Dow researchers bag top three PSIM awards

Islamabad : Young researchers from the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Ojha Hospital bagged all top three Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine (PSIM) research awards in the areas of role of Vitamin D in treatment and prevention of COVID-19, Tuberculosis and severity markers among COVID-19 patients in ICUs, officials announced on Sunday.

Dr. Muhammad Sohaib Asghar from the DUHS was awarded the first award and a cash prize of Rs200,000 for his research on evaluation of Vitamin-D status and its association with clinical outcomes among COVID-19 patients from a single institution in a developing country, said Prof. Javed Akram, President PSIM while announcing the results at the 2nd international conference of PSIM here.

Around 26 researchers from the leading health institutions and facilities participated in the PSIMRA competition, which is a joint initiative of the Pakistan Society of Internal Medicine (PSIM), Health Research Advisory Board (HealthRAB) and Pharmevo Research Forum, of which 10 were short-listed and top three were awarded cash prizes for their astonishing research during the pandemic.

Dr. Sadaf Ahmed from the DUHS bagged the second award and a cash prize of Rs100,000 for her research on for her study on role of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in preventing development of anti-tuberculosis therapy (ATT) induced liver injury in pulmonary tuberculosis(PTB) patients, a simple randomized single blind clinical trial. Dr. Rabail Yaseen from the same University clinched the third award and cash prize of Rs75,000 of her study on comparison of severity markers among COVID-19 patients in ICU between the first wave and second wave.