QMedCONNECT: April 2011

QMedCONNECT Newsletter: April 2011

Dear friends,

We did it! In early April, we launched the "Friends of QMed" program. And we are happy to share that three individuals have already signed up for this program. One premier institution in Chennai has already shown very keen interest in the institutional partnership. Something unique about the program is that indivdiuals donate for our cause and in turn will receive any help that we can provide. Do check out more details in the "Just for You" section.

We are keen to get the MCI's support for our Friends of QMed program. In their recent document - "Vision 2015", they have mentioned two things - i) A medical student should be able to search (including through electronic means), and critically evaluate the medical literature and apply the information in the care of the patient (Page 18) and ii) MCI also needs to develop an electronic resources library that can be made available to all physicians at a reasonable cost. (Page 35). Both these components are part of QMed's plan in the Friends of QMed program. We plan to offer our expertise so that they will have people they can rely on to achieve these two areas of their Vision 2015 document!

This month QMed is also offering support to Medicon 2011 (the Undergraduate Research Conference). Medicon is organized every year under the banner of INFORMER - a body of UG students keenly interested in Research. This year it is at the Grant Medical College, Mumbai. We at QMed, feel privileged to help the group of students which is striving hard to make the conference a success, with support form the college authorities. I hope that with the MCI's new announcement, and with bodies like INFORMER and QMed, and of course several academicians who always offer support to such bodies and activities, the goals of the Vision 2015 document are achieved.

The "Article of this month" is on the importance of systematic reviews - a short and very interesting editorial. I'd also like to thank Dr. Urmila Thatte of KEM Hospital for sharing a set of medical quotes that I can use in QMedCONNECT.

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?

F1000 - Open Access Source for Posters - Biology & Medicine

We have all seen posters in conferences where we come away with ideas, take home messages and sometimes exciting discoveries. All of us agree that conference posters (and papers) are very important sources of information. And yet, they as good as disappear once the conference is over. This - unless the authors publish them as papers in journals, or the conference organizers put up all information in a website. Both situations do not happen as often as we'd like them to. F1000 Posters appears to be "the answer" to this problem! It is an open access repository for posters. You can browse by topic or search for posters on topics of interest.The advanced search allows several options and you can even get reports, evaluations and more. You can deposit a poster, and check out about Journal's policies regarding acceptance of the poster's contents as an article, if you wish to submit an article for publication. Check out http://posters.f1000.com/posters

Forthcoming Training Programs/Lectures:

May 04 - Lecture on literature searching for Nurses - Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai

May 11 - Preconference workshop on EBM - at Medicon 2011

May 11 - Preconference workshop on Scientific Writing at Medicon 2011

May 14 - Lecture at a Research methodology workshop - at the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Trivandrum

May 28 -Lecture at a Research methodology workshop - Tata Memorial Hospital

For those in the field of Reproductive Health and Neonatology

The Reproductive Health Library or RHL invites people to write commentaries on a specific list of Cochrane Reviews. The RHL includes Cochrane Reviews in the field, and also summaries of the same. There is a list of recently added reviews that need summaries written. Check here for more details
The instructions for authors who wish to write summaries are also provided in this page.

Other Events of Interest

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

Medicon 2011- May 11th - 14th 2011: Medicon is an annual international research conference for undergraduate medical students, organized in India. It presents a platform for young scientists and future doctors to meet, interact and present their research. 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

Minhas, R. (2011)

Not a call for papers – a call for systematic reviews!.

International Journal of Clinical Practice, 65: 518.

"The rate of acceleration of the research enterprise means that soon one day the systematic review will almost certainly become the only acceptable form of review that journals choose to publish". The author, who is a Director of the BMJ Technology Assessment Group, in this editorial describes a Systematic Review in very simple language, and also how the IJCP has been encouraging authors to write systematic reviews. A great read for anyone who needs clarity on such publications!

What we did – Apirl 2011

Training Programs / Talks: Literature searching/ Consultative meetings

8th April 2011 UpToDate training session at SRMC, Chennai

12th April 2011 UpToDate training session at AIMS, Cochin

18th April 2011 Lecture on literature searching at the "Re-orientation Training Programme in Research Methodology" for Ayurvedic faculty, organized by the Dept of Clinical Pharmacology, TN Medical College & BYL Nair Hospital

28th April 2011 Three sessions on UpToDate and literature searching at SRMC Chennai for over 300 participants.

30th April 2011 Lecture at a program for PG students on thesis writing - organized by the Childs Trust Hospital, Chennai

Document Delivery of Journal Articles

In the month of April 2011, we delivered 60 articles to individual members & libraries.

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

There are in fact two things, science and opinon; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

Hippocrates (460BC - 377 BC)

Thank you Dr. Urmila Thatte from KEM Hospital for sharing this quote!

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

We have added 25 new sites in April and the total number of sites is 3300.

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.