Pakistani Physicians to Strive to Improve American and Pakistani Health Systems

DALLAS – TEXAS: The Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) organized this past weekend their two-&-a-half days Spring Convention at Westin Galleria Dallas. Dr. Syed Samad President; Dr. Zaleef Munir President-Elect; Dr. Manzoor Tariq Secretary; Dr. Saima Zafar Treasurer; Dr. Rukhsana Mahmood President APPNA Alliance; and many senior members of APPNA were all present. Chair APPNA Spring Meeting Dr. Khalid Mahmood, and Co-Chari Dr. Dawood Nasir and Dr. Jalil Khan greeted everyone on the third floor of the hotel, as guests and delegates kept coming in on Friday and Saturday. Special guests included Honorable Consul General of Pakistan Aquil Nadeem, Honorable Mayor of Richardson Steve Mitchell; the City of Richardson Councilperson Candidate Amir Omer; and many more.

Programs included two grand receptions, which were Dinner of Friday Night and APPNA Banquet on Saturday night. In his keynote address, Mr. Aquil Nadeem, Honorable Consul General of Pakistan said: “Since its founding in 1976 by a handful of physicians, AAPNA has taken great strides. It now represents over 15,000 physicians across the Unites States. Today it is the largest and most influential Pakistani group in the United States and has been extremely successful in bringing together Pakistani Americans than any other organization. Although there are several ethnic media news papers and radio stations in places where we have sizable Pakistani community which is a positive thing since this media keeps our community informed about developments in Pakistan; however there is a need for us to have our presence in the English mainstream media including TV, Radio, and Print Media. This presence will help us effectively project our point of view in US where media plays an important role in decision-making process at various government institutions. We should also try to encourage our young Pakistani students to undertake studies in journalism at universities. I deeply appreciate the national spirit and sense of sacrifice exhibited by the APPNA, when the appeal was made to send donations and relief goods for the unfortunate victims of earthquake in Kashmir and NWFP in 2005. As a result of these efforts millions of dollars were donated to relief fund. The APPNA’s generous assistance to the people displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 in US is also highly commendable as it was great step in assimilating two communities.”

Dr. Syed Samad President of APPNA informed about the progress of various working programs of the organization like APPNA MERIT; APPNA SUKOON and APPNA SEHAT. He said there is opportunity for doctors to serve the humanity in Pakistan and work closely with the Obama Administration in President’s Healthcare Initiative (work through community clinics and health fares for the 15% uninsured Americans).

Dr. Zaleef Munir President-Elect said APPNA leadership has to work hard towards uplifting the image of Pakistani-Americans and play a leading role and said she looked forward to returning to the hospitable Texans in 2010 for the national APPNA Convention near Dallas.

Meetings like this one are held three to four times a year in various cities and even countries (upcoming October to be in Australia and New Zealand). These meetings are important to all the doctors, since they receive the Continuing Medical Education (CME) Credits and exchange ideas about new valuable inroads in the world of Health Sciences.

For this meeting, Dr. Mehmooda Nisar was Chair CME. Topics discussed included Pain Control; Revolutions in Preventive Cardiology; EMR; Medical Ethics; Gastrointestinal Bleeding; Mood Disorders and so on. Speakers included Dr. Mohammad Tariq; Dr. Aman Ullah Khan; Dr. Imran Shahab; Dr. Arif Toor; Dr. Azfar Malik; Dr. Syed Asfand Yar Sadiq; Dr. Akram Khan; and many others. Special parallel sessions for Women; Families and Young Professionals Network (YPN) were organized.

For more information about APPNA, once can visitwww.appna.org.

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