SASNET: International Health, Karolinska Institutet

Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of International health (IHCAR), at Karolinska Institutet Medical University, Stockholm:
– Research collaboration with South Asia– South Asia related educational courses– Student and teacher exchange with South Asian Universities
Postal address: Karolinska Institutet, Department of Public Health Sciences,Division of International Health (IHCAR), SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden Visiting address: Karolinska Institutet, Nobels väg 9, Solna Campus (moved from Norrbacka in early February 2006)Web page: www.phs.ki.se/ihcar
Contact person: Professor Emeritus Bo Lindblad, phone: +46 (0)8 524 833 39. Prof. Lindblad also served as Professor and Chairman of Paediatrics at the international Aga Khan University in Karachi during the years 1992–98. He was a member of SASNET’s board during the years 2001-06.
Research collaboration, including ”sandwich model” PhD training and postgraduate research support
– 50 years of collaboration with Pakistan and India – The Lahore Child Health Project – PhD and postgraduate researchers from South Asia– Specific research projects related to South Asia
50 years of collaboration with Pakistan and India
Karolinska Institutet Medical University has been involved in collaboration projects wih Pakistan, and especially with Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, since the 1950’s. Professor Bo Lindblad at IHCAR has been instrumental in much of these projects. Read his report on the 50 years of KI–AKU collaboration.
The president of AKU Dr Shamsh Kassim Lakha visited KI in 2001 and an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) for research collaboration was signed by him and KI’s Dean of Research Professor Jan Carlstedt Duke. In July 2005 this was followed up with a decision by KIRT, Karolinska Institutet Research and Training Committee, KIRT, to intensify and extend the already existing collaboration on research and research training with Pakistan, mainly through the Aga Khan University.
In 1997 and 1999 Mr Syed Ahmed Naqvi from the Library of AKU visited the KI Medical Information Center and started a collaboration to improve the library science facilities at AKU, which serves other universities in Pakistan.
Among specific collaboration projects can be mentioned that Professor Zeenat Issani and Dr Jamal Raza from the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, NICH, Karachi has visited KI; and Professor Claes Frostell and Head Nurse Christine Johnstone-Jolinger from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Astrid Lindgren’s Children’s Hospital of Karolinska Hospital, KI, visited the NICH in 2001 in order to intiate a collaboration to improve the situation, especially nursing in the heavily burdened Intensive Care Unit of the National Institute of Health, Karachi, Pakistan. Since 1995 Associate Professor Tommy Linné from the Dept. of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Institutet has lectured on pediatric nephrology at several symposia organised by the Urology Unit of Dow Medical University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Karolinska Institutet (and IHCAR) is also involved in extensive collaboration projects regarding research as well as students and teachers exchange with India. Several of the researchers and professors at IHCAR, including Prof Bo Lindblad, have long-standing relations with institutions in India, especially the Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), but lately also with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore (an MoU was signed in early 2006). Karolinska Institutet Medical University has a special India Programme, coordinated by Dr. Sanjeevi at the Centre for Molecuar Medicine. More information about Karolinska Institutet’s India program.
The Lahore Child Health Project
A major long-term research and research training project on Early Child Health in Lahore was running from 1976 to 1995 with support from Sida/SAREC. The project was jointly managed by IHCAR; Dept. of Women and Child Health; and Dept. of Clinical Immunology, the two latter at Göteborg University, the Dept. of Children’s Dentistry and Ortodontics of Lund University; the Dept. of Clinical Genetics of Uppsala University; the Dept. of Epidemiology of Umeå University; the Dept. of Paediatrics, Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong; the departments of Paediatrics, and Social and Preventive Paediatrics, at the renowned King Edward Medical University (KEMU), Lahore, Pakistan; and finally the Dept. of Applied Psychology at the University of Punjab, also in Lahore. The main contact persons at KEMU has been Professor Emeritus Fehmida Jalil (photo to the right) and Dr Shakila Zaman. On 17 March 2004 Uppsala University awarded the 2004 Rosen von Rosenstein medal to Prof. Dr. Fehmida Jalil in honour of the 40 years she has been involved in this research. The award ceremony took place in Uppsala University’s Gustavianum hall. Earlier the same day she held the traditional Rosen lecture in the Grönwall hall. The lecture dealt with ”Perinatal problems in Pakistan”. More information about Prof. Jalil. A summary of the research results, including six Pakistani and three Swedish research students’ completed theses was given in the final report to Sida, and in the Supplement 390, Vol 82, August 1993 of Acta Paediatrica (entitled “Early Child Health in Lahore, Pakistan”). The material presented in the 13 chapters build on very well controlled follow up material from four different communities in and around the city of Lahore and represent a well defined and reliable material from both rural and urban women and child populations of South Asia. The collaboration has continued, now concentrated on yearly medical student exchange between Göteborg University and Lahore, and a follow-up study of the effects of prenatal growth retardation, which was seen in up to 30 % of the material. The infants originally studied in Lahori communities from 6th month of pregancy are now up to 35 years old and the material offers a unique possibility of long term follow-up of well defined and controlled Intrauterine growth retardation in a low income country’s poor urban and rural population. Contact persons for the Lahore project: Professor Emeritus Lars Å Hanson, Dept of Clinical Immunology, Göteborg University, Professor Lotta Mellander, Dept. of Pediatrics, Göteborg University, and Professor Bo Lindblad at IHCAR.
