Rawalpindi Medical College and The Rawalians striving for Excellence

Professor Atifa Shuaib

A Divine gift for Pakistani Thalassemia Major Patients

( This article is published in Middle East Journal of Bussiness in October, 2013 issue. It is reproduced here with due permission of the Publisher. To know more about this journal, please visit www.mejb.com )

Manzoor Butt

Correspondence:
Dr Manzoor Butt
Family Physician, Researcher & Trainer
Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Email: drmanzoor@ymail.com

It is quite an honor for me to write about my class fellow Atifa Shuiab, who is presently working as Professor of Pathology at Sheikh Zaid Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan. She is Clinical Hematologist, Thalassemia Consultant, University Examiner, Genetic Counselor, Interior Decorator, Painter, Adventurer and Social Worker.

Atifa was born in Gujrat in September, 1960. She completed her under graduate education in Rawalpindi from Presentation Covent School and F.G. Girls College. She did her M.B., B.S from Rawalpindi Medical College in 1985. She got her first position in her 1st professional examination with distinction in the subject of Anatomy. Again, she secured first Position in her 2nd Professional examination. She was declared best graduate of RMC for the session 1979-85 and was awarded four gold medals (President of Pakistan) for her achievements.

She did her one year house job/residency in Gynecology & Obstetrics at Holy Family Hospital Rawalpindi. In 1998, she qualified FCPS in clinical hematology from College of Physicians & Surgeons Pakistan.

She started her career as a Woman Medical Officer in 1987 from Rural Health Centre at Dhudial District Chakwal. A few months later, she joined Rawalpindi Medical College as Demonstrator and performed diagnostic work in hematology, histopathology, microbiology, chemical and clinical pathology departments till 1998.

In 1998, she was appointed Assistant Professor at Holy Family Hospital, Rawalpindi where she was in charge of the clinical hematology section. She became Associate Professor and in charge of pathology department at the same hospital in 2005. In addition to her diagnostic and research work as clinical hematologist and consultant of Thalassemia centre, she also performed administrative responsibilities of the pathology department. As a clinical hematologist, Atifa has performed more than 3000 bone marrow biopsies since 1998. She was promoted as Professor of pathology and transferred to Sheikh Zaid Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan on 14th June, 2013.
Atifa married her class fellow Dr Shuaib Khan in April 1987. They have three children. Their family life is very exemplary. Dr Shuaib is basically a health administrator and presently is working as Medical Superintendent of Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology.

Managing Thalassemia Major Patients is her first and the utmost passion.

She is very closely associated with Thalassemia patients. She involved herself voluntarily and actively in its treatment after seeing the miseries of families affected by this disease. In addition to medical treatment, she also provides psychosocial support to the patients and their families.

She intends to do a lot for Thalassemia major children. She plans to establish a state of art center of excellence for management of hematological diseases, like one that the residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad (the twin cities) have not seen. She plans to generate money from treatment of patients with hematological diseases and use that on Thalassemia major children. She is so sincere with this plan that she is even ready to scarify her carrier at its peak by taking early retirement in August, 2014. Thalassemia is her passion and she is a permanent volunteer blood donor since 1978 when she was only 18.

This would not be an easy venture but she has immense belief in God, herself, her husband, her friends, colleagues and well wishers. To achieve this, she needs a committed team and a lot of financial assistance. Initially, she will establish a hematology center at her lab very soon where all treatment for Thalassemics would be free.

For a very long time people have believed that the only treatment of Thalassemia is blood transfusion; many uneducated families still believe so but unless iron overload is treated simultaneously with regular blood transfusion the treatment is incomplete.

In 1999, she started a Thalassemia centre at Holy Family Hospital. According to Punjab government policy, blood transfusion services are separate and do not come under hematology department. She involved herself in blood banking as well but very soon was made to realize that she could not make changes. Thereafter due to shifting of the laboratory further away from the blood bank it became difficult for her to go there every day.

For many years, she kept on managing patients randomly and used to give them iron chelation medicines purchased from charity money (on a small scale) but was not happy with this set up as the supply of medicines was not consistent and only a limited number of patients were being managed. She was unable to improve these services because of multiple reasons such as departmental resistance, politics, not having a team, working alone and failure of hospital administration to understand the need of iron chelation medicines.

It was only three years back when she was able to develop a team by getting PGs in the department. She gained confidence of hospital administration to get the hospital to purchase iron chelation medicines. During the next two years, approximately two hundred patients were registered and treated properly according to TIF guidelines. They showed excellent results but the number of patients could not be increased because of budgetary constraints. Unfortunately during the third year, administration stopped purchasing these medicines and at the same time she was transferred to a far city of province. The Thalassemia treatment has come to halt because of her going away.

Atifa believes that treatment of Thalassemia patients is not just blood transfusion or iron chelation; in fact prescribing medicines and labs are just a part of Thalassemia Major management. Her way of handling patients is very different. She is an excellent listener, gives time to her patients and develops a bond with the patients and their families. They are not only satisfied but also trust her and believe in her. Patients once seen by her always come back to her and refer other patients from their neighborhood to her. She is highly motivated and ambitious for her work and derives joy from it but feels extremely sorry for the state of affairs these patients have to face.

Atifa is a thorough professional Lady

Atifa is life member of the Pakistan Association of Pathologists, life member Pakistan Society of Hematologists, member Pakistan Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and corresponding member, National Blood Transfusion Program.

Atifa has actively participated in many national and international conferences. She has presented her papers on Hematology during many national conferences, seminars and symposia. She has more than fifteen articles published nationally and internationally. She was a prominent speaker at annual APSENA conference Chicago 2009 on Water borne Diseases and at the Year end conference on Thalassemia, Indonesia 2011 on Management of iron overload in Thalassemia Major Patients.

She is certified examiner for University of Health Sciences (Punjab), Quaid-e-Azam University (Islamabad) and College of Physician and Surgeons, Pakistan.

She has plans to set up a state of art referral hematology facility, both diagnostic and therapeutic in Rawalpindi/Islamabad. She is involved in imparting quality laboratory services to the public and is part of the lab standardization process started by General Manzoor Ahmed (a reputed pathologist of Pakistan). When she was working at Holy Family Hospital, she fought for referral of all tests to hospital labs instead of private labs in order to facilitate poor patients and break the mafia of private labs, "commission system". She owns a private lab but her ways of working and moral ethics are very different from the majority. She practices clinical hematology in her private setup only to the extent where no admissions are required although it is her wish and desire to do full clinical hematology.

Other passions

She is a very professional lady who is thoroughly committed to her work but yet she has other passions .She is a deep lover of nature and finds great peace in gardening, home decoration, pet keeping, bird watching and travelling to places where one feels extra close to nature and thus its creator, God.

She used to be a sports woman, played baseball, netball, table tennis, lawn tennis, cricket and volley ball. Atifa was in school and college teams of baseball, netball and table tennis. She received a pride of performance certificate in table tennis.

She is a very straightforward, honest and down to earth person who loves teaching. She believes in disseminating every bit of knowledge she has to others in need of it. She is a good listener so many people including doctors and patients end up sharing their personal problems, secrets and worries with her. She guides the youth on principles of morality and ethics.


 
Professor Atifa Shuiab pictured with her husband