QMedCONNECT: Sept-Oct 2011

QMedCONNECT Newsletter: September-October 2011

Dear friends,

Once again we bring you a "double issue" as October was a very busy month. I had attended the 19th Cochrane Colloquium during the dates October 19-22, in Madrid, Spain. The Cochrane Collaboration is a huge network of professionals across countries and aims to create unbiased evidence for providing healthcare. India has access its most important resource - the Cochrane Systematic Reviews, through theCochrane Library ,thanks to the ICMR paying for a country wide license. The South Asian Cochrane Netwok and Centre located in Vellore coordinates all Cochrane activities for this region.

I was fortunate to get a partial stipend to attend this event and would like to place on record my 'thank you' to the organizers.

QMed has increasingly felt the need to emphasize strongly on students of health sciences as its target, for making a difference in medical research and related activities. With this base, for the Colloquium, I worked closely with two representatives of INFORMER - an association of undergraduate students who wish to focus on research activities. The three of us held a discussion workshop "From Novice to Expert to Mentor" at the Colloquium. The two INFORMER representatives - Manu Mathew and Shivika Chandra - both recent medical graduates and co-founders had done a bulk of the planning, while other INFORMER members had also contributed content, and so did one young medical faculty member from Pakistan. In the workshop they presented their efforts at promoting the Cochrane (evidence) message specially amongst students and I also shared QMed's experiences. We had about 30 people attending our workshop; people from other developing countries wished to replicate our efforts; and those from the developed world were interested in getting insights from us, since they worked to help developing countries.

I also presented a poster - "Access alone does not guarantee use: the need for training to use evidence based resources."

The Colloquium was also a place where I learned a lot that can be implemented in our setting. QMed has "more miles to go before we sleep" - there is a lot we have to do for India!

Vasumathi Sriganesh

Special Attention: Students of all Health Science Courses

How would you like to be part of big change? Where your curriculum and courses do not only fill you with a million pieces of information, but train you to provide healthcare based on "what is the best available evidence"

Research does not constitute only activities done in high-tech labs. Anything you do to find out "what works for managing your patients" is an integral part of research.

Would you like to see a change that begins with having guidance for all your research activities? You may need training / help for your STS / KVPY project or your PG thesis. Or you may need it for a journal article that you wish to write. When you actually start handling patients you will have several queries.There are times where you just want to be better informed about something. All these are parts of a research process.

In our new dream scenario, we'd like to see that every teaching institution helps you know more about choosing a topic to research, searching the literature, writing, referencing, statistics and getting your work published. On a bigger level, we'd like to see everyone having access to all possible information resources.

To accomplish all this, we need to work hard, overcoming obstacles and not give up. We believe that if students work with us to achieve this dream, they will learn from us and also pave the way for future students, experiencing a sense of pride for having contributed to them. Such work needs collaborative efforts. QMed collaborates with similar organizations like INFORMER and the South Asian Cochrane Network & Centre. We all work towards the same goal even as we work in specific focused areas.

Stay in touch with us to see how you can be part of this initiative - through our website and through our Facebook page!

Help QMed GROW

If you believe in our cause and efforts, do give us a donation - small or large. Every drop counts!

If you are a health professional or student, you could become a "Friend of QMed". Becoming a "Friend" is like being a "donor member". You will get all the help that we can provide with our expertise. We request for a minimum donation of Rs. 2000/- per year. For PG students we subsidize this to Rs. 1000/- and for UGs it is Rs. 500/-

Do check out our website www.qmedkf.org.in for details.We accept donations by cheques in favour of Quality Medical Knowledge Foundation. You may send the cheques to our address, or you could ask us for our account details to do a transfer. You will get the applicable IT Exemption for donations under Section 80G of the Indian Income Tax Act.

Do You Know?

PubMed Health

Launched very recently by the National Library of Medicine, USA, PubMed Health provides reviews of clinical effectiveness research, with easy-to-read summaries for consumers, as well as full technical reports. "Clinical effectiveness research" finds answers to the question “What works?” in medical and health care. You can find a medical encyclopedia, a consumer section, guidelines, executive summaries and more. The site is expected to grow quickly with content for health professionals and consumers.

Forthcoming Training Programs/Lectures:

November 08, 2011. PubMed Basics - Sponsored event in Pune

November 15, 2011. Literature searching - Part of an "Introductory workshop in Medical Informatics" organized by the MUHS at Pune

Other Events of Interest

Events conducted by the South Asian Cochrane Network & Centre. 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 info@qmedkf.org.in

UpToDate. We, as trainers of UpToDate - [www.uptodate.com], can give one month complimentary trial passwords. Do write to us at info@qmedkf.org.in if you would like to have one.

Article of the Month

Favero TG.

Active review sessions can advance student learning.

Adv Physiol Educ. 2011;35:247-8

"Because of the vast amount of information in textbooks and other electronic media, most students today have a difficult time discerning the essential content of the discipline and how it might be used to solve problems"
The author discusses the need of students to have review sessions before their exams. He tries a new approach where he conducts such a review session in regular class hours. Each student is asked to note down issues and problems s/he thinks is important for learning in the profession. He then describes how he takes issues that appear in most students' lists and add any he himself considers vital. Students are asked to generate exam questions and also discuss on applicability in problem solving. A very interesting attempt to ensure that students attend a class and that the session tackles problem solving as well as examination oriented approaches. Not forgetting the information overload!

What we did – September-October 2011

Training Programs / Talks: Literature searching/ Consultative meetings

September 05, 2011. Lecture: "Introduction to the Cochrane Library". Program organized by ICMR & Wiley at the National Institute of Pathology Auditorium, Safdarjang Hospital, Delhi

September 09, 2011 - Lecture: "Literature Searching". At the "Milestones in Medicine" Conference at AFMC, Pune

September 13, 2011 - Lecture: "Literature Searching". At a Research Methodology workshop for PG students, TNMC and Nair Hospital, Mumbai

September 16, 2011. Lecture: "Introduction to the Cochrane Library". Program organized by ICMR & Wiley at the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai

September 21, 2011. Training program: "PubMed". At the Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, Bengaluru

September 24, 2011. Lecture: "References: Get the best. Referencing: Do it right: A structured approach to literature searching and citations" At "Researching" - a workshop for UG students in Kolkata.

October 9, 2011. Lecture: "How medical librarians can promote Information therapy" at The 2nd Annual Conference on Putting Patients First, organized by the HELP Library at Nehru Center- Mumbai

October 10, 2011. Lecture: "Literature Searching" at the Vasantrao Pawar Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Nashik.

October 20, 2011. Poster Presentation: Access alone does not guarantee use. The need for training to use evidence based resources. At the 19th Cochrane Colloquium, Madrid, Spain

Document Delivery of Journal Articles

In the month of September & October 2011, we delivered 113 articles to individual members & libraries. The total number of documents delivered since April 2011 is 383.

Quote of the Month

A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life.

-Norman Cousins

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

We have added 50 new sites in the month of September & October and the total number of sites is 3450.

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.