PhD and postgraduate researchers from South Asia:
A large number of Pakistani students, PhD candidates and post-docs have studied at Karolinska Institutet over the years. No less than six present faculty members at AKU received their PhD’s at Karolinska. They all still maintain close contacts with their former KI departments, supervise KI students and come to do lectures in Sweden regularly:
• Dr Shahid Baig (Neurologist, supervised by Professor Hans Link, Head of the Neuroimmunology Research Unit).• Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta (Paediatrics, supervised by Professor Olle Söder), now Head of the Dept. of Paediatrics, Aga Khan University, Karachi (photo to the right). Bhutta defended his doctoral thesis at KI in 1996 on “Nutritional rehabilitation of Persistent Diarrhoea in Childhood. Factors determining recovery and the relationship of systemic infections with intestinal function. Faculty opponent was Professor Lars Å. Hanson, Department of Clinical Immunology, University of Göteborg. Prof. Bhutta is also a member of SASNET’s South Asian Reference group.• Dr Mahmud Ahmad (Orthopaedics, supervised by Professor Andris Kreicbergs).• Dr Tashfeen Ahmad (Surgical Sciences supervised by Professor Andris Kreicbergs).• Dr Arif Zaidi (Endocrinology, supervised by Professor Egon Dicsfalusy, Head of the Department of Reproductive Endocrinology between 1981 and 1986, retired in 1987).• Dr Taranum Sultana (supervised by Professor Olle Söder, Unit of Paediatric Endocrinology, Department of Women and Child Health; Associate Professor Günther Weber, Unit for Clinical Genetics, Department of Molecular Medicine; and Professor Anwar Siddiqui at AKU). Dr. Sultana defended his doctoral dissertation on ”Molecular and functional studies on interleukin-1-alpha in the testis” in 2002, and is now working at the Dept. of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi. The thesis dealt with a novel splice form of IL-1-alpha being isolated from the adult testis. The cDNA of the splice variant was cloned and sequenced, and the corresponding protein expressed end functionally investigated.
Anila Yasmeen was another PhD sandwich student at Karolinska, who has returned to Pakistan. Yasmeen’s supervisor was Associate Professor Mats A A Persson, Center of Molecular Medicine. Dr Yasmeen was registered at AKU as their first PhD student in a new facility and travelled between AKU and KI during her studies, before completing a thesis on ”An immunological study of the possibility of early determining the risk of Chrinicity in Hepatitis C Infection, a major problem in the Subcontinent.”
A number of higly qualified PhD candidates from Pakistan, one from King Edward Medical College in Lahore, and the rest from AKU, initiated a sandwich research training at KI during 2005. They all have Swedish Institute stipends. Among them are Farasat Zaman and Shahzad K. Akram, connected to the Paediatric Endocrinology Unit at the Dept. of Woman and Child Health, Sheikh Muazzam Nasrullah at the Division of Social Medicine, Dept. of Public Health Sciences, and Fauzia Rabbani at IHCAR. More information on her research below.
