Iman Hameed’s Post

Population Health Versus Precision Medicine More people can live longer, happier, and healthier lives if as a nation we focus on our environment, socio-economic status, ethnic variations, persistent gender discrimination, and other self-induced non-medical risks—rather than personalized medicine or precision medicine.   This thought was well developed in a New England Journal of Medicine “Perspective.” https://lnkd.in/eHxnS3uh   No doubt clinical medicine has changed the way we live for the better. However, the greatest change for the better in overall life expectancy in the history of civilization has been an effective sewer system combined with a safe drinking water supply.   There is great enthusiasm for precision medicine or any scientific medical research to move society forward, and this enthusiasm derives from the assumption that sophisticated and rapidly evolving science will contribute to clinical practice. The argument that research helps lower morbidity and mortality has already been proven many times. One noteworthy example in our lifetime is the prevention of polio worldwide, except for three countries that are unaccepting of modern public health measures (Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan).   “There is now broad consensus that health differences between groups and within groups are not driven by clinical care but by social-structural factors that shape our lives,” according to the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health, Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University.   We struggle with limited resources to care for our population and the world’s population by concentrating on prevention. But healthy eating, purposeful movement, work-life balance, and many of the nine principles of the Blue Zones Project would yield greater dividends than the vast spending on precision medicine. Realistically we as a nation and as a world civilization may get more “bang for our buck,” by preventing illness rather than developing new technologies for repair purposes.   Nonetheless, public investments in our nation’s public health versus precision medicine will continue to be debated—much the same way that funding pure science versus applied science has been debated for decades. There probably is no “right” answer, but looking at cost benefit with the focus on how many people will be helped by adding years of quality life is a reasonable metric. This measure is called a “quality-adjusted life-year” (QALY). It is a measure of both the quality and the quantity of life lived.   The United States spends about 18% on health care but ranks 37th out of developed nations for quality of healthcare according to the World Health Organization. Most other developed nations spend only high single digits of GNP, with longer and healthier life spans.   As a nation, we have opportunities we have always responded to. I’m optimistic we can both develop precision medicine and improve population health.

Rethinking DALYs: Addressing the Methodological Limitations of a Widely Used Metric Proud to share our latest scientific publication, where we critically examine the methodological limitations of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), one of the most prevalent metrics in public health and health economics with the QALY. While DALYs have been instrumental in shaping our understanding of the global burden of disease, our research sheds light on key challenges in their application. These include issues related to data consistency, assumptions about disability weights, and potential biases that can influence policy priorities. Our findings call for a more prudent approach to rank disease burden—one that considers alternative metrics to ensure equitable and effective resource allocation. This publication contributes to the ongoing dialogue on public health priorities about improving the tools we use to measure and address health challenges worldwide. As the field evolves, it's critical that we continuously refine our methods to better serve populations globally. https://lnkd.in/dbwXivQV I’d love to hear your thoughts: How can we improve the tools we rely on in public health to ensure more accurate and fair decision-making?  

📢🎉 Excited to share our publication in the International Journal of All Research Education and Scientific Methods (IJARESM)!🎉 Although little late for the update, but I’m thrilled to finally announce our article, "A Survey on Awareness of Various Skin Infections among People," published in March 2023. This research, conducted with my team and under the guidance of Dr. Dhanashree Mundhey (Sanap) , highlights critical insights into public awareness of skin infections and aims to contribute to better health education and preventive measures. Feel free to read and share your thoughts! #Research #PublicHealth #SkinInfections #HealthEducation #Publication #IJARESM

https://lnkd.in/dSuexJ4C Total intravenous anaesthesia in rural sub-Saharan Africa: report of 25 cases.

