QMedCONNECT Newsletter: October 2008

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Dear friends,

I trust you all had a good Deepavali and New Year. This month, with Dussera and Deepavali holidays, we have had more of internal activities and planning. We particularly enjoyed one activity - which was to help a couple of medical students work on a website - www.informer.org.in. The students, on behalf of their Society, initially wanted us to take on the project, but we felt that it would be a matter of pride for them if they did it by themselves. We suggested that they use Google Sites. They started with that, and figured out that Google Apps had better options for them, and with some handholding from us, they got the site up and running and also managed email integration for their domain. We really felt that we had played our role in empowering the future generation to do something meaningful! We also plan to work on helping small and medium organizations like polyclinics, nursing homes and diagnostic centres have their own websites and will be focusing on this activity in November.

Currently we are also on a membership drive, and our Director - Programs, Girish Kunkur is spearheading this drive with enthusiasm. We are happy to note that all doctors that we have contacted have signed up for membership immediately. We hope we have a symbiotic relationship - by giving them our best, and also getting helpful suggestions to improve our offerings!

And our happiest news is that KIMS, Bengaluru has requested us to repeat our PubMed-Basics training program for two more batches of their PG students in November! Our thanks to the Dean, the Librarian and the Library Committee at KIMS, for this encouragement and feedback.

In case you have not received our earlier issues - do check them out on our website

We would be happy to receive more views/suggestions by email at info@qmedkf.org.in

Vasumathi Sriganesh

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Participation In Events:

Vasumathi Sriganesh will attend the "KRM 2008 - Evidence Based Approach: Information Resource, Service and Practice" Seminar at the Tata Memorial Hospital on November 11 - 12, 2008

Girish Kunkur will attend the ILA-TISS International Conference on Knowledge for All: Role of Libraries and Information Centres on November 12 - 14, 2008

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"PubMed - Basics" Forthcoming Programs

November 4, 2008 - KIMS, Bengaluru:
We have been invited to conduct two sessions at the Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Bengaluru for the PG students of the Institution on November 4, 2008. We had already conducted two sessions in June, and we are happy that they have invited us once more to conduct the same for additional groups of students.

November 9, 2008 - Pikale Hospital, Mahim Mumbai
Our next PubMed Basics program will be held on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 between 10 AM and 1 PM at
Pikale Hospital (Seminar Room)
"Uma-Mahesh",
M.M. Chotani Marg,
Cross Road-2, Mahim,
Mumbai -400 016

We also invite registrations for our future "PubMed - Basics" training programs, which are scheduled to be held on Sundays on the following dates from 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

7th December 08
22nd February 09

The venues will be announced soon. We'd be very happy if people can offer a free/low cost space to conduct our training programs.

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Invitations for talks

Vasumathi Sriganesh delivered a talk on October 25, 2008 - at the Tata Memorial Hospital for participants of a Clinical Research Methodology Course.

Ms. Sriganesh will be giving talks on medical literature searching/related topics, at the following events:

b) November 7, 2008 - at the Annual Conference of the Karnataka Ophthalmic Society, in Shimoga

c) November 21, 2008 - at the 11th workshop on "Medical Informatics and Biomedical Communication" at the Jamnalal Bajaj Tropical Disease Research Centre, of the MGIMS at Sewagram, Wardha.

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Some updates on recent projects/ventures

The website for the National Institute of Immunohaematology will be launched in the second week of November 2008

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New project/initiatives

New Website Project

We launched the website for the ISSRF - Indian Society for the Study of Reproduction and Fertility on October 1, 2008. We have started it with a very simple and cost effective design with focus on content. In about a year's time, the Society could consider enhancing the site to include interactive areas.

We also had the pleasure of helping a group of students of the Indian Forum for Medical Students' Research (INFORMER) plan and host their site www.informer.org.in
They were very enthusiastic about doing the job, and we encouraged them to do it on their own; helping them with some overall advice. INFORMER will be holding a medical students conference next year, and QMed will be participating in this event.

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A dose of humour

A man told his doctor that he was not able to do all the things around the house that he used to do. When the examination was complete, he said, “ Now Doc, I can take it. Tell me in plain English what is wrong with me.”

"Well, in plain English", the doctor replied, "you’re just lazy.”

“Okay, ” said the man. “Now give me the medical term so that I can tell my wife.” said the man

- Herschel, H Hobbs

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Membership for Doctors

Your Search for Medical Information Ends Here!

As a member, you are entitled to the following services:

• Medical Articles

• Medical Literature searches

• Your own webpage - to include your professional profile

• A CD on how to use PubMed easily with search examples for 20 diseases

• Monthly alerts on your specialty

For more details and a at www.qmedkf.org.in

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New Members:

We welcome five new Consultant members - a Cardio Vascular & Thoracic Surgeon, a Diabetic Foot Specialist, an Ophthalmic Radiologist, a Periodontist and an Andrologist

If you wish to join as a member click here

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Donations to QMed Knowledge Foundation

We are delighted to share with you that we have got our 80-G certificate !

If you appreciate our unique mission, and would like to support us, we will ensure that the donation you make is not only utilized with utmost care but also with a high degree of transparency and accountability. No contribution is too little. We accept donations only 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.

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Article of the Month:

Illig J. Archiving “Event Knowledge”: Bringing “Dark Data” to Light. J Med Libr Assoc. 2008 Jul;96(3):189-91.

The author discusses how getting information presented in conferences and similar events is always a challenge to retrieve, especially considering that most abstracts are not really published in journals later. He advocates access to "event knowledge", because such access enables health professionals to get a "complete view of knowledge" for both patient care and research.

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

We have added 28 new sites in the last month and the total number of sites has crossed 2223. If you are interested in volunteering to add new sites, 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.

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