PakMediNet Discussion Forum : Medical Research in Pakistan : Quality of Research in Pakistan
dear colleagues and docosama
I am sorry to say that the quality of research in Pakistan is very poor. Lets be realistic and admit that majority of the research is not serious at all.
The 99.99% of dissertations and thesises submitted by FCPS examinees are not at all a serious research. When I was in Pakistan, we were made to believed that PMRC is doing a wonderful job. Now I realize that it was not true and there was more red tapism and bureaucracy involved, then the real research.
I am not saying that there is lack of potential or lack of intelligent and educated people. The problem is that there is lack of funding and lack of interest from the big authoritative organisations like, PMRC, PMDC, CPSP, etc.
There is no guidance and training of young clinicians and students. There is no real exposure to research methodology. If you go to CPSP it looks like a world class hotel or International conference centre. Some people are working very hard to do some research , but then again the lack of resources and guidance did not let them produce a world class work.
CPSP and other organizations instead of having lavish offices and buildings must fund the young clinicians and students for their research work and train the senior doctors so that they can guide their junior colleagues.
It is really amusing to know that some of the persons occupying high academic chairs in prestigious institutions have been promoted to their posts due to their length of government service, and not because of academic work or publication of world class research papers.
Most of these people, don’t know themselves the meaning of serious research, clinical audit, ethics committee, etc, how can one expect that they will guide the young doctors or other researchers.
Every now and then you can see research papers being published from INDIA in world renowned journals, but very very rarely you see an article from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Lets not live in fool's paradise and lets provide our young talented and hard working clinicians and scientist enough resources and GUIDANCE so that they can eliminate the disease from this lovely country, by using the tool of RESEARCH making all of us understand the disease process in a better way in our conditions.
I hope docosama will not censor my message
Posted by: bagha Posts: 4 :: 01-08-2003 :: | Reply to this Message
Dear Dr. "Bagha". I completely agree with your statements. One point I would like to make is that we are also in a serious crisis of "Brain Drain"...all qualified doctors who can leave...leave..and those who can become qualified in the US or UK or whereever go there and never come back..like you said yourself "When I was in Pakistan" its people like this who need to come back..a professor whos been there since the mid-70s certainly might not know about ethics committees and clinical audits...but since people like you do..you need to come back and stay in the system and teach others around you..only then will Pakistan improve..not by having people emigrate to other places, however i do understand there are valid personal reasons that everyone has....i hope you dont take this personally, but the Brain Drain factor is a major reason why Pakistan Medical Education is in the rutt it is in.
Posted by: glycocalyx Posts: 2 :: 02-08-2003 :: | Reply to this Message
I agree with both "glycocalyx" and "bagha". This is the main reason of starting PakMediNet, ie to promote biomedical research in Pakistan, and to educate health professionals about biomedical research.
As far as PMRC is concerned, Govt has approved a big fund to make an online database just like PakMediNet from last 1 year, but still they are nowhere to start.
I must appreciate CPSP in this regard who are atleast doing Research Methodology workshops and creating awareness about medical research in Pakistan.
Keep on posting to make this forum live.
Posted by: docosama Posts: 333 :: 03-08-2003 :: | Reply to this Message
No doubt research in pakistan is on its knees.Only a few persons are interested in real research. The rest are publishing thier papers for promotion or as per requirement of training. There are various reasons for it.
But still something is going on. Now international trials are encouraging researchers from pakistan to collaborate in thier trials. i think we should be more and more involved in such trials..to give input of pakistani data into international data. Our patients and our diseases will become part of the burning issues of the medical world.
PMRC has to do much and much more to promote the dyieng reaserch in pakistan
Posted by: lachvi Posts: 47 :: 10-08-2003 :: | Reply to this Message
Only wait for a year or two. We are in sight of a breakthrough. If everything goes as planned, efforts of Higher Education Commission regarding research will be visible. (All other organisations have failed as already pointed out on this page).
[Edited by saeedkhan on 12-09-2003 at 12:40 PM GMT]
Posted by: saeedkhan Posts: 7 :: 09-12-2003 :: | Reply to this Message
I would not agree to the fact that the HEC will improve medical research in Pakistan. The fact of the matter is that our medical graduate has no idea what research is and how it affects the field. Our medical curriculum does not properly address the questions of research and its importance. The foundations are thus missing and whatever structure we setup will only be making temporary and makeshift arrangements. The PMRC and other research institutions can only do so much.
Posted by: masud Posts: 2 :: 29-12-2003 :: | Reply to this Message
quote:
bagha wrote:
dear colleagues and docosama
I am sorry to say that the quality of research in Pakistan is very poor. Lets be realistic and admit that majority of the research is not serious at all.
The 99.99% of dissertations and thesises submitted by FCPS examinees are not at all a serious research. When I was in Pakistan, we were made to believed that PMRC is doing a wonderful job. Now I realize that it was not true and there was more red tapism and bureaucracy involved, then the real research.
I am not saying that there is lack of potential or lack of intelligent and educated people. The problem is that there is lack of funding and lack of interest from the big authoritative organisations like, PMRC, PMDC, CPSP, etc.
There is no guidance and training of young clinicians and students. There is no real exposure to research methodology. If you go to CPSP it looks like a world class hotel or International conference centre. Some people are working very hard to do some research , but then again the lack of resources and guidance did not let them produce a world class work.