Specific research projects related to South Asia
Projects by Professor Bo Lindblad
• Research programme in the field of B-vitamin Supplementation to Women, with a completely new hypothesis. The project is carried out in collaboration between Campus Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm; Danderyd Hospital; Astrid Lindgren's Children's Hospital, Stockholm; Aga Khan University, Karachi; King Edward Medical College, Lahore; a genetic lab in Islamabad; and Trivandrum Medical College, Kerala, India. The differences in women's health in Sind, Punjab and Kerala are an important basis for broad village based socio-medical study of this kind. Bo Lindblad was given a SASNET Planning grant for this programme in August 2001.In November 2002 the project called ”Evaluation of the relationship of folate and B12 deficiency during pregnancy on pregnancy outcomes, intrauterine growth retardation and newborn vascular reactivity in Pakistan” was granted 600 000 SEK from the Swedish Research Links (Asian–Swedish research partnership programme) for three years (2003-05) by Sida and the Swedish Research Council. The researcher Helena Martin is involved on the project along with Professor Zulfiqar Bhutta, Dept. of Paediatrics, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.Bo Lindblad is now involved in a similar project with Professor Shakila Zaman, Dept. of Preentive Paediatrics, Fatima Jinnah Women’s University in Lahore, and Dr V.K. Mahadik, RD Gardi Medical College, Ujjain, India.
• A SASNET project is at the planning stage, aiming at involving and supporting younger postgraduates in Sweden, Pakistan and India. The collaboration is between IHCAR at KI (in the fields of obstetrics, pediatics and midwifery), the Stockholm University (Depts of Social anthropology and Economics) and the Nordic School of Public Health (Epidemiology) in Göteborg, AKU (Obstetrics, Pediatrics and Community health) in Pakistan, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore in India (Obstetrics) and The Population Council, UN, New York (Community based studies in South Asia). The focus is on Pregnancy Related Morbidity and Mortality, a major medical and economic problem in the region.Coordinator: Professor Bo Lindblad.• In August 2003 Bo Lindblad was awarded 90 000 SEK as a SASNET planning grant for this research programme on ”Pregnancy and Infancy in South Asia (PISA)”. See the full list of SASNET planning grants, August 2003.
• A research collaboration between IHCAR at KI; the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, and the Mangalapuram Primary Health Centre, Kerala, is headed by Dr K.T. Shenoy and Professor Bengt Höjer, previously at IHCAR.Objective: To quantify the determinants for public health care seeking among pregnant womenDesign: Population based cross sectional and prospective studySetting: Rural community; 6 health centres of 6 PanchayatsParticipants: 1345 pregant women at 24 weeks gestationThe same team is also involved in a study of perinatal deaths, involving Kerala, Vietnam and Southern Africa.
In August 2006, Prof. Bo Lindblad received SEK 150 000 as a SASNET planning grant for organising an interdisciplinary workshop on ”Micronutrient Supplementation to Pregnant Women in South Asia." See the full list of SASNET planning grants 2006.A symposium was held in Bangalore, India, 7–8 September 2006, with participants from St John’s Research Institute in Bangalore, headed by Prof. Anura Kurpad; two community health researchers from Pune; Prof. Staffan Bergström, and Prof. Bo Lindblad from Karolinska Institutet; and Associate Professor Mikael Norman from the Department of Neonatology, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge. From a Swedish viewpoint, the seminar was successful. Besides discussions with representatives from the Indian research institutions, Bo Lindblad and Mikael Norman were given the opportunity to lecture for the Indian Neonatal Society, about their research on Micronutrient Supplementation to Pregnant Women. Prof. Bergström discussed the extremely high mortality rate for pregnant women in India, and an agreement was made about joint research efforts by St John’s college and Karolinska Institutet. However, Prof. Zulfiqar Bhutta, Prof. Shakila Zaman och Dr. Nuruddin Badruddin, the three delegates expected to come from Pakistan, did not receive their Indian visas in time for the symposium. Therefore, a similar symposium will also be held in Pakistan, probably in December 2008.
• The Research group on ”Epidemiology and Health systems research focusing on equity and gender” is a multi-disciplinary group aiming at contributing to improved health in low and middle income societies through research and research training. It is headed by Dr. Eva Johansson, and focuses on TB, HIV/AIDS, health financing and insurance systems, public/private mix in health care, training of health personnel, maternal health, childhood studies and human rights. The group has competence in caring sciences, medicine, epidemiology, bio-statistics and health economics. The group is a scientific partner to socio-economic and demographic surveillance sites: FilaBavi in northern Vietnam and Palwa Field Laboratory in Central India. Several research and research training projects are on-going in these sites. The group has collaborative projects in India, Vietnam, China, South Africa and Zambia. .
