Every resident joining any postgraduate course must have faced it. This is probably the first hurdle you will find after joining any postgraduate course.Mostly in hospital its all on you to find a thesis topic and prepare protocol.
Through this post i wanted to simplify the things and clear common errors and give you some basic ideas how to find a best topic for your thesis.
1. Finding a suitable topic for your thesis protocol
A. Choose a topic based on your interest eg, Diabetes, Hypertension, Infectious Disease, Critical care,depression etc.
B. There should not be any scarcity of cases in your hospital as your thesis is a time bound study.
C. Your thesis methodology should not have very costly investigations which is not standard of care for the disease. As you will find it difficult to get it approved from ethics committee.
D. Your thesis topic should be new and unique. Unique in the sense that there is something  new which have not been done before. In reality its very difficult to find a really unique topic, then you can search for topic which have been done else where, which has got different population characteristics but not in your region.

2 Thesis topics ideas.

You can search on pubmed.com or google scholar or www.cochranelibrary.com to read various published research papers . You can look for thesis topic through these search engines.

Diabetes
1. Assessment of neuropathy through various scale (eg mnsi) and correlation with glyceamic control
2. Assessment of retinopathy and its correlation
3 Assessment of nephropathy
4. Assessment of microvascular complications and correlation with glyceamic control
5 Assessment of depression among t2dm using various depression scale
6. Assessment of well being among t2dm using who 5 point well being score and correlation with glyceamic control
7. Assessment of sexual health among t2dm and its correlation with duration and glyceamic control
8. Assessment of drug compliance among patients of t2dm
9. Knowledge attitude and practice about dietary modifications in t2dm
10. Correlation of vit d
11.correlation of serum magnesium
12. Correlation of serum zinc, chromium
And prevalence of microvascular complications
13. Correlation of above glyceamic control
14. Study on Metformin and B12 level
15. Study on peripheral macrovascular disease and glyceamic control using Doppler
16. Prevalence of osa among diabetic using scales for OSA and its correlation with glyceamic control
Similar studies can be done using various scale for depression, anxiety, drug compliance and well being.

Infectious disease
1. Drug compliance study, psychiatric scales on tuberculosis.
2. Knowledge attitude and practice study among health care providers and general public about
A. Tuberculosis
B. Hiv
C. Dengue
D. Chikungunya
E. Hepatitis b
3. Drug resistance pattern and radiological pattern in tb
4. Clinico laboratory profile of
A. Scrub typhus
B. Leptospirosis
C. Tiberculosis
D. Dengue
E. Chikungunya
F. H1N1
5.Radiological pattern and its correlation with severity and outcome among pulmonary kochs
6. Study using various psychiatric scales in tubercuslos to look for depression anxiety etc
7. study on Discrimnation and stigma among people living with hiv aids
8. Clinical profile, cd4 count and other lab parameters in hiv
9. Osteoporosis in hiv compared to general population using BMD.
10. Study on prevalence of tb and hiv
11. Drug resistance pattern, treatment outcome, in tb/hiv
12. Study on newer modalities like line probe assay cb naat gen probe and comparison with conventional tests like sputum for AFB and chest xray

Critical care
1. KAP study on palliative care
2. Study on hospital acquired infection, drug resistance pattern among icu patients.
3.Prevalence of Icu psychosis
4. Prevalence of critical care neuropathy and its correlation with severity and duration
5. Prevalence of dyselectrolytemia and its correlation with infection and mortality
6. Study using sofa score, apache score and other scores and its correlation with lab parameters and duration of hospital stay
Methodology.
You need to calculate sample size which is usually based on previous studies. Try to keep a achievable sample size.
Observational studies are easier to do.

References.
Its the most important thing. Keep all the references in Vancouver style. You can use this website citethisforme.com

This is most common cause of rejection of your thesis protocol.
You must define everything including various scale and values used, its reference range etc in protocol. Inclusion and exclusion criteria should be clearly defined.

Thesis protocol
Please follow guidelines as per national board examination strictly. Dont change the heading by yourself. Keep it as given in the guideline In the same order  otherwise its going to be rejected.

http://www.natboard.edu.in/pdoof/thesis/NBE%20Guideline%20for%20thesis%20protocol-2013%20_NEW_.pdf

Common mistakes
1. References not in correct order as cited in protocol and numbered in reference column.
2. Reference dont match with the topic.
3. Citing old references
4. Avoid writing “incidence” in observation studies as its a prevalence study
5. Headings should be according to NBE guidelines and in the same order.

P.S. If your research topic is good it will be easier to get your work published later. So choose it wisely.