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Objective There has been a rise in the magnitude of dermatological diseases in the South East Asian region. This study aimed to determine the pattern of various skin disorders appearing in the Dermatology Department of a tertiary care hospital, which will help people to understand the scale of the rising incidence and possible preventive measures that can be undertaken to curtail it. Methods An observational study was conducted on all the patients who attended the Dermatology Department during a one year span. A thorough medical history with detailed cutaneous examination was carried out on every patient. Investigations and skin biopsies were performed, where required, for confirmation of diagnosis. Results A total of 95,983 patients presented in the outpatient Department of Dermatology, King Edward Medical University Mayo Hospital Pakistan. Out of this sample, 24,302 patients repeatedly came to the hospital for a follow up visit related to their diseases, while 71,681 were enrolled as new cases. This group comprised 58% females and 42% males; most patients were in the 20–40 years age group. Out of 71,681, eczema was diagnosed in 22,275 (31.07%), infections including bacterial, viral, fungal, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in 20,178 (28.16%), acne 7910 (11.03%), drug reactions 4830 (6.74%), urticaria 2910 (4.06%), and pigmentary disorders such as lichen planus, melasma and vitiligo were reported in 2739 (3.82%) cases. In addition, psoriasis was reported in 2724 (3.80%), bullous disorders in 1187 (1.66%) and connective tissue disorders in 645 (0.90%). The majority of patients presented with advanced eczema and infectious diseases. Conclusion Eczema was the most common skin disease seen in our study, followed by dermatological infections. The emerging challenges for dermatologists are to prevent and reduce these skin diseases that pose a major healthcare burden, as well as affect the quality of patients' lives.

Pakistan is one of the countries in South Asia ranking high in maternal mortality rate. Though, a signatory of Agenda 2030, the country still lags behind considerably in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The ratio of maternal mortality is, even higher in rural areas of the country. Lack of health care facilities, education, malnutrition, poverty, high prevalence of violence against women in rural areas, and socioeconomic factors are some of the major contributing elements for elevated levels of maternal mortality and morbidity rate in Pakistan. By making inclusive policies at the national level to improve the reach of the rural population to healthcare facilities, educating women and eliminating gender-based disparities, introducing family planning interventions, accountability, and continuity of democracy are essentially needed to improve maternal health in Pakistan’s rural areas. This chapter focuses on challenges to maternal health in rural areas and possible options to resolve these issues.

This paper is designed as a tool that a researcher could use in planning and conducting quality research. This is a review paper which gives a discussion of various aspects of designing consideration in medical research. This paper covers the essentials in calculating power and sample size for a variety of applied study designs. Sample size computation for survey type of studies, observation studies and experimental studies based on means and proportions or rates, sensitivityspecificity tests for assessing the categorical outcome are presented in detail. Over the last decades, considerable interest has been focused on medical research designs and sample size estimation. The resulting literature is scattered over many textbooks and journals. This paper presents these methods in a single review and comments on their application in practice.