QU-Health and College of Pharmacy graduate first PhD student

(MENAFN - The Peninsula) Qatar University achieved a significant milestone as it graduated its first PhD graduate from the College of Pharmacy and QU-Health cluster Dr. Islam Eljilany (pictured). He completed his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences. His thesis titled, ''Clinical and economic impact of genetic and non-genetic factors on INR normalisation in preoperative management of warfarin patients,” compared the clinical and the economic impact of genetically guided versus nongenetically guided management of anti-coagulant warfarin among Arab patients undergoing surgery. The PhD project of Dr. Islam was supervised by Dr. Hazem Elewa (QU-CPH Associate Professor of Pharmacogenetics), Dr. Daoud Al Badriyeh (QU-CPH Associate Professor of Health Economics, CPH), Prof Abdel Naser Elzouki (Chief of General Internal Medicine in Hamad General Hospital at Hamad Medical Corporation, HMC), and Dr. Larisa Cavallari (Associate professor at Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translation Research, College of Pharmacy, University of Florida, in the USA). The programme provides a broad foundation of pharmacy related interdisciplinary training, followed by intensive training in advanced aspects of pharmaceutical sciences, research philosophy, and modern techniques. The curriculum is a total of 60 credit hours. This is in line with numerous PhD. programmes of highly reputable regional and international institutions. The curriculum will incorporate formal lectures, group projects, research presentations, journal clubs, and writing review articles to develop critical thinking, intensive scientific writing, and problem-solving skills through research. Dr. Islam said, ''The project is innovative in different aspects, nationally and internationally, incorporating surveys, clinical evaluation, and genetic association studies, as well as health economic analyses. Regionally, the work established the first-time optimisation of the duration of preprocedural warfarin (a bloodthinning drug) interruption by examining the effect of genetic mutations of enzymes that regulate warfarin action and other non-genetic factors on the elimination of warfarin effect. Here, in the Arab population living in Qatar, the study demonstrated that mutations in the gene responsible for warfarin metabolism might indeed affect the patient response to warfarin and, hence, this can be used to define the required warfarin discontinuation period before surgery. ''Internationally, when looking at the difference between the cost of genetic testing and the generated benefit of accurate estimation of warfarin interruption duration before surgery. Within this context, we are the first to report the cost-effectiveness of genetic testing. We reported that based on local practices; the incidence of bleeding was generally higher when heparin is added during periprocedural warfarin management. This management approach (i.e., bridging) is associated with an overall cost-saving.”MENAFN25062021000063011010ID1102342981