QMedCONNECT: August -September 2012

QMedCONNECT Newsletter: August- September 2012

Dear friends

Once again we've had to club two issues of our newsletter, due to too many things happening together . It does seem healthy too, because we have had several good things happening! But before telling you about our activities, let me remind you that as this issue reaches you, it is early October. It is the month of "Giving", as the week - 2nd to 8th is celebrated as the Joy of Giving week. You may have already received our "Sacrifice a Pizza for your Profession" appeal. As we roll out this issue, we are delighted to share that the email campaign has had instant responses ranging from donations of Rs. 300/- to $1000. We are really grateful for the faith reposed in us and we promise to do the best we can towards the Foundation's objectives! We've had several lecture invitations and training invitations . One interesting event where I participated was MECOR,- Methods in Epidemiologic, Clinical and Operations Research, organized by the American Thoracic Society. This was a workshop for physicians, and I took a session on literature searching. It was so well appreciated, that the Faculty from the US, specially gave me time for an extended session to teach more, and to also demonstrate the use of a Reference Management Software! The other good event this month, was a PubMed hands on (group activity based) workshop that we organized in Mumbai. We had 15 participants from different backgrounds and it was a great success.

Vasumathi Sriganesh

Help QMed GROW

It is the Joy of Giving Week - October 2 - 8 of every year. Our request to all during this event is

"Sacrifice a Pizza for your Profession" to help improve medical research in India!

To make a donation, do check out the page http://qmedkf.org.in/aboutus/donations.htm for details. You will get the applicable IT Exemption for donations under Section 80G of the Indian Income Tax Act. We can accept overseas donations as we are registered for the FCRA.

Do You Know?

The Cochrane Library has recently revamped its website for the Advanced Search and Mesh Search features. The "Search" tab in the Advanced search page allows you to perform various field searches. The "MeSH" tab allows searches with MeSH terms. The centre tab "Search Manager" manages the searches and allows saving strategies and setting up email alerts.

Forthcoming Training Programs on literature searching and reference management:

Training Programs

We plan to hold half day interactive workshops or full day hands on workshops on searching PubMed / Cochrane Library and on organizing / citing your references using a Reference Manager Software. If you are interested in attending any of these / sending someone, do give us your details so that we could get in touch.

October 20, 2012 - PubMed Advanced - at Lotus College of Optometry, Mumbai

Lectures

October 13, 2012 - Lecture on literature searching, referencing and citing, at Shri BMK Ayurveda Mahavidyalaya, Belgaum

October 19, 2012 - Lecture on literature searching at a wokshop on Meta-analysis, at Seth GS Medical College & KEM Hospital, Mumbai

November 3, 2012 - Lecture for Pathologists - Delhi

November 4, 2012 - Lecture for PGs of UCMS, Delhi (To be confirmed)

Other Events of Interest

Public Health Foundation of India's events in October. More details

International Conference on "Evidence-Based Healthcare" - 6th - 8th October - More details

Workshop on Completing a Cochrane Systematic Review. 12-16 NOv 2012, Christian Medical College, Vellore. More details

Fourth National Bioethics Conference - Hyderabad - 6th - 8th December. More details

If you are organizing or know about other conferences, pre-conference workshops or training programs related to medical research, do let us know; we would like to include these in our website and newsletter.

Resources for You

Supercourse Lectures. Supercourse is a repository of lectures on Global Health and Prevention. if you wish to receive a copy, do write to us at in

Article of the Month

Health research barriers in the faculties of two medical institutions in India.

Alamdari A, Venkatesh S, Roozbehi A, Kannan A

J Multidiscip Healthc. 2012;5:187-94.

An interesting study that attempted to identify barriers and facilitators of health research among faculty members in two major institutions in India, ie, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS) and Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in Delhi. It identified 47 barriers! What specially appealed to us was a strong mention of the presence of the National Medical Library and its proximity to AIIMS and that being a major factor in favour of AIIMS!

What we did – August - September 2012

Training Programs / Talks: Literature searching/ Consultative meetings

August 14, 2012 - Lecture on literature searching at Jankharia Imaging Center, Mumbai for DNB students
August 17, 2012 - Lecture on literature searching at a “Statistics & Research Methodology” program at KEM, Mumbai
August 18, 2012 - Lecture on Organizing & Storing References - at “Illuminati” a UG student event organized by AFMC, Pune
August 21, 2012 - Lecture - “How to make presentations” - at Jankharia Imaging Center, Mumbai for DNB students
August 22, 2012 - Consumer Lecture- Weather related diseases at Meteorological Centre Mumbai
August 30, 2012 - Lecture on literature searching at a - Statistics & Research Methodology prog at KEM, Mumbai
August 31, 2012 - Lecture on literature searching at a Research Methodology workshop at KGMP Ayurvedic College, Mumbai
September 4, 2012 - Special lecture on the medical information profession at a Refresher course for librarians at Joshi Bedekar College, Thane.
September 6, 2012 - Half day interactive hands on PubMed workshop - organized by the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, at KEM, Mumbai
September 8, 2012 - Lecture on literature searching, at the Annual Conference of the Diabetic Foot Society of India, at Hyderabad
September 8, 2012 - PubMed Basics Workshop at the Lotus College of Optometry, Mumbai
September 21, 2012 - Lecture on Literature Searching at the All India Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mumbai
September 25, 2012 - Lecture on literature searching and Reference management, at the MECOR workshop organized by the American Thoracic Society, at Chennai
September 30, 2012 - Half day interactive hands on PubMed workshop organized by QMed - open to all - at Xaviers Institute of Management, Mumbai

Document Delivery of Journal Articles

In the month of August-September 2012, we delivered 80 articles to individual members & libraries. The total number of documents delivered since April 2012 is 283.

Quote of the Month

"There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after."
J.R.R. Tolkien quotes (English Writer and Author of richly inventive epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, 1892-1973)

Directory of Indian Medical Sites (www.indianmedicalsites.in)

We have added 65 new sites in the month of August & September and the total number of sites is 3740.

We invite volunteers to add new sites. If you would like to help, do write to us and we will send you a set of instructions that will make it easier for you to work. Please write "Volunteering for Indian Medical Sites" in the Subject of the email.