<span style="font-family: helvetica;">Medical specialists convened in Nairobi for a two day conference organized by Aga Khan University Hospital recently to discuss the multidisciplinary approach to medicine and present research based scientific information that will help shape the future of medicine.</span><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Themed ‘The Heart in Medicine’, the conference addressed the inter-relation between heart disease and other diseases and also the presentation and management of heart disease in the midst of other diseases.</span><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Professor Michael Chung, Chair, Department of Medicine at Aga Khan University in his welcome address to the delegates said that doctors are receiving more and more patients who present with different specialty-related symptoms or even an emerging disease as a risk factor of another i.e. diabetes as a cause of heart disease and it is important to establish the prognosis of the two or more diseases to manage the symptoms before they get worse.</span><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Professor Chung also pointed out that in this era of medicine where patients present with different specialty-related symptoms, it is necessary to determine which specialty is better placed to handle the patient to avoid a delay of the exact treatment the patients requires utmost.</span><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Dr Jeilan Mohammed, Director Cardiac Programme at Aga Khan University Hospital explained that there has been a rapid surge in cardiovascular diseases in recent years as a result of changes in people’s lifestyle.</span><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><span style="font-family: helvetica;">“Sedentary lifestyle coupled with tobacco use, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes among others risk factors are some of the leading causes of cardiovascular diseases. These factors can be controlled with lifestyle modifications and even treated over a period of time. However, certain risk factors like age, gender and a family history of cardiovascular disease cannot be modified and patients in this high risk category are advised to regularly go for check-ups for constant monitoring and management.”</span><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The annual event brought together specialists in all fields from hospitals in Kenya and beyond including cardiologists, infectious disease specialists, nephrologists, neurologists, pulmonologists, endocrinologists, oncologists, radiologists, cardiac and vascular surgeons, cardiac anaesthesiologists, physicians and physiotherapists.</span><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><br style="font-family: helvetica;"/><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The University Hospital cardiology department has also embarked on road trips to address several areas in heart disease including continued cardiology education and training, sensitise the community through health education and information on healthy lifestyle, providing free clinical screening in different counties to help diagnose heart disease and conduct health research on populations to ensure continued offer of relevant medical services. </span>