Happy to share our new paper just published in Health Economics!! https://lnkd.in/e-9kYRfp We used a target trial emulation with local #IVs to examine treatment effect heterogeneity across subpopulations eligible and ineligible for a published RCT. The three main contributions of this work are 1) Our suggested approach accounts for essential heterogeneity for transporting results from RCT-eligible populations to target populations relevant to the decision context. 2) We assessed the performance of a local #IV approach vs a published RCT and explored essential heterogeneity across an entire target population, including subpopulations who met RCT eligibility criteria and those who did not. 3) Previous target trial emulations have assumed no unobserved confounding. While we found that this is a plausible assumption amongst the RCT-eligible subpopulation, our results suggest that this assumption is likely implausible for the RCT-ineligible subpopulation London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, U. of London Patrick Bidulka, Stephen O'Neill, Orlagh Carroll, Anirban Basu, Karla DiazOrdaz, Richard Grieve

As communities worldwide marked World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Week between November 18 and 24, we turned the spotlight on five EPIC researchers who have developed innovative methodologies to address the AMR problem. From environmental surveillance to monitor the emergence of AMR bacteria in hospital settings and understanding the evolutionary mechanisms by which bacteria develop antimicrobial resistance to developing novel methods to neutralize AMR bacteria, the approaches taken by these researchers represent the diversity fostered within the EPIC community. To learn more about these EPIC-funded projects and their contribution to AMR research, please click on the link: https://lnkd.in/gHyX3end #AMR, #AntiMicrobialResistance, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto Mississauga, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health

TAKE THE CLINICIAN CHALLENGE https://lnkd.in/eZesMdTb. Watch presentations on www.Melody.education by Prof Michael Trauner Medical University of Vienna, Jörn M. Schattenberg University Medical Center Mainz and Meena Bansal Mount Sinai Health System. #MelodyEducation #NASH #NAFLD #CVD #fattyliver #liverdisease #liverfibrosis #NonAlcoholicLiverDisease #NonAlcoholicFattyLiverDisease #MASH #MASLD #Metabolicdysfunction–associatedsteatoticliverdisease #Metabolicdysfunction–associated steatohepatitis #diabetes #obesity

Diagnostic errors are more likely to affect certain populations, so advancing #DiagnosticExcellence can help improve #HealthEquity. Two Department of Medicine University of Washington - School of Medicine faculty were invited to share their experience and guidance on improving health equity at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop, “Advancing Equity in Diagnostic Excellence to Reduce Health Disparities". Dr. Anita Chopra presented on “Strengthening Community Collaboration to Reduce Health Disparities and Advance Equity” & Dr. Jason Deen @UWCardiology presented on “Systemic Barriers to Optimal Health in Indigenous Communities". https://lnkd.in/gnt2WSsn

On a rainy day like today, I am glad to have harvested wild Central Otago Thyme in spring and Elderberry fruit in autumn to make a profoundly warming, soothing and immune-supporting Elderberry Thyme drink. This must be my favourite herbal health drink of all time! Compared with other fruits, elderberry is proven to be a very rich source of anthocyanins (approximately 80% of the polyphenol content). These polyphenols are the principles that contribute to the high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacities and the health benefits of elderberry fruit extract. These health effects include attenuation of cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and inflammatory disorders, as well as anti-diabetic, anticancer, antiviral, and immuno-stimulatory effects. Thymus vulgaris, in turn, is one of the best medicinal plants for respiratory tract health, having strong antimicrobial and lung cleansing properties. Here is to good health! Elderberry Extracts: Characterization of the Polyphenolic Chemical Composition, Quality Consistency, Safety, Adulteration, and Attenuation of Oxidative Stress- and Inflammation-Induced Health Disorders - PubMed (nih.gov)

East African Congress of Integrative medicine is Scientific Health educative event with cutting edge information being made available from leading doctors and scientists in the industry to help African Doctors, Researchers, Healthcare innovators, Nurses and all healthcare providers aquire new knowledge on how to combat healtcare challeges in 21 st century, hence help their patients achieve optimum health and promote good quality of life. The Speakers are award winning medical scientists their research has uncovered information that when applied, easily keeps the human body healthy and pain free, without having to concede to expensive, and potentially prohibitive travel expenses abroad. We discovered, as you will, that by giving the body back the essential elements that it has been depleted of over the years, you will live a long and healthy life, free of the worry of scary and painful diseases. Billions are now suffering with colds and flu, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and many more degenerative diseases. In this event will teach you what these diseases are, what causes them, and what steps you can take to resolve these issues.