Dr Khondkar Siddique-e-Rabbani: Making lives better, one innovation at a time
There are some people who live for themselves, and then there are some who dedicate their lives to the well-being of others. While most of us remain engrossed with the needs and necessities of our lives, there are some—a handful perhaps—who happily give up the individual preferences, for the greater good of the community. Our guest for the third episode of the second season of 'Preronar Kotha' is one such soul. This person, who made the hard choice of leaving behind the tempting luxuries offered by the first world countries to return to his roots, is none other than the revered Scientist, Professor and Founding Chairperson of the Department of Biomedical Physics & Technology (BMPT), University of Dhaka, Dr Khondkar Siddique-e-Rabbani: the man credited with the introduction of indigenous technology-based telemedicine in rural Bangladesh, and that from the university under the banner, 'Dhaka University Telemedicine Programme', among his other innovations.
Dr Rabbani completed his bachelor's from the University of Dhaka in 1970. After completing his bachelor's and master's, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southampton, UK in Microelectronics as a Commonwealth Scholar in 1978. During his stay in the UK, he was fascinated by how the British used technology to improve their day-to-day lives. He realised that this is where Bangladesh was lagging behind: integrating technological innovations to improve our lifestyles. "The reason people in our country have remained behind is mostly because of our tendency to shy away from technology. We always look to importing technology from abroad. This is a mistake on our part. So, I started thinking about locally developed technologies, which would improve the living standards of all Bangladeshis."
While sharing his thoughts on this, he also referred to how industries could flourish through these everyday innovations, "The British would always find a way to solve issues faced in daily lives through technological innovations. This practice improved the quality of life and made things easier for them. Some of these innovations would often go on to become commercial endeavours. From there, small industries would grow, eventually turning into giant international ones."
Dr Rabbani strongly believes that local issues need local solutions, "It goes without saying, a western scientist cannot contribute to improving our standard of living, as they do not understand the people and the problems of this country."
"I realised that the subject I was focusing on for my Ph.D.—microelectronics—was not relevant for Bangladesh. Even in England, the scope to pursue this technology was very limited. After obtaining the degree I could see no point in continuing this subject back home as it would not be possible to manufacture IC chips in Bangladesh in decades to come. That is why I made the decision to shift my focus away from microelectronics to find something more useful to our own people."
Joining the Department of Physics of the University of Dhaka as an Assistant Professor, he was approached by his teacher and then a colleague, Professor M Shamsul Islam who, along with a friend from BCSIR was working on the use of pulsed electromagnetic fields in the treatment of difficult-to-heal fractured bones. On his request, Dr Rabbani worked to recreate a BDT 55,000 worth of foreign equipment that was malfunctioning. Promptly, his Midas touch went into work, as he made a functionally equivalent one with locally available electronic components, for only BDT 1,000. This device was used in the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR) on 16 patients for almost 2 years and almost all of their fractured bones were healed using this device.
His other notable inventions are low-cost solar water pasteuriser for safe drinking water in rural areas, an Electrical therapy device for treatment of excessive sweating, a Computerised EMG device, Dynamic Pedograph, Digital Microscope, Electro-health device, Intra-operative Neuromonitor, Telemedicine technology with integrated diagnostic devices.
When asked about his memorable inventions throughout his career, he replied, "Everything we have done is for the wellbeing of the people and each of these are memorable and carry a lot of value for us." For his contributions, he received the Gold Medal award by the Bangladesh Academy of Sciences in 2008.
The contribution of his group in the dissemination of their indigenous telemedicine technology under the banner 'Dhaka University Telemedicine Programme' could provide more than 30,000 patient consultations in remote rural Bangladesh till date. In fact, this invention is one that garnered several national and international recognition and awards, including the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) award in 2017 and the 3rd Commonwealth Digital Health Award in 2018.
Dr Rabbani realised that in a country like Bangladesh, scientists have to take the fruits of their innovations to the people themselves, it cannot be done through the existing industry as these do not have the requisite expertise or mindset. This realisation eventually transformed the scientist, Dr Rabbani, into an entrepreneur when he formed Bi-BEAT – a non-shareholding company where all the profits go into expansion programmes, research or charity. "We established the company under a unique clause, the first-ever done in Bangladesh for a manufacturing unit. The company has no owners, no one can take a share of the profits." He is now envisioning a triangular self-sustainable model for R&D, dissemination and commercialisation of appropriate technology related to the quality of life. This model will connect universities, independent non-Government institutes or centres for research, and manufacturing units like Bi-BEAT. The manufacturing units will eventually feed funds to the other two. "And if we can make the triangular model work in Bangladesh, we can replicate this idea in other developing countries, because, they are facing problems similar to ours," expressing his long-cherished goal.
Dr Rabbani believes that technological revolution cannot take place without connecting the universities to the indigenous small industries and workshops in the country, which he considers to be the roots of technology. He feels that our research programmes should not just copy what the advanced world is doing nor should we target the existing medium and large scale industries in the country since these are based on fully imported technology where the local scientific and technological talents have almost nothing to offer. At this point, he mentions the example of our agricultural sector, a story of an astounding success, which he believes has been possible because of the universities connected to the local farmers, the 'roots' in this sector. This created a knowledge-technology bond, which eventually elevated the roots slowly from where they were fifty years back.
Dr Rabbani is an altruistic inventor who does not patent his works. "One of the major factors of the present global economic disparity is the huge technology disparity, for which I blame patenting to a great extent." He patented only one invention, 'Volt Guard' in 1994 and that was his first and the last. In 2012 a Swiss company wanted to invest in Dr Rabbani's innovation, FIM, with the condition that he takes a patent for this beforehand. Dr Rabbani, committed to his philosophy, politely refused the offer.
Stressing on the importance of utilising the life one has, the esteemed innovator advised the youths to fix one's aims clearly, which should be towards creating a harmonious universe, and the foremost task for which should be to work for others around us. Reflecting back on his own life he said, "If I look back to my life, the incidents where I have been selfish cause me pain, on the other hand, instances where my actions had a selfless approach, gives me immense feelings of contentment."
He also urged the science students to proactively start research with the target of solving simple problems of people around them with whatever resources they have rather than targeting 'big' problems and waiting for 'big' funds. Through these modest efforts, if they can achieve some success, support in different forms including funds will come by automatically.
The interview was conducted by Dr Melita Mehjabeen, Associate Professor, IBA, the University of Dhaka as part of 'Preronar Kotha', a thought leadership broadcast by Prerona Foundation. The full interview is available for streaming on the YouTube channel of Prerona Foundation.
https://youtu.be/lp-D0tIyzjU