Dear PES colleague,

I am Dr Umar Yousaf Raja, Consultant Endocrinologist at Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad. I am standing for President-Elect of the Pakistan Endocrine Society in the forthcoming elections. I am a life-long executive member of Pakistan Endocrine Society since 2016 and has served Pakistan Endocrine Society as Vice-President Punjab (2021-2023) and Joint Secretary (2023-2025).

In my capacity as Vice-President Punjab and Joint secretary I was responsible for arranging numerous CME activities as part of Ramadan and Diabetes across Punjab and specifically around Islamabad, Kashmir and North Punjab as well as other PES related activities such as PCOS awareness campaign, Thyroid campaign, Endo-Olympics organisation for Endocrine fellows and various diabetes awareness campaigns. Since 2021 I have been involved in successfully conducting PES marque events either as Chairman Organising Committee (PES Annual Conference 2021, Summer update 2025) or Chairman Scientific Committee (PES Summer update 2021, PES Annual Conference 2022, PES Summer update 2024) or co-chair/Member scientific committee) (PES Annual/ICE regional conference 2023, PES Annual conference 2025). I was also involved in arranging Endocrine Fellows Board reviews in 2021 & 2023. I represented PES internationally at ICE Annul conference in Dubai 2024 as part of SAFES team, SLENDO 2024 and as part of Global Endocrine Leadership forum run by Endocrine Society. I represented PES successfully from 2021-2024 for arranging educational talks on various endocrine topics by World Leading endocrinologist as part of  ICE Medbuzz YouTube educational series which is a joint project of ICE, SAFES and PES.

In addition to promote endocrinology and diabetes related themes on PES Platform, I have a strong interest in developing services for type 1 diabetes mellitus including co-founding peer support group for people with type 1 diabetes mellitus “DiaBuddies”, taking part in educational videos for people with Type 1 diabetes in Digibete as part of Meethi Zindagi initiative, involving in bringing structured type 1 diabetes education in Pakistan in near-future with the help of PES and colleagues from Aga Khan Hospital.

Along with my interest in type 1 diabetes, my other passion is to promote strong research culture in Pakistan especially real-world study data and this is evident my involvement in various research projects both on PES and non PES platform including SAFE-PAK study, EAZE study, CONVERGE study, ERTU-NASH study to name a few.

I have also took part in various educational activities across my region to promote endocrine based education including running Twin city Endocrine clubs between Peshawar and Islamabad for Endocrine consultants and fellows on regular basis in collaboration with Endocrine colleagues from Islamabad & Peshawar as well as raising awareness about diabetes and obesity on radio, TV and social media on regular basis. I also have been actively involved with pharma companies albeit with some success to try to bring various endocrine drugs in Pakistani markets which are short on regular basis such as growth hormone, cabergoline etc.

Having served in PES cabinet for last 2 terms and now standing for President Elect my vision for Pakistan Endocrine society in near-future is what I can explain in three words “ENGAGE,

DEVELOP & COLLABORATE

1. ENGAGE– I believe that as President elect I have to engage further with our executive and scientific executive members to take active part not only in various PES led CME activities across various cities of Pakistan but also take an active part in leading and running various diabetes and endocrine related projects run by PES either alone or in collaboration with other societies. Also I believe that PES should actively engage with other allied health professionals to educate them and promote their awareness regarding diabetes and common endocrine problem as well as public to raise awareness about obesity and diabetes pandemic that our country is suffering from.
2. DEVELOP– I believe that an important part of PES is to develop for our members as well as patients those services which will help them to better manage diabetes and endocrine disorder including educational leaflets for patients in national and regional language. My particular interest is develop some form of free genetic tests (limited number per year funded by PES) that can be ordered by PES executive & scientific members and in the past I have tried along with our past president to set this up with some preliminary talks but hopefully that can be developed further as well
3. COLLABORATE- I strongly believe in collaboration not only with International societies but also with societies from other disciplines. This is happening to a certain extent already but I hope I am going to further build on collaboration already made and involve other societies as well.

These goals can only be achieved with team-working, dedication, hard-work and excellent communication between us and I request your support and prayers to achieve this. I believe that “Together, We Can”.