A medical practitioner, Dr Ajayi Abass has advised medical doctors and other health professionals to be involved in more research to enhance healthcare services in the country.
Abass, who is the Assistant Secretary General, Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors, ABU Teaching Hospital Shika, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Kaduna.
He noted that research culture among medical doctors in the country was poor and needed to be encouraged by providing support.
“Medical research has contributed immensely in increasing knowledge on the burden of diseases and modalities of prevention as well as treatment.
“Health research has high value to the society. It can provide important information about disease trends and risk factors, outcomes of treatment or public health interventions, functional abilities, patterns of care and health care costs and use,’’ Abass said.
He stressed that advancement in all spheres of life was based on gathering of data and analysing such data and introducing interventions to change existing norms.
“Medicine is a field embedded in research, medicine cannot survive without research; hence there is the need for all health care professionals to engage in research with the aim of advancing their practice and patient care in general.
“Understanding of the distribution, determinants and deterrents of various diseases, introduction of new drugs to combat diseases and novel technological innovations in medicine all emanate from years of focused research.
“The Resident Doctor is an intrinsic member of the health care team in tertiary health institutions and he plays a cardinal role in patient management.
“Significant time is exchanged between the resident doctor and the patient; as such he has a good understanding of the dynamics surrounding his patients and their care,’’ Abbas said.
He noted that as part of the requirements for completion of his residency training, a resident doctor was expected to conduct a research and submit a dissertation on a topic in his field of specialisation.
“One would think that based on the above, the resident doctor would be at the fore front of research in the health sector, but this isn’t the case in our society.
“Training and practice of the resident doctor is fraught with a lot of challenges that limit his ability to recognise, design or actualise various research questions,’’ he added.
The medical practitioner, however, noted that a lot of ground breaking research and discoveries have been made by upcoming career doctors and medical students in the country. (NAN)