An interview with Dr. Asim Qidwai – Founder & C.E.O – AMTF – Helping Blood Disorder Program (Pakistan) Â
PAGE: What inspired you to start Afzaal Memorial Hospital, and why did you choose to focus specifically on thalassemia care?
AMTF: I believe in One Life and One Opportunity. My passion for medicine is towards creating the best medical facilities for patients with respect, and quality of life, as a final product. I wanted to share my input and deliver the quality services specifically for those living with constraints of resources. Behind Thalassemia care there was a plan. Thalassemia is a multisystem disorder and requires a multidisciplinary team to take care of such kind of disease. I planned with my team that by attempting a holistic approach towards Thalassemia we may able to develop a multi-specialty hospital designated for blood diseases instead of Thalassemia only. We smartly started taking care of Thalassemia and later developed multi-specialty outpatient and in-patient and diagnostic services, primarily cashless, and delivering services since 2003.
PAGE: How do you define success for Afzaal Memorial Hospital 5-10 years from now? Is it number of patients treated, cure rates, or prevention?
AMTF: Afzaal Memorial Hospital has been delivering services since 2003, expanding our team ten staff members to almost 260, including two centres i.e. Shikarpur and Karachi. We are now heading towards Complete Hematology for people with constraints, and Insha’Allah, will soon be starting this year. I believe in assurance of sustainability that comes with selection of a better team. My key to the future success is the model where I always select better team than the previous.
PAGE: How has Afzaal Memorial built and sustained its blood donor and transfusion system?
AMTF: Blood donation and transfusion is one part of the treatment, once we are talking about a child or a patient suffering with any kind of blood disorders. There are multiple services, including: ICU, HDU, Ward, Day-care, Diagnostics, Dental, then Outpatient clinics that include multiple sub-specialties. Transfusion is one of them. Community Sensitization towards blood donation is very patchy in Pakistan. Poor knowledge at school level moves to the community in the same manner as very poor compliance towards regular blood donation. I call it a “TOUGH TIME” where the community and youth are available but no donor registry and poor awareness towards voluntary blood donations. We have teams dedicated towards continuously working, but it is a very difficult task since we are the only project that gives without exchange of blood donors.
PAGE: What are the biggest financial and operational hurdles in running a specialized hospital like this, and how do you keep treatment affordable for families?
AMTF:Â Running a cashless hospital specially targeting patients with poor socioeconomics is a very hard task, but my mind constantly tells me that I must work hard, bring forth my sincere efforts, and present them in front of the community showing. It always works for me but the way I have planned it with my team, we still need to reach out to a wider community and request them to support the cause which can be very difficult at times. Unfortunately, the community tends to treat charities as ‘brands’ and categorizes their attachments towards those who are bigger charities, and associating heavily with one over another, i.e. “I only donate to so-and-so charity”. It divides rather than unites and goes against the concept of charity itself. Unfortunately, this is where we need to improve ourselves as a nation, where we support to support small charity organizations as there are gaps, especially in treating various disorders, and such organizations should be considered.
PAGE: Beyond treatment, what role does Afzaal Memorial play in awareness, genetic counseling, and prevention of thalassemia in Karachi and surrounding areas?
AMTF:Â We have been consistently working since 2011 towards spreading awareness on prevention, through services such as:
– Our Blood Donation Advocacy bus with Japan
– Biosafety lab (BSL-2) with the Islamic Medical Association of North America
– Thalassemia Prevention Program with INFAQ
– Thalassemia Prevention Lab with IMANA
– Blood Donation Bus with Friends of AMTF, Atlanta, Georgia USA
– Thalassemia Advocacy Program running with five universities, which has trained more than 700 students
– Shikarpur Thalassemia centre, which completed screening successfully, completed in collaboration with INFAQ Foundation
PAGE: If you had unlimited resources tomorrow, what is the one thing you would change or add to Afzaal Memorial Hospital to better serve thalassemia patients?
AMTF:Â Organizations like us never get these kinds of funds, but let’s assume we do so, in which case I would work with my team as I always have, working towards the “Assurance of sustainability of quality services, for future generations”.
PAGE: What role do you think community outreach and donor drives play in reducing thalassemia in Pakistan?
AMTF:Â The role they play are regularly and repeatedly sending out intermittent pulses of sensitization through print, digital, and electronic media towards blood donation as a Community Service. This needs to be done at regular basis as it is the only way towards achieving successful service.