Dear Folks,

Adil Jamal Akhtar has been a well-known figure form Dow days. He excelled in academics, he was a succssfull Cr of his class and remained at the forefront of the political scene at Dow. His career since his graudation has been remarkable. I would like to introduce him and his recent projects to our Dow Alumni. 

Q. Tell us about how you developed your career since your graduation from Dow Medical College?

After graduation from Dow Medical College, I completed my house job in Civil hospital Karachi. In 1989 I started my residency in Internal Medicine at Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan. After completing the residency, I stayed at Wayne State University for a clinical fellowship in Medical Oncology. In 1994 I joined a research fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland. I worked in Experimental Hematopoiesis in the areas of tumor suppresser genes and carcinogenesis. After completion of fellowship I joined the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Wayne State University as an assistant professor. Presently I am affiliated with the Oakwood health care System in Dearborn Michigan, where I moved in 1998 to establish a new Bone Marrow Transplant program.

Q. Currently, what are your main academic interests?
I am very active in clinical research. Presently my main area of interest is in non-myeloablative chemotherapy in allogeneic bone marrow transplants, also known as mini-BMT. This is a new emerging field where instead of using very high doses of chemotherapy to kill the tumor, we try to utilize the anti-tumor effect of the donor marrow or stem cells.

Q. Tell us about the new website vCure.com that you are involved in developing?
The idea of vcure.com came to me by looking at the quality of information on the web, which is not patient friendly. This is due to the fact that most of the so-called consumer web sites are trying to replace doctor. At vCure, our mission is to provide patients with highest quality information on disease and drugs created by the experts in the field. Our doctors have tried to recreate the discussion they have with their actual patients in a virtual setting. We are trying to enhance the communication between doctor and patients by educating the patients.

Q. How are you using Information Technology in your practice?
Being affiliated with a hospital system, we are limited in what kind of technology we can use. Therefore, at the front end we are not using much new technology in patient care, but we have developed our transplant program on a very strong and detailed database. Looking forward we are planning on incorporating more new technology in patient care. Through the patient-physician network of vcure.com, we will be able to communicate with patients via e-mail. patients will also be able to schedule clinic appointments using the vcure network. I also think that a lot of disease management will be done through the web in future. Other aspects of the practice where technology will help, include purchasing, supply-chain, billing, claims, electronic medical records and prescriptions.

Q. While the roots of Information Technology have been firmly established in the academia for years how do you perceive the “dotcom” invasive of the Medicine?
Future of medicine is in the process of major revolution by the dotcom phenomenon. All aspects of the field will be radically changed from patient education to the doctor education. Every person will be wired and every process will eventually be digital.

Q Do you see the “dotcom” proliferation into Medicine has a beneficial impact?
Absolutely. Although a full discussion of the benefits of dotcom in health care is beyond the scope of this forum, I will give a few examples of beneficial effect of the Internet on medicine in future,

·        EDUCATION: there will be no distances, global virtual class rooms will enable medical students around the globe to learn from professors at major universities

·        TRAINING: with the internet 2 which is in development, a resident in even a remote area of the world will be able to learn a surgical procedure in real time from an expert

·        CONTINUING EDUCATION: already a lot of information is available on the web for practicing physicians including journals, disease management, guidelines.

·        DOCTOR PRACTICES: every aspect of practice will eventually move to a paperless digital system

·        HOSPITALS: legacy systems will be replaced by web based supply chain systems. Medical records, orders, billing and claims will all become on-line

·        PATIENTS: education, information, home based disease management and web based communication tools between patients and doctors.

All these changes will greatly improve the delivery of health care through out the world.

Q. With thousands of Medicine related WebSites, how one can assure the authenticity of the information provided?
In developing vcure.com, authenticity was our main concern. We have all of the information written by physicians and clinical pharmacologists, whose names, credentials and university affiliations are all disclosed for public. Moreover, every article on vcure is peer reviewed by a medical advisory board (a standard procedure used by scientific journals). I think these procedures will become standards in future to ensure authenticity and credibility of medical information on the web.

Q. With the use of Information Technology the issue of distance is essentially being eliminated, how does this impact the developing countries?
Technology will have the biggest impact on the developing nations in future. Although every aspect of life and business will be improved with high technology, in my opinion the most important change will happen in education and training. Technology is been develop to have global class rooms on the Internet, where students from all over the world will have similar teaching and learning experience as students in developed nations.

Q. Tell us about your vision of helping our country, what particular thoughths would you like to share with us?
If you are asking specifically in health care, then I think increasing the interaction between doctors here and in Pakistan will help to improve the patient care. I am right now working on putting together a group of doctors in different fields of medicine, who will offer their advice to the physicians in Pakistan. I am planning on offering it through vcure.com as we have the technical infrastructure to do it. I am looking for volunteers for this project.

Other area where we can help is in the training of nurses and physicians. We should develop a system in which we can go to Pakistan to teach short courses in our fields to the medical students and residents. I am sure there will be people who will be willing to do it on a yearly basis, for example I can cover all major tumors for final year medical students and residents in 3 to 4 weeks.

Similar systems can be developed for patients care too!

Q. How one can get involved in the project like yours?
We need a lot of help in writing the content, current areas we need help are psychiatry, GI, OB/GYN and surgery. Any one interested in either writing themselves or coordinating one of these channels can contact me by email.

Q. Tell us about your Dow days, what do you remember the most?
I don’t know where to start, from the very first visit to Dow (which was a walk from DJ college), when I got in a political argument with famous Mujeeb ur Rehman till the last day every day has some memories. Dow elections and the activity surrounding them is something which I remember the most. I also remember the hours spent in the canteen and snack corner.

Q. What message you would like to give to our new graduates, new interns, new fellows and currently practicing medical oncologist?

NEVER GIVE UP

To visit vCure: http://www.vCure.com

adilalmas@mediaone.net 

I interviewed Shamvil using the internet and 
with the help of email the process was smooth. 
I hope you will enjoy reading about his project.

"In 1994 I joined a research fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland."

"I worked in Experimental Hematopoiesis in the areas of tumor suppresser genes and carcinogenesis".

"The idea of vcure.com came to me by looking at the quality of information on the web, which is not patient friendly. ".

"Through the patient-physician network of vcure.com, we will be able to communicate with patients via e-mail. patients will also be able to schedule clinic appointments using the vcure network."

"I am right now working on putting together a group of doctors in different fields of medicine, who will offer their advice to the physicians in Pakistan. ".

"We should develop a system in which we can go to Pakistan to teach short courses in our fields to the medical students and residents."

"Any one interested in either writing themselves or coordinating one of these channels can contact me by email."
.