CPSP and other organizations instead of having lavish offices and buildings must fund the young clinicians and students for their research work and train the senior doctors so that they can guide their junior colleagues.
It is really amusing to know that some of the persons occupying high academic chairs in prestigious institutions have been promoted to their posts due to their length of government service, and not because of academic work or publication of world class research papers.
Most of these people, don’t know themselves the meaning of serious research, clinical audit, ethics committee, etc, how can one expect that they will guide the young doctors or other researchers.
Every now and then you can see research papers being published from INDIA in world renowned journals, but very very rarely you see an article from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Lets not live in fool's paradise and lets provide our young talented and hard working clinicians and scientist enough resources and GUIDANCE so that they can eliminate the disease from this lovely country, by using the tool of RESEARCH making all of us understand the disease process in a better way in our conditions.
I hope docosama will not censor my message
Posted by: Abrar Posts: 2 :: 07-01-2004 :: | Reply to this Message
There is a slight misfocusing on this subject here. Every one seems here to focus more on the problem rather then the solution.
no body has said WHY is this happening or Who is reosnsible and how to correct it.
I think we are the researchers and we all are rsponsible for this.
How many of us has taken the pain to go and attnd any module or short course on epidemiology and biostatistics
If it wouldn't have been mendatory for the FCPS to attend that module on resrach methodolgy most of the Trainees would have not attended that.
i think the baseline is the weakest subject of community medicine at the undergrad level which needs improvement as in some developing countries it is mendatory to write and publish at least two papers to get the MBBS degree...
I think we should improve it from the base line for a better future in research.
Posted by: mjadoon Posts: 3 :: 07-04-2005 :: | Reply to this Message
i agree that quality of research in pakistan is not good at all. one of the reasons is the poor infra-structure, decreased awareness of the medical community about how important is research and lastly the standard " I give a Damn" attitude by the Administration.
Its only research that medical science has been on this level. Here we can have professors (most of them have even less expertise and knowledge than trainees in developed countries) and they donot know a word about research. they would just for some departmental reasons force ppl to write up some article so that they can get promoted and worse of all in the developed world the professor name will be the last one in the article (except the one with some landmark research) but here in our countries these Pigmees ( self proclaimed professors) have their name as first author even for routine papers, We should all feel pity for these horrible creaturtes.
ijaz
Posted by: ijazali Posts: 151 :: 12-04-2005 :: | Reply to this Message
I can wait for a century if there is a real hope but unfortunately its not.
ijaz
quote:
saeedkhan wrote:
Only wait for a year or two. We are in sight of a breakthrough. If everything goes as planned, efforts of Higher Education Commission regarding research will be visible. (All other organisations have failed as already pointed out on this page).
[Edited by saeedkhan on 12-09-2003 at 12:40 PM GMT]
Posted by: ijazali Posts: 151 :: 12-04-2005 :: | Reply to this Message
It is encouraging to see that many of us are quite upset about the current state of medical research in Pakistan. However, I think that a proper use of a forum, such as this one, is to plan how to improve the current state of affairs. We all need to ask ourselves - what we can do?
ANY SUGGESTIONS?
Posted by: rqayyum Posts: 199 :: 17-04-2005 :: | Reply to this Message
the only way of making any progress is to kick off the Old asses which are making hurdles in the progress of the new generations. Stop quackary. Improve training standards in the country. Be doctors and not politicians or beaurocrats (unfortunately the most senior doctors in pakistan are like this)and get money out of this biased govt. for health care setup. I think ppl from india nad pakistan should sit together and decide once for all that there will be no War so that these dramas played in our country by the army generals and Mullas (both are CIA sponsored)should finish and ppl should have their money back , lead a good life rather than living in this atmosphere of dishonesty and fear. Nothing in this world is totally isolated the doctors have a responsibility to fight for their rights and their patients rights this is not enough that we write few lines in this forum and think we have done our bit. Look at the standard of care in govt hospitals , whats happening to the common man he cannot go to a Private hospital or a CMH. we should think about him.
ijaz
Posted by: ijazali Posts: 151 :: 18-04-2005 :: | Reply to this Message
A very interesting discussion - lot of blames and finger pointing
I would be very brief and to the point answering the WHY.
It is very simple - research is NOT mandatory and is not required. Sometimes it even backfires when other docs in the department are handling crowd of patients and one guy is just "sitting" there doing "nothing". In private sector all oevr the world no one does any research - unless a part of a grant (that makes money and research is the by product of enterpreunerial support). All the research that is happening the world over is either funded by the public sector (national universities and research institute - Pakistan also has PCSIR, PINSTECH etc which are "slightly" better than others) or it is funded by enterpreuners with vested interest in commercialization and IP generation.
So whats the solution: very simple -
1. make research mandatory as a requirement for annual increment and promotions.
2. Make an international SAB (scientific advisory board) that should recommend budget allocations solely for research purposes). This SAB should not know who the research grant is going to and should decide on the merits of the grant application only.
3. Free the public and private sector to bridge with commercial enterpreuners and take medicine as an industry.
Posted by: nukedoc Posts: 6 :: 02-06-2005 :: | Reply to this Message
nice nukedoc
dats d prob, wat v have is just ADVICE n SUGGESTIONS , y dont v get some practical steps, u c this thread started 2 yrs ago n it potrays todays situation, v dont have even a 0.1% chnge
Posted by: doc11 Posts: 44 :: 05-06-2005 :: | Reply to this Message