Translate research into practice to improve public health policy: Syed Abid Rasheed Shah tells docs

Posted by admin_kas on 2025-04-12 09:01:36 |

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KS News Desk 

Srinagar, April 12: Secretary Health and Medical Education (H&ME) department Syed Abid Rasheed Shah on Friday said the research done must be made applicable in the real world setting so that policy implementation and policy making can benefit public health care.

He was speaking during the inaugural ceremony of the 52nd Annual National Conference of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSMCON)-2025 held at SKICC here.

On the first day of the conference, he asked the doctors, gathered from all across the Country that there must be some tangible outcomes from these conferences.

"There is a big disjoint between the research in academics and its real world applicability. It is important that we address the elephant in the room," he said 

He said the disconnect creates problems for us that we cannot apply what is researched, what is brought out in the laboratories and the rooms and in colleges and research institutions.

"The implementation of that on the basis of policy and evidence is not really possible all the time. The first point that I want to make out to you and request you all to think about this is how you make research applicable in a real world setting so that policy implementation and policy making can benefit public health care," he said .

He said sitting in a mountain atop in Gurez or Basoli, the poor lady who suffers from diabetes mellitus or cancer or hypertension and is consumed by these diseases in a silent pandemic does not bother about the research that is done in our premier institutions unless it impacts her life positively.

"So what are you going to do in the next three days, please keep this in mind that you must have some applicability in the real world setting," he said.

He asked the doctors to involve practitioners, the doctor, the paramedic, the FMPHW, the OT technician in a remote hospital in Tanghdar or Hiranagar to experience the impact on the ground.

"You should understand what difficulties you face in manipulating the system and managing it and what difficulties you face in disease management. Otherwise our research will be completely divorced from its application," Syed Abid Rasheed said.

Referring to the ongoing conference, he asked the doctors that the research they are doing should be applicable for the poor person living in a mountain or in a forest who requires this research applied to his life.

"It can't be fancy PPTs, it has to be actually applicable, focused on the real world setting and the feasibility of the outcomes," he said.

He stressed doctors to use plain language in research so that it is understandable by common masses.

"What good is our research if it is not applicable in the common masses," he said.

He said as Secretary in the H&ME department he received several applications for transfers from the couple doctors over the past one and a half years.

"These doctors seek postings very nearby and the general reason that I find is Autism. I wondered why we are getting this huge instance and prevalence of Autism in kids. I noticed a huge population now is diagnosed of this particular condition. While a lot of parents are working their kids remain glued to the television. The cognitive abilities are diminished because eight hours you are staring at a screen which is consuming your cognitive abilities," Syed Abid Rasheed Shah said.

"So if in contemporary times, we cannot do research on Autism and the same research doesn't come out in the public domain then what is the fun of this research," he said.

He said as medical practitioners doctors should give certain do's and do nots to people in the community so that they can take some preventive action.

"They can't let go of their jobs but at least they can tweak or modify their lifestyle so that this problem of autism doesn't get developed in their kids," he said.

He said the linguistics of every research has to be applicable to the common people so that they understand what you actually want to say.

"This year in the budget speech, the government of J&K for the first time ever in their history is going to allocate research funding in all government medical colleges and dental colleges. This is going to be good," he said.