For residents · MD · MS · DNB · DM · MCh · DrNB
Thesis Topics
Dissertation topics you can finish alongside ward and OT duty: common patients, data your department already records, short follow-up. Each topic gives the primary and secondary endpoints, a FINER check (feasible, interesting, novel, ethical, relevant) and why it is a better pick than the usual choice.
2994 topics across 47 specialties. Sign in free to see the topics. Take your shortlist to your guide; local patient numbers and facilities decide the final choice.
Thesis or dissertation?
What you write for MD, MS or DNB is a dissertation
The NMC regulations call it a thesis, NBEMS writes “thesis/dissertation” and the DrNB curricula use both words. By its nature, though, the MD, MS or DNB project is a dissertation: a supervised study that shows you can carry out research properly. It is not the original contribution to knowledge that a PhD thesis has to be. Knowing this keeps the topic small enough to finish.
| Dissertation (MD, MS, DNB) | Thesis (PhD) | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Shows you can plan, run, analyse and write up a study | Adds new knowledge to the field |
| Originality | A local or replicated question is acceptable | Must answer a question nobody has answered |
| Time | Done alongside full clinical duty; submitted at least six months before the final exam (NMC) | Several years of mainly research work |
| Scope | One focused question, routine data, short follow-up | A programme of linked studies |
| Examined as | Three examiners (one internal, two external); must be accepted before you can sit the final exam (NMC) | The degree itself; defended before examiners |
British usage keeps “thesis” for the doctoral work; in American usage the two words are often swapped. The topics below are sized as dissertations.
Broad specialties: clinical MD · DNB
Broad specialties: surgical MS · DNB
Super-specialties: clinical DM · DrNB
Super-specialties: surgical MCh · DrNB
After you pick a topic
SolvedPGSS will help you write the thesis
- Protocol / synopsis in the exact format your college and university ask for (NBEMS format for DNB).
- Case record form (CRF) built around your primary and secondary endpoints, so you collect what you will analyse.
- Participant information sheet and informed consent form (ICF), translated into the languages your patients speak, with back-translation.
- Written to Indian rules: ICMR National Ethical Guidelines 2017, New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules 2019 with CTRI registration where the study needs it, and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 for patient data.
- Introduction, review of literature and discussion, with every citation checked against PubMed.