PESHAWAR, Sept 22: The Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) has launched a newsletter with a view to highlighting research and other activities of medical professionals in the province.

The dean of the PGMI, Prof Dr Arshad Javaid, who is patron of the newsletter, said that PGMI was a dynamic centre of excellence for teaching, training and research activities but unfortunately most of these activities went unnoticed.

"It was, therefore, decided by the academic council to launch a tri-annual newsletter to record these activities," he said. The first 12-page issue was published in July under the editorship of Dr Muzaffaruddin Sadiq with Dr Saeed Farooq, Dr Amir Bilal and Dr Amjad Taqveem as members of the editorial board.

The PGMI was established in 1984 at the Lady Reading Hospital. Since then, it has been working to promote postgraduate medical studies and introduce new disciplines in different branches of medical sciences. It has 234 registered trainee medical officers (TMOs), who have been imparted postgraduate training in 33 disciplines.

The newsletter says that research resource centres are being established at the LRH and Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC). Doctors have been told that research ethical review committees have been established and every research project in institutions should be sent to the committee for approval.

RESEARCH PROJECTS: The newsletter has also identified research projects for the year 2003-4, which include impact of training of government primary healthcare providers in rational drug prescription and study of frequency of diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance amongst workers at a tertiary care hospital of the city.

Aside from these, it has also included research projects on the study of the frequency of HCV and HBS among all patients admitted to LRH, anxiety and depression in nurses and quantitative measles antibody titers in two cohorts of children immunised with measles vaccine and those immunised with measles vaccine and vitamin A supplementation.