Doha, 07 Feb. 2024 (Gulf Times, Qatar)

By Prof. Dr Rayaz Malik

An independent analysis of research output on diabetes-related nerve damage identified Qatar as the world’s second-most productive country, relative to population size.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology, showed that scientists in Qatar produced 18.1 articles on diabetic neuropathy per million inhabitants (51 articles; 2.83mn inhabitants), just behind Denmark in first place, which produced 20.27 articles per million people (117 articles; 5.77mn inhabitants).

Dr Rayaz Malik, professor of medicine and assistant dean for clinical investigations at WCM-Q was involved in most of the published studies that led to Qatar’s elevated ranking.

Dr Malik, who was last year listed as the number one medical researcher in Qatar by Research.com, an independent research portal that compiles a global list of high-achieving scientists each year, said: “It is extremely gratifying to see hard independent evidence that Qatar’s investment in biomedical research, especially diabetes, is having a global impact.

Diabetic neuropathy can lead to severe pain, foot ulceration and amputation in people with diabetes so it is great to see Qatar making a massive contribution to research in this area.”

The study, titled ‘The landscape of global research on diabetic neuropathy,’ was published by researchers from the University of Exeter in the UK and Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

The study also revealed the strong international collaboration established by Dr Malik between Qatar and the United Kingdom, one of the world’s leading countries in diabetes research.

Dr Malik, from WCM-Q, is a practising consultant physician in endocrinology and diabetes at Hamad Medical Corporation and has pioneered the use of Corneal Confocal Microscopy, a rapid, non-invasive ophthalmic imaging technique to diagnose and predict progression of multiple neurodegenerative diseases in patients with diabetic neuropathy, long-Covid, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, dementia, schizophrenia and autism, among others.