Professor Vinod Diwan (photo to the right) defended his doctoral thesis on ”Epidemiology in Context. Effectiveness of Health Care Interventions” at IHCAR in 1992, is also working at the Nordic School of Public Health, NHV, in Göteborg, and he chairs KIRT, Karolinska Institutet Research and Training Committee.Prof. Diwan is Head of IHCAR’s programme on Health Systems and Policy research, involving research on Gender and Tuberculosis, identifying gender inequalities in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. It has also been implemented in Vietnam, Zambia and South Africa. Part of the research has been located to the city of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh state, India, where studies of a rural district, with a population of 60.000, has been carried out in collaboration with the RD Gardi Medical College. The project has included a socio-demographic surveillance system, where two persons from each village has been trained to collect data on births, deaths, migration and pregnancies. A 500 bed hospital serves as the teaching hospital. In November 2005 Prof. Diwan received SEK 600 000 as a three-years (2006-08) Swedish Research Links grant for a project titled ” Equity and gender in tubercolosis control in high burden countries – from research to policy”. The Asian partner in the project is Biao Xu. More information on the Swedish Research Links grants 2005.
Prof. Diwan is also engaged in a project titled ” Information technology in Health: A geographic health management information system in Madhya Pradesh, India”. The project is carried out in collaboration with Ram Mohan Singh, National Center for Human Settlements and Environment in India. The project was given SEK 600 000 as a one-year grant from the the Swedish Research Links Programme in October 2006. It deals with the use of information technology for better health management in the central Indian province Madhya Pradesh. More information about the project.
In August 2007, Prof. Diwan received a SASNET planning grant for a new research project on ”Improving maternal health outcomes in Madhya Pradesh, India – bridging the gap between research and practice.” See the full list of SASNET planning grants 2007. The projects aims at developing the already established collaboration between the RD Gardi Medical College in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, and IHCAR at Karolinska Institutet, to study maternal mortality and morbidity from the perspective that these women’s deaths and suffering could to a large extent be prevented.The other collaborating partners on the Swedish side in the project are PhD Candidate Grethe Fochsen (more information below) and Ms. Linda Rydberg, currently working for the Women and Gender Equity Knowledge Network, which is part of the WHO’s Commission for Social Determinants of Health. Ms. Rydberg is planning to start her PhD studies in Madhya Pradesh during the year of 2008, and her role in the project is to contribute with the social and political sciences perspective. She will also coordinate the planning of a workshop to be held in the beginning of 2008.The collaboration partners on the Indian side are Prof. V.K. Mahadik, medical director of the RD Gardi Medical College; and Dr. Kirti Deshpande, Assistant Professor in Community Medicine, RD Gardi Medical College.
In November 2007, Prof. Diwan was given SEK 1.5 million as a three-years grant (2008-10) from Sida's Developing Country Research Council (U-landsforskningsrådet), for this same project, now titled ”The Know-Do gap: a case study of the implementation of reproductive and child health policies in Madhya Pradesh, India”. More information about the Sida grants 2007.
• Associate Professor Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg (photo to the right) is working on several South Asia related research projects. Besides working at IHCAR, she has also – just like Prof. Diwan – a position as Professor at the Nordic School of Public Health in Göteborg.In June 2006, she received SEK 1.4 million for a project titled ”HIV and STI infections among Female Sex Workers in Lahore, Pakistan – prevalence, resistance, knowledge and attitudes – a health systems perspective” from the the Sida programme Support to HIV/AIDS research. More information.Project abstract: The aim is to establish a network between three institutions of Sweden and Pakistan, IHCAR, CONTECH International Health Consultants in Lahore, and Fatima Jinnah Medical College, also in Lahore, Pakistan. The latter is a medical school for women. A study will be done to assess the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among female sex workers of Lahore, Pakistan. Respondent Driven Sampling will be adopted to select female sex workers for interview. The study will help to assess the magnitude of sexually transmitted infection as well as to develop a health communication program for female sex workers. The study will serve as a basis for future studies like measuring the antibiotic resistance while using the syndromic management of STIs, assessing the knowledge, attitude and practices of health care providers and policy analysis of STIs. All of this together would result in a major policy dialogue. In the subsequent studies, another institution i.e. Örebro University Hospital, Department of Microbiology will also join the network.
