TB Control Program
IRD provides operational and technical assistance to the Indus Hospital TB Control Program in Sindh and Balochistan provinces. Through the Global Fund Round 9 grant to Pakistan’s National TB Control Programme, IRD is providing operational assistance in programmatic scale-up of MDR-TB control and electronic medical records nationally.
HCV Program
The HCV clinics at Indus Hospital are run under the Clinical Research Unit umbrella. All patients enrolled for HCV treatment are managed using standardized protocols.
TB REACH II
This project aims to increase early case-detection, reporting and correct treatment of TB in low-cost private laboratories serving poor communities
in Karachi, Pakistan, and Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Hepatitis C Risk Factors
in Karachi, Pakistan
This University of Texas Health Science Center supported case-control study which aims to determine which novel risk factors play a role in the epidemiology of the unexpectedly high rates of HCV infection in the Pakistani population.
TB REACH I
Mission Zindagi
TB REACH 1 aims to increase case detection and case holding of TB patients by providing conditional cash transfer to General Practitioners and Community Mobilizers.
Center for Injection Safety
Training of over 2000 health care workers from public and private facilities across Pakistan in safe injection practices.
TB GIS
TB GIS aims to strengthen the effective management of multi-drug resistant TB cases by targeting socio-economic and disease related determinants of TB, including the analysis of spatial distribution.
A New Needlestick Injury
Device Trial – K Safety Cap
A new device which aims to improve health worker safety was used by nurses and phlebotomists at the Indus Hospital Karachi to determine ease of use and safety of the device.
TB & Smoking
Prevention Survey
Prevalance survey done on TB Patients to access smoking habits and attempts at quitting smoking. This survey was conducted at four sites including three sites in Karachi (urban centre, Sindh) and one site in Rohri (rural Sindh). It was done in collaboration with the John Hopkins University.
Unsafe Injections in Pakistan-
Special Edition JPMA
This supplement of the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association brought together all relevant published scientific literature on this subject in Pakistan, thus providing a reference tool for policy makers and health professionals.
Interactive Reminders
IRD is conducting a randomized control trial to evaluate the impact of Interactive Reminders, or Zindagi SMS, an SMS reminder system that aims to improve patient compliance with tuberculosis treatment regimens. Interactive Reminders sends daily SMS reminders to patients to take their medication and patients are asked to respond back with an SMS indicating the time that they took it. If a response isn’t received within two hours, they are sent another reminder, for a total of three reminders a day. The study is being conducted in partnership with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Aspiration in Injections
A review of literature and injectable drug delivery instructions for use to determine the benefits and risks of the common practice of aspiration prior to injection.