RCSI Bahrain has announced the top three winners of its Research Summer School – Research Review Competition 2021 and Undergraduate Student Publication Award, held under the guidance of the School of Postgraduate Studies and Research to introduce RCSI Bahrain undergraduates to the world of research.

With research being a core pillar of RCSI Bahrain, all students from the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing and Midwifery were invited individually or in groups, to submit a research review on a topic of their choice. RCSI Bahrain academics, alumni and external academics provided mentorship to support the students. Training and resources on framing search strategies, finding articles/books, using databases, writing reviews and referencing were provided to students by the RCSI Bahrain Library.

The first place prize winners for the Research Review 2021 Competition are Mr Mina Iskandar, Mr Faris Solomon AlMadi, Mr Saad Mallah, Mr Andrew Hanna, Mr Mohamed Diab and Mr Tharmegan Tharmaratnam for their review titled ‘Children Are Not Little Adults: A Review of SARS-CoV-2 in the Paediatric Population’. Winners of the second place prize are Mr Ali Mardini and Ms Seemal Qadir for their review titled ‘Eyeing out the pandemic: A review of the ocular manifestations of COVID-19’ and the winners of the third place are Ms Prianna Menezes, Ms Jayaditya Patil and Ms Alekya Anala for their research review titled ‘The challenges of diagnosing Placenta Accreta. Can MRI help in management: A case series review’.

This year the University also launched the RCSI Bahrain Student Publication Database and Undergraduate Student Publication Award, in celebration and recognition of RCSI Bahrain’s undergraduate student’s achievements in peer reviewed research journal publication. The award-winning publications were selected based on different criteria including affiliation, journal metrics and contributing student authorship. Three publications were selected for this year’s award and were published between in 2020-21. The winners are Mr Jay Chieh Liu Jr and Ms Ayesha Zaidi for their publication entitled ‘Epidemiology of Paediatric Trauma in the Kingdom of Bahrain: A national paediatric trauma registry pilot study’; Mr Saad Mallah, Mr Fathi Moustafa and Mr Michael Naguib for their publication entitled ‘Evidence-based pharmacotherapy for prevention and management of cardiac allograft vasculopathy’ and Mr Taimur Habib for his publication entitled ‘Nano-clays as Potential Pseudo-antibodies for COVID-19’.

The Head of School of Postgraduate Studies and Research, Professor Stephen Atkin commented, “I am delighted to congratulate all the winners and participants in the 2021 Research Review Competition and the RCSI Bahrain Publication Award for their outstanding efforts. With constant research at the heart of enhancing patient care, RCSI Bahrain students are introduced to research opportunities early on in their academic journey to develop their skills and enhance their learning experience.”

The RCSI Bahrain Research Summer School (RSS) provides undergraduate students an opportunity to become involved in research projects during the summer months. Students are selected for individual projects providing students the opportunity for inter-disciplinary peer collaboration. The top three winners of the Research Review Competition and Publication Award will receive monetary rewards along with a Certificate of Participation.