Dr. Stålsby Lundborg is also engaged in a project titled ”Antibiotics as environment pollutants and resistance in waters in rural India – relation to antibiotic management”. It is carried out in collaboration with R.D. Gardi Medical College in India. The project was given SEK 1 425 000 as a three-years project grant (2007–09) from the the Swedish Research Council in November 2006. The project also received SEK 600 000 as an additional three-years grant as Swedish Research Links Programme in October 2006. It deals with the fact that antibiotic resistance is an emerging global public health threat. Morbidity and mortality are substantial especially for poor women and children. Little research has been done in relation to the public health problem of antibiotics in waters and its implications for resistance. The overall purpose is to assess environmental aspects and public health consequences of antibiotic management in rural India. Long-term aim is to disseminate findings in collaboration with policymakers to improve antibiotic use and antibiotic waste management in order to contain resistance and maintain the possibility to treat infections in need of antibiotics. More information about the project.
Since January 2007, Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg is the deputy chairman of SASNET’s board. More information.
• PhD candidate Mohsin Saeed Khan from Islamabad is supervised by Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg. He is working with the project about HIV and STI infections among Female Sex Workers in Lahore, Pakistan, presented above. Results from the studies were presented with a poster presentation at the conference on current Swedish development research, organised in Uppsala 27–29 May 2008. The conference, “Meeting Global Challenges in Research Cooperation”, was organised on behalf of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) by the Centre for Sustainable Development in Uppsala. Researchers and development professionals were invited to gather and discuss key themes at the frontiers of research and global development issues. More information about the conference.
• A collaborative research training project with a study of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infections in Peshawar, Pakistan ha been led by Associate Professor Anneka Ehrnst, Microbiology and Tumor Biology Center, KI.
• A collaboration in studies on antenatal prediction of low birth weight and some factors that detarmine birthweight has been working between IHCAR, KI and the Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, India. It has resulted in a PhD sandwich training of the present chair of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Unitin Vellore, Dr Matthews Mathai, who is now involved in a collaborative study with IHCAR on Preganacy Related Morbidity and Mortality. Mathai defended his doctoral thesis at KI in 1999. It was entitled “Fetal growth in India: studies on antenatal prediction of low birthweight and some factors that determine birthweight” – see abstract.Dr Elisabeth Matthai (photo to the left) at the same school has also been involved in a sandwich PhD training at IHCAR on Pregancy related morbidity, supervised by Prof. Staffan Bergström. She defended her doctoral thesis, entitled ”Genital and Urinary Tract Infections in Pregnancy in Southern India. Diagnosis, managhement and impact on perinatal outcome” at KI on 15 December 2004. Read the abstract.
• The multidisciplinary research group “Health Systems and Policy” (HSP) at IHCAR deals with individuals’ perceptions of health and health care, health seeking behaviour and at the macro level policymaking and how the system meets needs and demands of consumers of care. Action research with robust evaluations have been core activities in studies in Africa, Asia and Europe often conducted in consortia with other research teams. Method development includes multifaceted interventions in public and private sectors for improved quality of care evaluated in randomised control trials with health facilities as study units. The basis of any health system - the household-is being studied in relation to management of children with fever. Malaria case management is studied including the interface between consumers and providers as well as drugs and resistance. The group is led by Göran Tomson, Professor in International Health System Research (photo to the right). It has an extensive international network especially in Africa and Asia. Swedish collaboration includes the Dept. of Political Science, Lund University and Stockholm School of Economics. European collaborative institutions include Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, Department of Tropical Hygiene and Public Health of University of Heidelberg and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Several projects and courses (senior decision makers, PhD and MPH students) aim at more evidence based health policymaking. More information on the Health Systems and Policy Research group. • Dr. Fauziah Rabbani, Associate Professor at the Dept. of Community Health Sciences at AKU (photo to the left) has recently joined the research group. She will do a sandwich PhD training at IHCAR, supervised by Prof. Tomson. Her special interest is in health systems development and health care administration. She has served as WHO technical advisor and grant recipient of WHO UNISOL, which is a WHO network grant of ‘Universities in Solidarity for the health of the disadvantaged’. She is member of various national and international committees and networks, attended numerous international conferences and has many peer reviewed publications to credit. Together with Prof. Tomson she is going