APPNA- Peds was founded in 2015, and since our inception we keep on growing every year with near 100 lifetime members and a large number of annual members.

During our annual meeting in July 2019, we had a well-attended general body meeting with robust participation by members, speakers included Drs Naheed Usmani, Mobeen Rathore, Leah Greenspan-Hodar. Our keynote speaker was Dr Hodar who shared her experience improving neonatal services in low resource settings. During this meeting we decided to focus on tackling neonatal mortality in Pakistan which is one of the highest in the world. We facilitated screening of a movie about breast feeding to create awareness on this important topic at the summer meeting.

APPNA Peds has worked hard to roll out “Neonatal Resuscitation Program” of American Academy of Pediatrics/American Heart Association (NRP) across Pakistan in the past few years. After signing an MOU, APPNA Peds helped institutions in Pakistan open an account with American Academy of Pediatrics vendor Health stream to purchase all NRP related materials and exams. APPNA Peds has also provided or helped them acquire all necessary supplies to establish an NRP program at their center. APPNA Peds team traveled to Pakistan and conducted multiple workshops to train NRP providers and instructors who continue to teach NRP program. During 2019 APPNA Peds helped Peshawar Medical College Peshawar and The Indus Hospital Karachi to establish their own NRP programs. APPNA Peds also conducted NRP provider workshops at an Army Hospital in Rawalpindi and Fatima Jinnah Medical University (FJMU) Lahore and trained over 100 NRP providers. Dr Leah Greenspan-Hodar traveled with us to FJMU and helped them initiate a neonatal quality improvement program to implement simple changes to improved neonatal outcome in obstetrics and neonatology departments. It is an ongoing program which will hopefully bring fruitful results. We will like to specially acknowledge Drs M Riaz and Misbah Qureshi for their tireless work in teaching NRP all over Pakistan.

Drs Taj Khan, Yosuf Hasan, Mehmood Khichi have been regularly conducting PICU rounds with physicians at various Children’s Hospital via Zoom meetings every Tuesday lasting 1-2 hours. During these sessions where complex cases are discussed. They are requesting pediatric subspecialists and pediatric intensivists to participate in future.

In December 2019, we met with leadership at Children’s Hospital Lahore (one of the largest children’s hospital in the world) and discussed areas of mutual corporation. They requested our help in developing pediatric surgical specialties like ENT, neurosurgery and orthopedics.

We are extremely proud that one of our lifetime members Dr Mobeen Rathore competed for the president of American Academy of Pediatrics this year. Our members have helped mentor numerous young graduate from Pakistan who wish to pursue their career in United States.

We hope to grow and expand on our work with improving neonatal mortality in Pakistan and assist critical care units all over Pakistan.

Ayesha Najib, MD