Aga Khan University Karachi contributes Rs103 billion every year: study

[N.Siddiqui]

The Aga Khan University’s Medical College received two ASPIRE awards - for international excellence in education in a medical school - from the Association for Medical Education in Europe in Prague.

ISLAMABAD: Considered to be among the top medical schools in the country, the Aga Khan University has claimed that it has an annual economic impact of Rs103 billion ($ 1billion) in the country.

The annual economic impact study by the university, conducted by a team of economists from US-based Centennial Group International and launched in Islamabad on Wednesday, found that it was supporting 42,000 jobs. Moreover, it found that Aga Khan University’s (AKU spending has a multiplier effect, with every rupee of its direct gross value added generating Rs 7.3 in economic benefits.

This is the first-ever study of AKU’s economic impact and believed to be the first comprehensive economic impact study of any Pakistani varsity.




Prince Karim inaugurates high-tech facility at AKU

The report finds that AKU was reportedly improving the quality of healthcare and education for the public at large as a pioneer and an influential role model that sparks change within other institutions.

The authors call the university “a nationwide role model for high-quality tertiary education and medical care.”

With its various health initiatives, AKU’s annual spending was equal to around 15 per cent of the government’s total spending on health, and 7.5 per cent of private spending on health.

“Too often, the significant contribution that a leading university makes to the economy is overlooked,” said AKU President and CEO Firoz Rasul. “This study should change that.”

He further claimed that through its various efforts, the AKU was also helping improve the overall quality of life in the country.

The report noted that quality education was a strength which helps increase the earning power of its graduates. Moreover, it provides healthcare services to 1.3 million people every year. By keeping these people healthy and in turn productive — the AKU argues that it helps in that economic contribution.

University rankings: QAU, Aga Khan lead rankings

Moreover, the varsity argued that since it is a major purchaser of goods and services, it generates revenue for local businesses and in turn creates more jobs across the country.

“This economic impact study by the AKU is a trendsetter for our education sector,” Minister for Interior and for Planning, Development and Reform Ahsan Iqbal said.

Former State Bank governor Dr Ishrat Husain, who advised the report’s authors, said, “The study is a rigorous analysis of the difference that AKU has made in Pakistan.”

Centennial’s study analysed AKU’s economic impact in 2015, the latest year for which data was available when the authors began their work in 2016.

Excellence

The AKUH was the first hospital in the country which was accredited by the US-based Joint Commission International while its laboratory was the country’s first accredited by the College of American Pathologists.

Coveted

Seven of Pakistan’s top 10 health researchers are AKU faculty, according to the Pakistan Council for Science and Technology.

Partnering with Government

AKU’s Institute for Educational Development and its Examination Board – both the first private institutions of their kind in Pakistan – have provided valuable assistance to government officials seeking to improve the education system.

Over five years, the university will be working with government health providers to improve health for 11.5 million women and children in Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan through its Umeed-e-Nau (New Hope) project— funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.


https://tribune.com.pk/story/160648...y-contributes-rs103-billion-every-year-study/

 

[N.Siddiqui]

AKUH Karachi

AKUH, Karachi, one of the best in the region...
Levelling the playing field: AKU-EB — a game-changer for transparent exam marking

Explaining the marking software and process of e-marking at the AKU-EB, the senior examiner for chemistry, environmental studies and home economics, Afreen Kanwal told The Express Tribune that the marking teams comprise fixe examiners and one senior examiner, all of whom are supervised by subject specialists. Each examiner has a separate ID and password to log in to the system for marking the papers.



When students complete their exams, their papers are scanned by the operation team and are then entered into the system. The examiners are then assigned questions, explained the operations department manager Aqeel Farooq. Scanning all the answer sheets takes around 15 days but the e-markers do not wait for all the papers to be scanned before beginning the e-marking, he said, adding that AKU-EB uses scanning machines, which have the capacity to scan 50 papers per minute.

Kanwal explained that each examiner only checks a single question on each paper. The e-marking software has eight options for examiners to choose – marked, parked, remarked, rescan, reviewed, unmarked, verified and escalate. The examiner can check and verify the answers via the answer key saved in the software, she explained.

After marking the question, the examiner will save it as ‘marked’ but if there is any confusion and the examiner needs more time to check the answer they can ‘park’ the question. If the examiner has any conceptual confusion and is having problems in marking the question, they can ‘escalate’ it to the senior examiner and can also add comments in the message box. Likewise, other options include rescan, in which the answer sheet can be sent to the operations department if the scanned picture is not clear enough.












AKU becomes country’s first hospital to introduce ‘Neuro-Robotic Exoscope’

PHOTO: fb.com/AKUH

KARACHI: The Aga Khan University hospital (AKUH) has become the first medical centre to introduce the new advanced brain surgery technology, Neuro-Robotic Exoscope, in Pakistan and the only hospital outside North America to have advance neurosciences equipment.

The revolutionary technology was inaugurated at AKUH on Monday. The equipment, with its highly detailed 3D imaging and robotic positioning system, will transform the way surgeons operate on delicate areas of the brain and radically alter treatment options for patients during the surgery.

Neurosciences System Clinical Programme and Aurora Neurosciences Innovation Institute vice-president and Aurora St Luke’s Medical Centre, USA, neurosurgery chairperson, Dr Amin Kassam, shared his experience of performing the world’s first neurosurgery using this system in April last year.





“I have performed perhaps 10,000 brain surgeries in my career and this felt like the first time I had the tools I have always needed,” said Kassam. He added that from the planning stages and through the surgery itself, they finally got the kind of look inside the patient’s brain that previously they could have only dreamed of. Doctors from Singapore and India will come here to learn from neurosurgeons in Pakistan, Kassam said, adding that this will be a remarkable opportunity for the AKUH.

PHOTO: FACEBOOK

The advanced system will enable neurosurgeons at the hospital to access deepest parts of the human brain, distinguish between diseased and healthy tissues and determine the best surgical approach to minimise neurological deficits during complex brain surgeries.

“The system takes highly detailed images of a patient’s brain and projects it on a screen, while a computer guides the path according to the patient’s preoperative imaging,” said AKU department of surgery chairperson and neurosurgery professor Dr Ather Enam.

AKU opens Pakistan’s first medical simulation centre

He said the equipment would provide the patients with minimally invasive surgery. Enam added that safer and more precise surgeries with fewer complications will be conducted, faster recovery time for patients, reduced post-operative stay and improved health outcomes.

Synaptive Medical president Cameron Piron, the developer of the technology, said that the system is a sort of GPS for the brain that gives the surgeons a visual representation of the complex structures of the brain.

While addressing the guests, AKU president Firoz Rasul termed the inauguration a milestone and a historical event. He said that it is the first installation of this technology outside North America and it can guide AKUH to be the best among the world in neuroscience.

“This system is a first step towards the establishment of a centre of excellence in neurosciences at AKUH that will provide comprehensive and

quality care for all diseases related to the nervous system and spine,” Rasul added.

https://www.aku.edu/Pages/home.aspx

 

[N.Siddiqui]

https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/aga-khan-university