QMedCONNECT: June 2008

QMedCONNECT Newsletter: June 2008

Dear friends,

It was a dream come true! In the month of June 2008, QMed conducted five training programs (PubMed Basics) in a span of six days. For years (from our days as a company) we had been wanting to reach this kind of target and our dreams are taking shape now. The first program in June was at the Seth GS Medical College & KEM Hospital, Mumbai and the rest were in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore).

The feedback was excellent - the KEM (Seth GS Medical College's) faculty (comprising the Editorial Board of the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine) told us that they would like a few more programs in the immediate future so that all their PG students would be able to go through them soon. AT KIMS and Narayana Nethralaya, Bengaluru we had similar requests. At the MS Ramaiah Medical college, the Vice-Principal told all faculty members who attended, to ensure that they tried teaching their students all that they learnt at the program.

A special mention about the participants at the Narayana Nethralaya - they were extremely participative, asked a lot of good questions and answered well in all the interactive sessions! We'd really love to see that volume of participation. At KIMS - in the afternoon session we had two specific search requests which were demonstrated as live searches. One was from a participant who said he was unable to find literature on a specific topic and he was happy to get results with this demo!

All good things have some glitches. At NN, while we had an excellent Internet connectivity, PubMed would not work (down for server maintenance?) and we could not do live examples. Dr. Rajesh Babu who coordinated the program gave me the idea of using a software called Snagit to record some examples as a backup. Thanks Dr. Rajesh - I did it the very same night to be prepared for my lecture at MSR. Fortunately I did not have trouble there.

Do take a look at some statistics that we have shared - analyzed from the pre and post assessment questionnaires and also the feedback forms that the participants filled in for us. We plan to do a more thorough assessment with the help of a statistician and will present it on our website in the near future. We wish to do a good study on this and make a difference in the way healthcare professionals will work at literature searching

Due to so much of efforts that went into these training programs, we had to apply a few gentle brakes on other activities - but nevertheless managed to brainstorm on many of them in order to take our Foundation ahead. We will have to share these with you in forthcoming newsletters. (And in fact that is the reason for this newsletter reaching you slightly late).

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

Vasumathi Sriganesh

What we did- June 2008

Details of training programs in June

Venue	Date	Participants
GSMC	19/06/2008	Total = 40 PG students - 35 Faculty / Practitioners - 5
KIMS	21/06/2008	Total = 50 PG students - 45 Faculty / Practitioners - 5
NN	22/06/2008	Total = 31 PG students - 25 Faculty / Practitioners - 6
MSR	24/06/2007	Total = 21 PG students - 1 (external on request) Faculty / Practitioners -20

Legend:

- GSMC - Seth GS Medical College & KEM Hospital,Mumbai
- KIMS - Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Bengaluru (2 sessions)
- NN - Narayana Nethralaya, Bengaluru (Including participants from external institutions)
- MSR - M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, Bengaluru

Some interesting statistics - assessments

Before the program

• Correct answers = 36%

• Incorrect/unsure answers = 64%

After the program

• Correct answers = 75%

• Incorrect/unsure answers = 25%

Some interesting statistics - feedback

More than 90% of participants said that

• The program exceeded or definitely met their expectations

• It was very useful / useful

• They would be able to do a much better literature search

• They would recommend it to colleagues

• They believe it should be a part of the PG curriculum

Lectures

- Vasumathi Sriganesh will be conducting a workshop and delivering a lecture on the 25th and 26th of July at a Research methodology workshop to be conducted by FOGSI at Gurgaon.

- Parvati Iyer will be delivering a lecture on Searching medical literature to UG students doing a Clinical Research program, at the KEM Hospital, on July 26..

Participation in Workshops / Training Programs

Girish Kunkur participated in Karmayog's "Share your Dream" get together on 27th of June 2008. The main objective of the get-together was to meet and interact with NGOs, corporates and other agencies and examine the possibility of mutual benefits and associations.

Possibilities in the pipeline

We are exploring certain interesting projects and associations and are almost finalizing a couple of these. We hope to bring you more concrete news in our next newsletter. Our website's "What's new" section will of course keep you updated, in case you wish to know about these earlier!

Some updates on current new projects

During this month we have added approximately 900 records to FMR's catalog (books and articles). We were able to identify approximately 80% of records online and import them into their catalog. This ensures high level of accuracy in the bibliographic records, and of course the indexing terms (or descriptors) that get imported add value to a person searching the catalog.

IT Exemption for donations under Section 80G of the Indian Income Tax Act

IT Exemption for donations under Section 80G of the Indian Income Tax Act.

We should be getting this in a couple of months' time. We are eager to get this soon so that we can offer a tax exemption to donors.

Article of the Month:

Smith, R.
Thoughts for new medical students at a new medical school
BMJ 2003;327:1430-1433 (20 December). The article is available free online.

This month's selection was brought to my attention by a good friend - Dr. I. K. Indrajit, who is with the Army Hospital in New Delhi. Thank you, Dr. Indrajit! I hope all our young medical students will appreciate this one. In fact, we hope all Deans and faculty of medical colleges will make a special effort to share this with their students.

Membership for Doctors

One new member - a renowned Pediatrician joined us in June 2008. We also have two surgeons and one PG student so far.

For details of QMed's membership schemes, click here

Quote of the Month

My students are dismayed when I say to them "Half of what you are taught as medical students will in 10 years have been shown to be wrong. And the trouble is, none of your teachers knows which half."

- Dr. Sydney Burwell, Dean of Harvard Medical School

(Source: David L. Sackett, et al. Evidence-Based Medicine, 2nd Ed. Original source - Pickering, G. W. British Medical Journal. 1956; ii: 115)

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

We have added about 107 new sites in the last month and the total number of sites has crossed 2000. 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.