This is the place to be at AKU. At CHS Department we are waging a war on several fronts against disease and poverty, targeting some of the most difficult and important health and development problems in Pakistan and the region. We are engaging the minds and energies of some of the best young people in the country in an idealistic program to make a difference in the health of the people of Pakistan. Our battle fronts include infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, typhoid and respiratory diseases; violence, e.g. domestic violence, accidents such as burns and road traffic accidents; nutrition, e.g. micronutrient deficits;health management; urban health; mental health. The battles are being waged by Family Physicians, Research Officers, Community Health Nurses and Lady Health Visitors, Residents, Epidemiologists, Statisticians, and an array of other specialists and staff who work together for a common purpose.

The Community Health Sciences Department has undergone a groundbreaking substantial self assessment and developed plan for the future. I would like to share some thoughts from that plan:

Major goals for the department over the next 5-10 years are:

• Define and articulate important concepts of Public Health for Pakistan.
• Research in Public Health
• Develop models for the effective practice of Public Health in Pakistan.
• Training professionals to teach and practice Public Health in Pakistan.
• Strengthen undergraduate and graduate education in Public Health.
• Make AKU/CHS a local, national and regional resource in Public Health research and education and in shaping public health policy (e.g. blood banking policy, and reporting of cholera and other infectious diseases).
• Evolve into a School of Public Health.

These goals will be reached through the following programs:

Develop leadership for research, education and service in Public Health.

CHS will enhance its ability to develop the leadership and partnership with the community for conducting research into health and health-related problems.

In the process CHS will educate young people and provide them the professional skills at the undergraduate and graduate level in the application of established scientific methods to address problems in the community.

CHS provides training in and avenues for providing services to the community through the family medicine program, and through the delivery of immunization and other services to the community in which it works.

The planning committee recommended the evolution of CHS into a School of Public Health. In order to begin that journey a divisional structure is being implemented. The divisions are:

Health Systems. This will have under its umbrella health systems research, health policy and management, and health economics. This is a vital part of the masters program. It will also involve elements of primary health care.

1. Social Health. This will include selected aspect of rural and urban health, health education and social marketing, community development affecting health, violence, and mental health. Such a division must eventually accommodate sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists and physicians.
2. Women and children’s health This is designed to address a range of family and population oriented problems. It will accommodate those concerned with family planning and population dynamics, women’s reproductive health, and children’s health and development.
3. Family Medicine. This division will accommodate those interested in learning the skills and practice of family medicine, occupational health and health in the worksite. Family Medicine should be the common human denominator of programs of primary health care. This will be a major service, as well as educational Division of CHS. This Division will also interact extensively with the clinical services of the hospital to insure that Family Medicine becomes an accepted and vital part of the Hospital and its clinical services, as well as the bedrock of its community clinical outreach program.
4. Division of applied epidemiology, surveillance and biostatistics. This will encompass surveillance, selected problems of epidemiology of infectious diseases, injuries, chronic diseases, cancer, and environmental health, and will be the beginning place of clinical epidemiology.

The training and research arms of CHS include the Family Medicine residency, the Community Medicine Residency, the Research Officer program, the Master’s Degree program in Epidemiology, and the Regional Training programs in epidemiology, health management, and community development. All of these programs are described in more detail in the CHS website. I invite you to browse our website, and see for yourself the nature of the exciting work being done by the Department of Community Health Sciences.

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