APSR Short-Term Research/Training Scholarship

First of all thanks to the APSR for selecting me for the APSR Short-Term Research/Training Scholarship award, which helped me to work and improve my skills in pulmonary medicine, especially Interventional Pulmonology, with Dr Jamalul Azizi, Director and Head of Malaysian association of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology, Serdang Hospital Selangor, Malaysia.

During my Fellowship I had the opportunity to participate in daily clinical work, the out-patient department, IPD, Bronchoscopy Clinic, MDT meeting which includes doctors from different specialties including cardiothoracic surgery, radiology and pathology; plus journal clubs and oncology meetings at the National Cancer Centre at Putrajaya, Malaysia.

I also had the opportunity to improve my flexible-bronchoscopy skills, and thoracoscopy (both flexible and rigid). I also had excellent exposure in interventional pulmonology procedures like rigid bronchoscopy, endobronchial stent placement, balloon dilation for endobronchial stenosis, EBUS, electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy, cryo-debulking, cryo-lung biopsy, endo-bronchial valve for LVRS under the excellent guidance of my host supervisor Dr Azizi and his excellent, truly dedicated team.

I also attended the MABIP-2015 (Malaysian Association of Bronchoscopy and Interventional Pulmonology Congress) held at Serdang hospital on 19-20 August 2015 and presented a paper as an oral presentation.

Malaysia is a beautiful country with wonderful and supportive people and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience there. I had some very good experiences working with Dr Azizi. Apart from being excellent pulmonologist he is an excellent teacher. I would like to thank him from the bottom of my heart for all his support and promise him that I will utilize all the knowledge gained from him in the future.

I would also like to thank his very dedicated team members Dr Mona, Dr Hafa, Dr Chanta, Dr Kumaresh and Dr Nazrul for their support during my fellowship. I have learned a lot form them.

Finally I would like to thank the APSR team for this scholarship in Malaysia, especially Dr Bai and the APSR Research Committee members. I found this fellowship very fruitful for my future career.

12 September 2015
Dr Nafees Ahmad Khan, Assistant Professor,
Department of Pulmonary Medicine,
J N Medical College AMU Aligarh, India