Feature

Department of Biomedical Physics & Technology of DU

Star Campus Desk

THE erection of the new signboard in the Curzon Hall building marks the latest addition to the academic programme of the University of Dhaka. Professor K Siddique-e Rabbani has joined as the first Chairman of this multidisciplinary post graduate department of “Biomedical Physics & Technology”. This department, emphasizing research and development at Ph.D. level, stands on 30 years of active work carried out by the Biomedical Physics group in the Department of Physics, the mother department in the same University.

In 1978 a research work on bone fracture healing by electrical stimulation was initiated by Dr. A Sattar Syed, then a physicist at BCSIR in collaboration with Late Professor M Shamsul Islam of Physics at Dhaka University, joined soon after by Dr. Rabbani, who just came back home after obtaining a Ph.D. in Microelectronics. Visualising the far reaching importance of Biophysics and Medical Physics, Prof Islam subsequently initiated and organized further research and education in these two areas by motivating and attracting other junior colleagues, and organising an academic link programme with UK under the sponsorship of the then British ODA. Soon Dr. Rabbani became the key person for establishing research in the Medical Physics segment and his innovations in the following areas made the group well known nationally and internationally.

1. Destruction of diarrhea germs in water at low cost utilizing free radiation from the sun: Dr. Rabbani's contraption uses simple and easily available materials like bamboo tray, hay and transparent polythene sheets, etc. to heat water to more than 600C and thereby destroying all diarrhea germs in water. This method can save lives in rural areas, particularly during floods and after natural calamities. Now that Arsenic in ground water has become a menace, the importance of this innovation has increased manifold since surface water, which is free of Arsenic, is available in plenty in Bangladesh in which only diarrhea germs need to be destroyed. This innovation now needs large scale dissemination efforts and the new department has a plan to embark on this soon.

2. Focused Impedance Method (FIM): This is a simple and low cost electrical technique bridging an important gap in the existing methodologies and having a great potential in the detection and diagnosis of disorders and diseases of lungs, stomach and certain cancers. FIM has received international acclaim and Universities in UK and Korea have already started work on this methodology. Dr. Rabbani was invited by the Korean University last November to initiate a collaborative research on FIM. R&D firms in Switzerland and UK have also expressed their interests to develop prototypes of instrument for FIM, for its large-scale utilisation.

3. Distribution of F-latency (DFL): It is a new physiological parameter related to conduction of electrical signals in the human body by the nervous system, and discovered by Dr Rabbani's group at Dhaka. Using this new physiological parameter, it has been possible to determine some details of the inner distribution of a peripheral nerve trunk, for which no satisfactory clinical method existed before. Already DFL is demonstrating its importance in the early detection of Cervical and Lumbo-sacral spondylosis, a common disorder of the aged. This discovery has also opened up a new horizon in neuropsychological measurement and diagnosis.

Dr. Rabbani is visiting UK in early March at the invitation of a University there for a probable collaboration in this area.

4. Routine clinical service on Nerve conduction measurements in Bangladesh: Dr. Rabbani started this service first in Bangladesh in 1988 using computerized equipment developed and made by himself (which is also possibly the first computerized equipment made in Bangladesh). The link with UK was instrumental in giving Dr. Rabbani the necessary knowledge and expertise for this work.

5. Delivery of modern healthcare to the common people in the Third World: About 80% of Global population living in the Third World is deprived of the benefits of modern healthcare technology, and this failure of the humankind is the key motivation for the work of the Biomedical Physics group at Dhaka. Dr. Rabbani convinced himself that this delivery is not possible without the Third World scientists and technologists themselves designing and developing the necessary modern equipment, and taking a decisive role in the commercial manufacture in their respective countries. He designed and developed, from scratch, a number of electro-medical equipment, which are serving the people in Bangladesh for more than a decade. With this experience he now desires to propagate the above idea among the scientists and technologists of the Third World. In 2007 he organized a short course and workshop at the Islamic University of Technology in Gazipur for scientists and technologists from various OIC countries where he taught the detailed design of computerized ECG/EMG equipment, with hands-on experience on prototype kits designed and made by his group. It received a high appreciation and some participants purchased the kits for teaching the same in their home countries. In Dr. Rabbani's next trip to UK, dissemination of healthcare technology in the Third World is also an important agenda for discussion at one of the Universities.

Professor Rabbani has been invited to deliver talks in several countries including Spain, Japan, UAE, Vietnam, Korea and UK. The vision and activity over the last thirty years has thus led to the creation of this new department of Biomedical Physics & Technology with dreams to become a hub for the Third World. It would try to initiate an open source of healthcare technology, aiming at enhancing the quality of life of the common people in the Third World.

Unforgettable Delicacy

Nusrat Rashida

WE have still got ten minutes before Nazmul sir comes in, come on lets go. No, no what if we miss the first few minutes of a sudden quiz? Come on, can't we afford that in exchange of…? Oh yeah, we surely can. Then let's move.'' This is a conversation between two students of Jahangirnagar University; one of them is trying to convince the other for a time out from the class by provoking her to have something. Wondering what that is? It is a mouth-watering delicacy to how many I don't know but surely a huge number of students in and around the campus love them. The two girls headed towards the mini stall of Mannan mama for nothing but his delicious, scrumptious, delectable singaras. How I don't know but I have always found it the same, that same awesome taste. What mama does is he cuts each singara into two pieces with a knife and puts some black pepper in it making it more edible. I have never ate less than five pieces at a time .The shock in our face and the sadness that engulfs us when we found out that the mama's tong (stall) in our campus was closed and that we have just missed the singara time by a few minutes. Now when I am reaching towards the end of my varsity life, with many other things I will definitely miss eating singaras when I graduate.

(A student of BBA Department, Jahangirnagar University)