RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU) has designed a special research model as per international standards which will provide an opportunity to students and academia to excel in the field. Moreover, patients in allied hospital will get better facilities.

RMU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Umer told Dawn that the RMU was one of the fast-growing medical universities in Punjab. Since its establishment in 2017, it has been working for excellence in medical education, research and patient services.

“The well-structured research model comprehensively covers the research growth of students, residents and the faculty. The research model also helps RMU to be ranked first among medical universities of Pakistan by Times Higher Education (THE).

“RMU is a research-oriented university. It evolved a generic model of research which is very simple, effective and implementable in the public sector medical universities, medical colleges and even private medical education institutions,” he said.

Says model covers research growth of students, residents and faculty

The model of research consists of an eight-step approach. The first important step that RMU has developed is the research curriculum for undergraduates, the first of its kind aligned with international standards.

This research curriculum is the integral part of integrated modular curriculum (IMC) which RMU is the first medical university to implement for undergraduates in public sector universities, he said.

For postgraduates, the vice chancellor said, RMU started a university residency programme (URP).

“As soon as a resident is inducted in RMU URP, he/she is provided with research ID to track and monitor his/her research assignments. In this roadmap, a resident will be given structured programme and during the first three months research topic of synopsis will be allotted and in next six months synopsis writing will start,” he said.

“Synopsis will be submitted in the research unit and a research committee will review it in the next six weeks and discuss it with the resident and the supervisor in person. Once the synopsis is approved by the Ethical Review Board, it will be presented before the Board of Advance Study in Research (BASR). It is included in the criteria of eligibility for mid-term assessment, an assessment of the residents that the university carries out at the end of the second year of training. Once a resident enters the third year of training, data collection and analysis will start. Six months before completion of the four-year residency programme, the final writing of thesis will be submitted to the university’s research unit for final evaluation and BASR approval,” he said.

He said to establish the credibility and originality of the data, real time research data will be submitted to the research unit with a timeline. To facilitate the trainees, there is a dedicated research unit and a research monitoring cell.

“A statistician and plagiarism testing unit is also available. There is a parallel system of research workshops for residents’ training and thesis writing by research experts of RMU. In this new model, at the end of each year of training, residents have to write an original paper or disease review which is published in the journal of RMU,” he said.

He said the research model was unique as RMU was the only medical university to publish student journal and resident journal biannually. Students and residents have their own editorial and publication boards and then there is a students’ research society and resident research forum which arrange research conferences of students and residents.

Similarly, he said, the faculty of RMU has its own journal, JRMC, which is published quarterly.

The 5th step of the research model is the presentation of the research of students, residents and faculty in the annual research conference and national and international meetings.

Finally, he said, students publish an annual research directory to compile their year-long research activities. Similarly, faculty research directories are published every four to five years.

“This institutional directory is the reflection of all documented research activities of the faculty of all departments at the RMU. All research activities are part of annual reports about the programmes of individual departments. The research scores are used to categorise the departments and programmes,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2021