Mir Ibrahim Sajid of Agha Khan Medical College has become the first Pakistani to be awarded the honorable Global Pediatrics Research Investigator Award by the prestigious Nature Pediatrics for his innovative Pain Free Invisible Needles. Not only that, he is also the only medical student to ever grace this title.
Ibrahim Sajid describes himself as an avid researcher and an aspiring Orthopedic surgeon. As the eldest of three sons to a maxillofacial surgeon and a gastroenterologist physician, he recalls spending a decent amount of time roaming the halls of hospitals. He noticed there a was a large number of children in pain, all the while refusing treatment because of an intense fear of needles, or “trypanophobia”.
Around 10% of the population suffer from this fear, to the point of refusing life saving treatment.
Thus, Ibrahim Sajid took it upon himself to look for a solution to this problem.
Ibrahim Sajid deems himself lucky to have met an encouraging mentor along the way, Asad I. Mian, who led the Creative Critical Innovative Thinking (CCIT) club at Agha Khan University. Sajid explained that the problem was highlighted in a Pediatrics based Hackathon at his institute. The idea was further incubated at CCIT—resulting in the first prototype of the proposed model. Despite meeting failure initially, the team delved into finding other potentially low-cost, low-tech solutions to the stated problems.
The Pain Free Invisible Needle (PFIN) is a solution to lessen the fear of needles in children. It is a wristwatch-like device that distracts a child during injection as well as cannulation, in turn reducing pain and infection risk. The 3D printed PFIN prototype has been developed in-house and is currently in the testing phase of its process.
Ibrahim Sajid is also advisor to the Student Research Forum, as well as Secretary of the Neuroscience Interest Group.
