Dr Nabeel Baig, who did his BDS from Fatima Jinnah Dental College (FJDC) in 2003 and Masters in Public Health from Baqai Medical University in 2011, is the first dental surgeon to join College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan (CPSP) as its Executive Research Officer. The CPSP, with a view to facilitating its FCPS trainees’ skills of writing synopses/dissertations as well as expediting the process of finalizing the s y n o p s e s a n d dissertations which are mandatory for its FCPS students, has appointed Dr Baig as it Executive Reseach Officer (Research). The task of Dr Baig, who is associated with theCPSP since November 2011, is to evaluate FCPS trainees’ synopses and dissertations. The CPSP with its 15 different regional centers across the country has six research analysts. According to Dr Baig, on an average around 600 synopses and 200 dissertations are received from FCPS trainees every month and, after their evaluation, the trainees are informed about their work within eight weeks. Evaluation of synopses and dissertations besides, the other important task is to check plagiarism and, in this regard, according to Dr Baig, 21 cases of plagiarism had been detected in a year. The FCPS trainees are taught about medical writing , research methodology at undergraduate level, besides free consultation is provided to them, he added. Deploring the facility of medical writing was not available at most of medical and dental institutions, Dr Baig suggested that need of the hour is make medical writing mandatory at undergraduate level and for this purpose a student must be required to publish at least one research paper during his/her under-graduation studies. He said that the CPSP had been conducting between 15 and 17 workshops of medical writing for its FCPS trainees at its regional centers every month and about 25 trainees are accommodated at a time. Elaborating, he said that the CPSP besides conducting medical writing workshops for its trainees also organizes a four-day workshop for supervisors. CDE: Dr Baig said that he, as a part of continuing dental education (CDE), had been organizing a threemonth and a year- long certificate courses in clinical orthodontics at Amin Diabetic and Dental Hospital, North Nazimabad, which has been a professional partner of Diabetes, Australia, for the last five years. Voicing his concern over the recent deaths caused by water-borne disease, Naegleria fowleri, he opined that proper chlorination of water could help save the people from the dreaded disease and if normal quantity of fluoride is also added to water it could save people from dental caries, as well. Referring to basic diagnostic facilities available at dental clinics, he said that radiological and histopathological investigations must be adopted for proper and an early diagnosis of dental diseases and the pathological problems, which otherwise remain undiagnosed must be referred to specialists concerned. Moreover, in case of a major oral surgery procedure, ENT’s input was a must, he said, adding that in case of systemic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, one must obtain written permission from the concerned specialist. Attributing increasing number of Hepatitis-B and HIV cases to a lack of infection control measures at public sector hospitals, Dr Baig stressed the need for creating awareness about the Hepatitis-B and HIV sterilization. In this regard, he emphasized the need for adopting internationally recommended Autoclave B-Class as against the out dated N-Class sterilization process. Talking about surge in submucous fibrosis cases , he said that since the disease is prevalent in the sub-continent owingto consumption of Gutka, the need of the hour is to carry out detailed studies in the country, instead of depending on the Western countries’ research in this regard. At the outset, Dr Baig spoke high of his mother, also a doctor, saying that `whatever he is today he is all because of his mother ’s proper guidance and prayers”. Dr Baig has two sons. His elder brother is a diabetologist and his younger one, who did his PhD in Computer Science, is associated with NUTS while one of his sisters is a microbiologist and the other one is an IT engineer.
