A research team took on the challenge of transforming a PhD thesis and an eye disease diagnostic product from a mere blueprint to a commercial product installed in premium eye-care hospitals across the country. This story demonstrates the mutual benefits of industry-academia collaborations, saving millions for the industry and in the process creating two PhDs, 10 MScs, 12 research papers and many jobs for students and an MOU of US$3 million to build a state of the art HMIS for Al Shifa hospitals Islamabad.
Azhar Rizvi’s Comments
Dr Shafaat is a leading researcher in Pakistan’s IT sector. After completing his PhD from the University of Toronto, he worked with the Government of Canada for 10 years. He then returned to Pakistan and joined Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Technology and Sciences (GIKI) as the chair of the IT department, before joining CASE in Islamabad where he is now serving as COO. I met him in 2012 during a four-day workshop on commercializing research that I was conducting for National ICT R&D Fund. He was among the 60 participants – all senior academics and researchers from leading Pakistani universities. They all had projects that were funded by ICTR&DF at the time.
My relationship with Shafaat continued after the program had ended. Working on business plans is not a new domain for him, as his job in Canada required multi-million dollars BP implementation. However, in Pakistan, circumstances needed more fine-tuning to local norms, procedures and mindsets. This is where my role with him began. Shafaat has demonstrated that one can derive results and commercialize research at any stage in life, all one needs is to follow a solid business planning process.
Story of Al Basr
Dr Shafaat Bazaz returned to Pakistan in 2006 after a long stint abroad. Today he is Dean and Chief Operating Officer at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Engineering (CASE) where he has helped develop a strong research and commercialization process. The center has developed Health Management products and services, including Al Basr, an eye care management, diagnostics and information system.
Their Health Information Management System (HIMS) is now deployed in seven leading hospitals and has a US$2 million Expression of Interest (EOI) by another leading hospital to build a state-of-the-art HIMS.
The project has also produced a PhD, 10 Master’s in Computer Science and more than 15 research papers in leading journals.
Every student engaged in the development, deployment and operations of the product has found employment.
Dr Bazaz and his team seized the challenge of taking a thesis project and the blueprint of an eye disease diagnostic product to the research lab and ultimately to the customer. This product is able to compete internationally, is a classic case of end-to-end, research to commercialization success and a role model for others researchers to follow.
Read how CASE developed an Inhouse buseinss from a PHD thesis that benefitted the whole University in Entrepreneuring Pakistan.