to try to evolve a Swedish-South Asian Network on health administration and management training and research. A project to be realised through collaboration between IHCAR, the Medical Management Centre at Karolinska Institutet, and the School of Business at Stockholm University on the Swedish side, and with the departments of Community Health Sciences and Medicine at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi on the South Asian (Pakistani) side. In August 2005 Prof. Tomson and Dr. Rabbani received a SASNET planning grant for an educational project on ”Networking in research and training for better health administration and management (NHART)”. More information on the August 2005 SASNET grants.Project abstract: In low income countries research and training in health systems and good governance has been identified as a major challenge in achieving millennium development goals. Medical universities and hospitals are an important but often neglected component of health system. Research and training is needed to develop balanced set of performance measures and in use of information systems to continually and simultaneously assess clinical outcomes, financial performance, patient satisfaction and provide this feedback to all parties. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is one such performance management tool. With AKU’s MSc in Health Policy and Management Program a formal networking for health systems development and management research training between Swedish partners and AKU will open new avenues for health administration and policy in South Asia. Moreover AKUH has elaborate computerized information technology and operational systems to improve quality of care for patients but there is a need to integrate these systems from a professional and managerial perspective. Therefore AKUH presents a good study site to test various performance measurement and management models in health care administration.
As part of the educational programme an International three day workshop on ”Health Administration: Strategic Planning and Performance Management” was held at Aga Khan University (AKU) in Karachi, Pakistan, 22–24 November 2006. It was organized by the Department of Community Health Sciences, Dept. of Medicine and Medical Director’s Office at Aga Khan University. The aims of the workshop were; to understand how to develop vision and mission statements, get familiar with methods for conducting organizational assessment and stakeholder analysis, learn to develop outlines of a strategic plan, appreciate some experiences of strategic planning in health care organizations through case studies and be informed about use and application of Balanced Scorecard as a strategic performance management tool in health care organizations. Participants came not only from Pakistan but also from Afghanistan and East Africa (on the photo above). Read a full report from the workshop (as a pdf-file)
• Anna Mia Ekström is an MD specializing in Infectious Diseases, holding a full-time research position financed by the Swedish Medical Council for research on global HIV and TB epidemiology. She did her PhD in Medical Epidemiology at KI and her MPH training at Harvard School of Public Health focussing on Epidemiology, Biostatistics and International Health. She also has a Diploma in ”Health in Low-Income Countries”. Her main research interests are in HIV epidemiology, TB, health development and gender issues, currently with special emphasis on evaluating the feasibility of large-scale antiretroviral treatment in low-income countries. She is involved in projects in Uganda, India, Tanzania and Eastern Europe.
• Ayesha de Costa (photo to the right) is an MD who has trained and worked in India. She has worked as a resident at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and with the Danish International Development Assisstance (basic health services programme) in Madhya Pradesh, India.She has worked with drug policy and geographic information systems for health in Central India. Her interests include health systems, access to essential medicines and ethics. She is now a PhD student and is researching in the area of the private health sector in India.
• Syed Farid-ul-Hasnain is a medical doctor holding masters degree in Epidemiology from Aga Khan University Pakistan and has ECFMG certification (MD) from USA. He is a faculty in ‘Population and Reproductive Health' Program at the Department of Community Health Sciences the Aga Khan University, with major involvement in undergraduate and graduate teaching. He is also involve in facilitating & directing short courses on ‘Reproductive Health Research' and participating in ongoing research activities pertaining to Reproductive Health program. His main interest is in adolescent reproductive health and gender issues. He is now a PhD student at IHCAR and his research topic is Addressing life skills in adolescents: Karachi, Pakistan.
• Grethe Fochsen is a RN and has a Master degree in Public Health Sciences from Karolinska Institutet. She has previous worked on a research project at Department of Nursing regarding health care personnel's work environment. On Friday 14 December 2007, she defended her PhD thesis titled ”Encounters with power: health care seeking and medical encounters in tuberculosis care: experiences from Ujjain District, India”. In the thesis, Grethe Fochsen examines health care seeking and medical encounters in the context of TB care in a rural district in Madhya Pradesh. More specifically, the study focuses on how relations of power between health care providers and patients are created, altered and maintained during medical encounters in a diversified health system. More information.
