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The Aga Khan University (AKU) recently signed a deal with Sudbury Memorial Hospital (SMH) that will see Sudbury's medical staff helping to train their counterparts in Karachi, Pakistan. The fact that AKU, which is already affiliated with such institutions as McGill University in Montreal, Harvard in the United States and Oxford in England, chose SMH for its cardiovascular program 'speaks volumes for the high international regard that our cardiovascular professionals have in the international scene,' said Sudbury Regional Chairman Tom Davies.Mr. Esko Vainio, Executive Director of SMH, said the deal will benefit SMH and its staff by offering an opportunity to 'acquire an international dimension, broaden their perspectives and professional and personal enrichment.'

Mr. Shamsh Kassim-Lakha, President of AKU, said the university medical centre did not initially intend to get into cardiovascular care when it opened in 1985. 'It was to be a good teaching hospital with minimal tertiary care.' But statistics gathered over the last few years at the facility showed that 19 per cent of the adults coming there suffered some form of cardiac disorder that the facility could not ignore. 'The issue of understanding cardiology left much to be desired in our part of the world.' The centre is spending about $2.5 million setting up the program, said Mr. Kassim-Lakha.

'A recent province-wide study of heart surgery at nine adult cardiac surgery units found SMH had the lowest mortality rate of the nine,' said Mr. Vainio. The survey also showed the shortest post-operative hospital stay was also at SMH.

The Board of Trustees of the Aga Khan University Medical Centre, (AKUMC), Karachi, Pakistan, has approved implementation of an expanded cardiac services program, including cardiac catherization, angioplasty and open heart surgery, at the Aga Khan University Hospital. Implementation is underway with a projected launching scheduled for November, 1994.

Dr. Alnoor Abdulla, an interventional and nuclear cardiologist at SMH has agreed to provide leadership in implementation of the program at AKUMC, as Chief of a newly established cardiology service in the Department of Medicine.