Why Every Pakistani Doctor Needs to Learn Research

The notice appeared on the department board at 8:47 AM on a Monday, pinned between a faded drug company advertisement and last month’s duty roster.

“120-Day Research Training Program Open to All Doctors and Dentists.”

Below it, in smaller print: “Conducted by Dr. Muhammad Yaqoob, Head of Research & Medical Writing, UPMED Hospitals, Lahore. No prior research experience required.”

Dr. Sumaira Talib noticed it first. She was early for her surgical round, FCPS Surgery trainee, PGR Year 2, the kind of doctor who reads journal articles during lunch breaks while her colleagues scroll through Instagram reels. She took a photo of the notice and sent it to the residents’ WhatsApp group with a single message: “I’m signing up. Who’s in?”

The responses were predictable.

“Research? Who has time for research?” typed Dr. Hassan Raza, doing residency in MS Orthopedics, who was always looking for the fastest way through any task. “Just tell me the format, sir, I’ll fill it in.”

Dr. Hammad Ali, the fresh PGR in General Surgery Year 1, replied with three fire emojis and “DONE! I’ve always wanted to publish a paper! He didn’t yet know what a hypothesis was, but his enthusiasm was genuine.

Dr. Zunaira Malik, a quiet BDS graduate pursuing her MPhil in Oral Pathology, read every message but didn’t respond. She wanted to sign up. She was afraid someone would ask her a question she couldn’t answer.

And Dr. Junaid Rashid, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine with fifteen years of clinical experience, greying temples, and a reputation that preceded him in every ward, walked past the notice, stopped, read it, and shook his head.

“Research is for people who can’t do clinical work properly,” he muttered to no one in particular, loud enough for the nurses’ station to hear. “I have treated patients for 15 years without publishing a single paper. My patients are alive. That is my research.”

He didn’t know it then, but that sentence would haunt him exactly eleven days later, when his application for the Associate Professor position would be rejected. Not because he wasn’t a good doctor. Not because his clinical skills were lacking. But because the PMDC promotion requirements had changed, fifteen years of saving lives, without a single publication, was no longer enough.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Medical Careers in Pakistan

Here is what no one tells you in medical school: in Pakistan today, being a good doctor is necessary but not sufficient for career advancement.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has made research publications a formal requirement for academic promotion. Whether you are aiming for Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Full Professor, you need published papers in recognized journals. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has its own classification system, W, X, and Y category journals, and the postgraduate institutes require a thesis, dissertation, or research project for degree completion.

Let me share what I see every week at UPMED Hospitals. Brilliant clinicians, doctors who can diagnose a rare condition from a patient’s gait, who can perform surgeries that save lives daily, come to my office looking defeated. They want promotions they have earned through years of service. But their CVs have a glaring gap: zero publications.

“Sir, I never had time for research,” they say. Or: “No one taught us research in medical college.” Or the most heartbreaking: “I don’t even know where to begin.”

I understand. I truly do. The Pakistani medical education system has historically treated research as an afterthought, a box to tick rather than a skill to develop. Most doctors graduate from numerous institutions without ever independently designing a study, analyzing data, or writing a manuscript apart from a single group project in community medicine, which is often completed with significant guidance from departmental faculty.

But the world has changed. And the rules have changed with it.

Why Research Matters More Than Ever

Let me be direct: the three reasons every Pakistani doctor, whether a house officer, PGR trainee, senior registrar, or associate professor, needs research skills.

First, career progression demands it. The PMDC requires publications for promotion at every academic level. Without research, your career hits a ceiling, and that ceiling is getting lower every year.

Second, evidence-based medicine requires it. We cannot rely solely on what our professors taught us years ago, because medical knowledge has accelerated from doubling every 50 years in 1950 to just 73 days (0.2 years) by 2020 (1). What you learn early in medical school quickly becomes outdated, with only a small fraction remaining relevant by the end of training. If you cannot read, evaluate, and apply research, you are practicing medicine with outdated tools. Your patients deserve better. You deserve better.

Third, Pakistan needs it. Our country is massively underrepresented in international medical literature. When global health policies are made, Pakistani data is often missing from the table. Our disease patterns, our population genetics, and our healthcare challenges remain understudied. Every Pakistani doctor who learns to conduct and publish research adds a brick to the foundation of our national healthcare evidence base.

Research Is Not Rocket Science

I say this to every batch of doctors who walk into my research training room, and I will say it to you now: Research is not rocket science; it is a skill, and skills can be taught.

You learned to take a history. You learned to examine a patient. You learned to interpret an ECG, read an X-ray, and perform a lumbar puncture. None of these came naturally. You learned them step by step, with guidance, practice, and patience.

Research is no different.

The problem is not that Pakistani doctors lack intelligence or motivation. The problem is that research methodology, when taught at all, is taught as a dry, theoretical subject disconnected from clinical reality. Nobody shows you how a clinical observation in your OPD can become a published paper. Nobody walks you through the journey from “I noticed something interesting” to “here is my published article in a PubMed-indexed journal.”

That is exactly what this series will do.

What You Will Learn in “The Research Clinic”

Over the next 120 days, you are going to follow a group of doctors at UPMED Hospitals, Lahore, as they learn research from scratch. You will meet Sumaira, who struggles with statistics but never gives up. You will watch Hammad make every classic mistake in the book, so you don’t have to. You will see Dr. Junaid transform from a research skeptic into a published author. And you will learn alongside them.

This is not a textbook. This is a story, your story, told through characters who face the same challenges you face every day in Pakistani hospitals and clinics.

We will cover everything: choosing a research topic, writing a research proposal (synopsis), obtaining IRB approval, collecting data, analyzing it in SPSS and Excel, writing a manuscript, choosing the right journal, surviving peer review, and, finally, publishing.

Every post will give you something practical you can use immediately. No jargon without explanation. No theory without application. No concept without a Pakistani example.

And if you follow this series for 120 days, you will have the knowledge and confidence to conduct your own research and submit it for publication. Whether you are a fresh house officer or a professor with decades of experience, this series meets you where you are.

References:

1. Densen P. Challenges and opportunities facing medical education. Trans Am Clin Climatol Assoc. 2011;122:48-58.