Among other Pakistani PhD candidates connected to Karolinska Institutet are: Faridul Hasnain from AKU, a student of Community Health, supervised by Dr. Eva Johansson; and Zarah Hasan from AKU, a student of Tubercolosis.
South Asia related educational courses:
World Health Core Course
A course for 10 weeks; 5 weeks public health and 5 weeks infectious diseases, in collaboration with the Infectious Diseases Unit, Department of Medicine. The course is open for research students and public health students. Three weeks are spent abroad after completing the course.Course coordinator: Staffan Bergström, Professor of International Health (Chair). Prof. Bergström is also Head of the Research group on ”Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights”. The group gives priority to research related to maternal mortality and severe morbidity. Particular emphasis is given to abortion research and reproductive health issues concerning adolescents. Several projects are ongoing in HIV/AIDS related areas with focus on obstetric infections, postpartum haemorrhage and outcome for orphans after maternal death. Female genital mutilation and infertility belong to other areas of priority research. Countries where research projects are undertaken include India and Pakistan.
Global Health
A 5 credits course arranged every semester for three weeks at KI, and then two weeks abroad – in East Africa, Cuba, Iran, India or Pakistan. The course is run in collaboration between IHCAR, the Dept. of Public Health Sciences, and the Department of Nursing at Karolinska Institutet. It is open to students at Karolinska Institutet in the Medical programme, Midwifery programme, Nursing programme, Dental programme, Biomedical laboratory programme, Physiotherapy programme, Occupational therapy programme, and the Biomedical programme. In South Asia, the students can choose to do the field work at Karolinska’s two main collaboration partner institutions: The Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan; and Trivandrum Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram, India. More information on the Global Health course.Course coordinator: Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health.
Prof. Rosling is also the driving force behind the creation of Gapminder, originally a non-profit venture based at Malmö that launched an animated computer programme using the so-called Trendalyzer software. – turning time series of development statistics into attractive moving graphics. A first project was the creation of a World Health Development Chart – in collaboration with WHO – showing the relation between the rates of child survival and GDP per capita during the last 50 years in all the countries of the World. Since 2003, Gapminder – now a registered foundation based in Stockholm – has developed through a collaboration with United Nations Division of Statistic and the UNDP, visualizing the fulfillment of the millennium development goals in the yearly Human Development Reports directly on the Internet. Since 2001, funding for the project has been given by Sida.On 16 March 2007, Google acquired Gapminder’s Trendalyzer. Google intends to improve and scale up Trendalyzer, and make it freely available to those who seek access to statistics. The Stockholm-based Gapminder Foundation on the other hand will continue to spearhead the use of new technology for data animations. The goal is to promote a fact-based worldview by bringing statistical story-telling to new levels. In collaboration with producers of accurate statistics that are eager to give the public free access to databases, Gapminder hopes to recruit and inspire many users of public statistics. More information.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
A course for three weeks, open for undergraduate medical students and practising medical doctors.Course coordinator: Torkel Falkenberg, Professor of Pharmacology, Center for Studies of Complementary Medicine (CAM). Prof. Falkenberg is Head of the Research Group on ”Drug Utilisation and Complementary & Alternative Medicine”. The Center is involved in research, development and education related to traditional medicine (TM), complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and integrative medicine. Staff members at the center collaborate with a wide range of professions including professionals from conventional medicine and TM/CAM, health care planners and decision makers nationally and internationally. The mission is to promote the development of evidence based health care systems in which appropriate conventional medicine practices and TM/CAM practices are integrated on equal terms. Such integrative health care programes are sensitive to the patients' freedom of choice and safety and acknowledges health and wellness of the whole person including biological, psychological, social and spiritual aspects, when relevant. More information on the International research.
