies among patients.

The participants were divided into working groups, each of which was assigned a facilitator to invoke maximum dialogue. An Urdu booklet with simple instructions on home care was prepared for educational purposes. The participants read the booklet and discussed its contents for greater understanding. The second part of the session featured a practical demonstration by medical personnel on various home-based interventions for care such as preparing and giving factor concentrates, ice treatment for joint bleeds, and nasal care and treatment to interrupt gum bleeding.

The next session focused on soliciting views on the problems faced by participants during home care, as well as suggestions or remedial measures for management of patients within the family. The Visualisation in Participatory Planning (VIPP) methodology was used for maximum interaction, following which a coherent list of problems was formulated for consumption of health managers and policy makers.

In the end, an evaluation was carried out to make an assessment about the learning outcomes of the workshop. The participants demonstrated a marked difference in their initial knowledge base at the end of the workshop as well as about the materials received.

Earlier, in the plenary session, Brigadier (r) Sarfraz informed the gathering that the Baitul Mal spends Rs250 million on health alone and assured all-out support to haemophilic patients. He also promised to simplify the assistance procedure.

Dr. Rajput thanked Baitul Mal for facilitating the treatment of poor patients and pledged to buy medicines from chemists who give maximum benefit to such patients. He also appealed to the NGOs and philanthropists to participate in the cause. Dr. Rajput also shared details of the rehabilitation services provided to haemophilic patients by PIMS in collaboration with the PHPWS and NNHF.

Professor Dr. Tahira Zafar reflected on the services rendered by PHPWS and the need to educate patients and their families. She said Pakistan has about 10,000 to 15,000 haemophilic patients. Haemophilia is a lifelong bleeding disorder that prevents blood from clotting properly. People with haemophilia do not have enough clotting factor, a protein in blood that controls bleeding. The severity of haemophilia depends upon the amount of the clotting factor that is missing. A person with haemophilia does not bleed faster than anyone else but the bleeding may last longer. The main danger is uncontrolled internal bleeding that starts spontaneously or results from an injury.

The most common type of haemophilia is factor viii deficiency or haemophilia A. The second most common type is factor ix or haemophilia B. Of all registered patients in Pakistan, 80% suffer from haemophilia A. The cause is hereditary and mostly affects males who inherit it from their mothers. It rarely occurs in females or in those without a family history of the disease. The symptoms of disease are bruising and spontaneous bleeding, bleeding in joints with pain and swelling, blood in urine and stool, prolonged bleeding from cuts, tooth extraction and surgery.

Saturday’s workshop concluded with Dr. Rajput presenting shields to Brigedier (r) Sarfraz, Dr. Tahira Zafar, Dr. Waseem Khawaja, Dr. Humaira Qazi, Mr. Islam, Dr. Khalid, Professor Khalid Hassan and Dr. Nadeem Ikram in recognition of their services for humanity.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

4 more colleges/universities are starting Bsc.Physiotherapyin Pakistan.

4 more colleges/universities are starting Bsc.Physiotherapy in Pakistan.All of these institutes are affilliated with UHS,Lahore.

These institutes includes

Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore
Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur
Armed Forces Postgraduate Medical Institute, Rawalpindi
ACE Institute of Health Sciences, Lahore

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