An important resource for Public Health Workers

QMedCONNECT Newsletter: March 2017

Dear friends

March was a slightly sad month. We heard about incidents of Resident Doctors being subject to violence for no fault of theirs. That being bad enough, a judgement was passed against their strike (which they usually launch as a last resort). And of course several people passing individual negative judgements against them. Resident doctors probably take on the largest brunt of the public health systems. Most members of the public are unaware that they work extremely long hours, live in not exactly comfortable conditions, get very little time to study (and they DO have exams to pass), and very often eat a bare minimum to just pull through the day. If one hears about their "typical day", one would wonder how they could ever tell patients to live a healthy balanced life, when they themselves are most often doing exactly the opposite, because of an overburdened system!

Well, the strike was called off with reassurances for their security, and we did see the beginnings of the implementation.

We also felt sorry that we could conduct only one workshop of the 100PGs series, because of this issue in March. The effect of anger and violence often spreads into several areas! We wish the residents the very best, and hope that their security (and more issues) are taken care of.

On the pleasant side, we did conduct three workshops and I delivered four lectures this month. The one that I gave at the Drug Diligence Conference, gave me a wonderful opportunity to learn more about Pharmacovigilance. And as I learn more about each area, I realize how "correct literature searching" is crucial in every such special area! QMed has to penetrate a LOT more to do skill building in the country.

Vasumathi Sriganesh

Did You Know

Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce

Simply called Partners, the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce helps the public health workforce find and use information effectively to improve and protect the public's health. Fourteen different organizations are Partners for this initiative. The offerings for public health workers include information access and management, grant writing, needs assessment, and training; sponsoring meetings, workshops and lots more.

Interesting Article

Deshmukh MA, Dodamani AS, Khairnar MR, Naik RG.
Research misconduct: A neglected plague
Indian J Public Health. 2017 Jan-Mar;61(1):33-36 PMID: 28218160

There is a popular quote by Albert Einstein : "Many people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: It is the character.”

We all know how difficult carrying out a research can be and how the competition is increasing to earn the credibility associated with one’s research. Major concerns faced in research are plagiarism, falsification, fabrication and more; these are growing in pandemic proportion and spreading like wildfire. It is the recent cascade in academic competitiveness, the urge to succeed instantly using shortcuts and the thirst for publications to increase the credit associated with one’s name that have led to a steep rise in these practices. Research misconduct can have harmful effects not only on the researchers but also on the funding agencies, affiliated institutes and the entire scientific community. This is an interesting article which explains the different kinds of research malpractices and how they can be avoided.

From QMed’s Calendar

Talks on Literature Search / Referencing & Citing at

• YMT College of Homeopathy, Kharghar - 7th Mar

• YMT College of Ayurveda, Kharghar- 10th Mar

• Ayurved Mahavidyalay & Seth RV Ayurvedic Hospital, Sion - 22nd Mar

Guest lectures

• Importance of literature searching in Pharmacovigilance - at "Drug Diligence" - a two day conference organized by Oviya Medsafe, Coimbatore

Our blog post carries a few details about these lectures

Workshops

The 100 PGs project: (For more details - click here)

• Mastering PubMed & Reference Management with Mendeley, at QMed's office - 28th Mar Four PG students attended the workshop. One more student who had attended the workshop earlier came for a refresher. Do check out his testimonial

Regular workshops at institutions:

• Mastering PubMed : a Workshop for Undergraduate students - sponsored by the Rotary Club of Bombay Central and coordinated by the Rotaract Club of The Caduceuus - 6th Mar, 2017

Workshop@QMed

• A Palliative Care Physician from Pune attended a one day workshop at QMed on PubMed and Reference Management, and had a detailed discussion on planning a systematic review on a research topic - 31st Mar 2017

QMed Participates

Vasumathi Sriganesh participated in a one day conference on Compliance for NGOs. The event was aptly named "Compliance Complete". Organized by the Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy (CAP) for the second year in succession, the event covered various areas in which NGOs needed to be compliant. While the terms Fundraising, Succession Planning and Communications are not new to NGOs, we got a mix of new ideas, more insights and "Why didn't I think of that" - moments during the event. Just to cite - Ms Usha Menon, a management consultant from Singapore shared - "Fundraising is neither about asking, nor about money. We need to find the right donors who will work with us, believing in our causes, and then contributing a mix of good will, time and money." Very true - after all time is also money!

CAP also offers a Compliance Review and Certification for a maximum of 10 NGOs every year. They choose the NGOs through an interview process and then train and mentor them to be completely compliant in eight areas of work.