European Master of Science International Health Degree Programme
IHCAR is one of eight European institutions awarding degrees in a new European Master of Science International Health Degree Programme. The programme is part of tropEd, a network of European institutions for higher education, in existence since 1996 and collaborating closely with institutions in Asia, Africa, and the Americas in providing postgraduate education and training opportunities. The European Master of Science Programme in International Health is a one year, full-time study programme taught in English. The main objective of the programme is to raise awareness of current global health concerns. Students become qualified to identify and critically analyse key factors shaping the health and well-being of populations in low- and middle-income countries and to formulate effective and appropriate responses to complex health-related issues. Six possible study tracks are offered for this degree and reflect the strengths of the consortium institutions: Tropical Medicine and Disease Control; Health Systems, Health Policy and Management; Sexual and Reproductive Health; Child Health; Health Research Methods; and Health in Emergencies.Each study track begins with a 3 month core course from September to December. Core courses provide a common basis of the main subject areas for all students. Students receive 20 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credit points upon successful completion of their core course. More information on the European Master of Science International Health Degree Programme. Contact person: Anna-Lena Paulsson
Global Medicine for Junior Hospital Doctors
Prof. Vinod Diwan at IHCAR organises Sida funded courses in Global Medicine for Junior Hospital Doctors (ST-läkare) on behalf of the Center for Public Health, CeFAM (a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and the county council of Stockholm). The courses deal with diseases like malaria, TB and AIDS, and take place either in Ethiopia or in India (four months at R.D.Gardi Medical College, in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. More information on the training in Ujjain (in Swedish only)
Theories and methods in health care research in Low-Income Countries
A three months course organised jointly by IHCAR and the Department of Health and Society, Dalarna University, Campus Falun. More information on the Fall 2005 course. Course coordinator: Professor Bengt Höjer, Dalarna University/Dept of Health Society and KI/Dept of Public Health Sciences.
Student and teacher exchange with South Asian Universities
An exchange programme was introduced in the year 2000–01, through the Linnaeus-Palme Foundation International Students and Teachers Exchange Program, between Karolinska Institutet Medical University; Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan (AKU); and Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, Kerala, India. As LP exchange programmes normally last for 5 years the programmes with Pakistan should have terminated during 2006. The programme includes both undergraduates and teachers in the medical field, as well as students and teachers in the field of nursing and midwifery. Official exchange programs has been established for the Study programme in Medicine ("Läkarprogrammet") and Nursing ("Sjuksköterskeprogrammet") in Pakistan and in India for the study programmes in Medicine and in Midwifery, ("Barnmorskeprogrammet"). Exchange regularly takes place, even in times of political turmoil in the region. The first medical student's teacher from Pakistan was Dr Mehnaz Atiq, who visited the Pediatric Cardiology unit of KI in August-September 2001. A collaboration in research on rheumatic fever has thanks to her visit been initiated. The first teacher from KI in clinical medicine to AKU was Professor Bo Lindblad, who visited AKU for 5 weeks in December 2001-January 2002. The first exchange teacher in nursing was Anita Wåhlin, who previously has been working with The Lekotek (play therapy during childhood) at the long term research and research training project on child health, at King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan. Coordinator for the undergraduate medical students and teachers: Professor Bo Lindblad (concerning Pakistan) and Associate Professor Sanjeevi Carani at the Center for Molecular Medicine (concerning India). Coordinator for the undergraduate Midwifery students and teachers with India: Anna Hjelmstedt Coordinator for the undergraduate Nursing students and teachers: Helen ConteInformation about the Linnaeus Palme grants 2007, given by Swedish International Programme Office for Education and Training (Internationella programkontoret).
In November 2006, Karolinska Institutet hosted a workshop on ”The role of South Asia in the internationalisation of higher education in Sweden” in collaboration with SASNET and the Swedish Institute. Prof. Bo Lindblad at IHCAR (also a member of SASNET’s board) was one of the main organisers of the workshop, that took place at Nobel Forum 28-29 November. Full information about the workshop.
It was inaugurated by Professor Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson (photo to the right), President of Karolinska Institutet, and after that Associate Professor Elias Arnér (photo to the left), Dean of Post graduate education, gave a introductory presentattion about KI’s International activities. Read Dr. Arnér’s presentation at the workshop (as a pdf-file)
Associate Professor Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg and PhD Candidate Mohsin Saeed Khan gave a presentation about Karolinska Institutet’s experiences from the PhD sandwich programme with Pakistan, in the session titled ”Recruitment of South Asian students in hard sciences in Sweden”. Read Dr. Stålsby Lundborg’s presentation at the workshop (as a pdf-file) Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg was also an invited speaker in the final panel discussion titled ”Best strategies for marketing Higher Swedish Education in South Asia, and for sending students to Higher Education in South Asia?”
Back to Research
Search the SASNET Web Index



Other departments/units at Karolinska Institutet Medical University