QMedCONNECT: August 2011

QMedCONNECT Newsletter: August 2011

Dear friends,

I am tempted to give two orders to each of you reading this newsletter. The first: "Become a Friend of QMed" and the second: "Help us get funding, because we are constantly proving that people need our expertise"

What have we proven this month? In August we started off with two institutions taking on what we offer through the Friends of QMed initiative. The Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital in Mumbai where we will be training a couple of people to become trainers, provide assistance to others and also get their library resources in order for them to utilize them well. The other very important maiden effort was a two day "Train the Trainer" initiative at the Govt Medical College, Surat. About 15 participants went through a detailed program and will start conducting smaller programs in their college. We will have another session for them later in the year too. The feedback and enthusiasm of this team to make a difference in their college is infectious!

We have had repeat invitations from many institutions like the Seth GSMC & KEM Hospital, the TNMC & Nair Hospital in Mumbai and AFMC, Pune, for our lectures. One more important development is that this month I will be doing two programs to teach people to search "The Cochrane Library" effectively. These are being organized by the ICMR and supported by Wiley. The ICMR has made this valuable resource accessible to all Indians, with a country wide license and this training program aims to help lots more students and health professionals exploit this important resource.

With all these good things happening, I think we are at "yet another beginning". What we really wish to create is a "Trainer pool" in every medical college / research institution and for people in this pool to be able to learn from us and spread our expertise. We can do this effectively only if we get funding for our sustenance. Isn't it time for each one of you to do something for us? Recommend us to funding agencies, user institutions and more; I am sure what you can do knows no boundaries.

Something I really love doing is to teach Undergraduate students. And a program in Kolkata organized by UG students themselves on the 24th of September is like a gift to me. I hope to sow the seeds of good researching in the minds of the youngsters.

The Article of the Month substantiates the need for our kind of work. Something that will ensure that money spent on libraries / resources will be completely utilized.

Vasumathi Sriganesh

Become a Friend of QMed

Whether you are a student, academician or practitioner or an Institution, you could become a Friend of QMed and support our activities. In return, we will share our expertise with you. Through this program we wish to make a difference to students in the healthcare sector, and have them emerge as health professionals of tomorrow, who will incorporate Evidence based practice. Program details (Check out the Hotlinks at the end of the page). And - if you believe in our cause, we invite you to "Become a friend" now!

Do You Know?

Introduction to Literature Searching

We have created a Free tutorial on this topic and it is available at http://ls.qmedkf.org.in This tutorial covers foundational concepts which anyone who searches the net for medical literature should be familiar with. We will soon be bringing out a basic tutorial on medical writing too.

We have also created a detailed PubMed tutorial accessible "only to Friends of QMed". We will be creating more tutorials for other resources as well.

Forthcoming Training Programs/Lectures:

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.

Other Events of Interest

Osmecon 2011 - Prog for UGs on Research. Sep 25 and 26, 2011. More details

South Asian Cochrane Network & Centre - Workshops on Systematic Reviews - More details

Clinical Research Workshop Series. Conducted by the Public Health Foundation of India. 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

Shah C, Parmar HD.

Case study: library usage at an Indian medical college.

Health Info Libr J. 2011 Mar;28(1):77-81.

The article discusses library usage in a medical school in a small town (Bhavnagar). It covers the use of a physical collection, since computers were added to the library after this research was completed. The authors analyze the usage pattern and compare it to other studies in India. They mention that though majority were satisfied with the library there is a need for more effort towards self directed learning through the use of library resources. They conclude that librarians can do more to increase library usage, and that the administration has agreed to provide more "reference books"

It is very interesting that a study of this nature has been done in a small town. In QMed's interactions with doctors/students we often hear comments ranging from - "We don't feel the need for a library, thanks to the Internet" to "We do not get most things free on the Internet". The common factor however for both is that they do not think of approaching their library! We believe, and the article mentions the same thing in different words - that many students and health professionals do not know what they can get or expect from their library. There is an urgent need for sensitization in this regard. We believe that in addition to providing more resources, librarians should be training users in how they get the most out of their library. We hope many more institutions take up similar research, and make a positive change to ensure that their library budgets and information resources are well exploited.

What we did – August 2011

Training Programs / Talks: Literature searching/ Consultative meetings

August 14, 2011. Lecture on literature searching for UG students attending Illuminati, Pune.

August 18, 2011. Lecture on literature searching at KEM Hospital, Mumbai for faculty at a Research Methodology workshop

August 19, 2011. Lecture for students of RIMS, Ranchi

August 19, 2011. Workshop for students of RIMS, Ranchi

August 20, 2011. Lecture at the 20th Annual Conference of the Neurotrauma Society of India

August 24-25, 2011. Train the trainer program at Govt Medical College Surat for 15 faculty members

August 27, 2011. Workshop on literature searching for Students of M.Optom program of the Lotus College of Optometry

Document Delivery of Journal Articles

In the month of August 2011, we delivered 83 articles to individual members & libraries. The total number of documents delivered since April 2011 is 270.

Funding

The easiest way of supporting us is to become a "Friend of QMed". 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. You will get the applicable IT Exemption for donations under Section 80G of the Indian Income Tax Act.

Quote of the Month

When I began, I thought that the way one should work was to do all the research and then write the book.

-David McCullough
American Historian

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

We have added 25 new sites in the month of August and the total number of sites is 3400.

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.