QMedCONNECT: September 2013

QMedCONNECT Newsletter: October- December 2013

Dear friends

September was a real ‘dream month’ for QMed. We are delighted to share that we raised around $7600 through our Global Giving page! And in addition we also got two local donations totalling Rs. 60,000. This money will be used to strengthen literature search and referencing skills in undergraduate health sciences students. We have so far been focusing on faculty and postgraduate students, but in the few times that we taught undergrad students, we felt that they were very quick to learn and the sooner they learned such skills, the better they would evolve in their profession.

It was a great experience raising almost 75% from family and friends. They have shown their faith in our efforts for improving an important component of medical education & research. They know that in the long run patients will benefit and they have given now.

I now have a request for the community of health professionals.

I have raised a significant amount from my family and friends. I would now like YOUR participation in our projects, because it is going to make a change in the profession. Today’s students are going to learn to save time and to find the right evidence for patient care. In fact, with time, I would like to see this chart change and show that health professionals are the biggest contributors, and have helped change things for their students! Doing this is not difficult. We will soon come up with a plan where each of you can commit to give an amount of your choice, either on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis. If majority of health professionals do this, QMed can do a lot for you. That is our commitment! I look forward to yours.

The other reason for September being a dream month was that I got to attend the National Conference in Health Professions Education – the NCHPE 2013. The people who attended were obviously those who cared very deeply for the teaching profession in all areas of health sciences. I regret missing the earlier NCHPE events and would urge anyone who is serious about medical (and allied health) education to attend this every year. Do read more about it in this issue.

Vasumathi Sriganesh

What we did –September 2013

Talks on literature searching / referencing /citing at

• College of Ayurveda, Pune – Sep 23. Read more

Interactive workshops

• PubMed Interactive, held at XIMR, Mumbai for about 12 participants (consultants and students) – Sep 21. Read more

• Lotus College of Optometry, Mumbai. No. of participants – Eight students of M.Optom. Read more

QMed Participates

Vasumathi Sriganesh attended the “National Conference for Health Professionals Education – NCHPE 2013″ organized by Seth G.S Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai. The first two days had nine preconference workshops and she and Lakshmi Padmanabhan attended two of these – “Writing a Proposal for educational Innovation” and “Use of Moodle”. The first was just what we needed, as we are working towards a lot of innovation. The three faculty demonstrated great teaching & presentation skills and were inspiring! The group activities & their summarizing were true learning experiences. We also picked up a few tips from the Moodle workshop and we hope that the CD based course material will strengthen our learning a bit more.

The conference was attended by about 160 delegates from all over India and interacting with medical teachers and educators – both stalwarts and youngsters was an absolutely enriching experience. With panel discussions, scenario planning exercises, keynote addresses par excellence, and poster sessions, the NCHPE was a professional delight. The bonus was that we got to discuss our Global Giving project with several faculty and received encouraging responses!

Fund Raising Initiatives

Global Giving : As mentioned, we raised around $7600 for our Project “Helping Medical Students Become Better Doctors” (Click to view) on Global Giving. Through this project we aim to conduct Literature Search Workshops for under-graduate students so that the learn these skills early enough to make it a part of their professional routine. Our most proud moment was when we received a contribution of $500 from Dr Eugene Garfield, the founder of the erstwhile Institute for Scientific Information.
Footsteps4Good is an initiative for NGOs to participate in a Marathon organized in Mumbai that is held on the 2nd of October every year. This year QMed is participating for the first time. We already have five supporters – Dr. Amit Dang, Dr Bhavin Jankharia, Mr Rajeev Surana, Ms Varsha Ramdas, Mr P Sriganesh and Ms Vasumathi Sriganesh who are going to represent QMed at the event. Click here for further details.

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