Our CEO encountered Akshay Sharma a final year MBBS student at Manipal, through Orkut - a social networking website. She was surprised when he mentioned that he was interested in writing a Cochrane Review on a topic on which he felt that there was no Evidence based publication. After helping him out with his questions, she in turn asked him some questions to find out what made him different from many of his peers. We share with you - the interesting exchange:
VS: What made you get into medical research right from 1st MBBS?
A: Right from my school days, I've been amazed every time we learnt a new thing in science, how things work etc. There was no other thing which gave me more joy than thinking about how life evolved from inorganic molecules and how the entire blueprint of life is stored so compactly in the DNA.
VS: Any family, school/junior college background that helped in the same?
A: My family played a very important role in inculcating my aptitude for science and research. Both my parents are doctors. My father has been pretty active in research and I used to help him with the search for literature for review and preparation of manuscripts.
At school as well as junior college, I would participate in all science fairs and exhibitions. I still remember having made a HAM radio-transmitter set all by myself ; I used it for a considerable time too.
VS: Any faculty / fellow student who inspired you in any way? And what are other sources of motivation?
A: At DAV College, Chandigarh there were several teachers who inspired me. One of them was my chemistry teacher, Dr. B.K. Vermani who played a vital role in kindling the interest in research.
Then my teachers, Dr. Urban John D'Souza and Dr. A. Rajeev, have been the guiding forces and my mentors here in the Medical College .
VS: Any comment about research related issues in the medical curriculum / Indian scene?
A: There is indeed a huge gap between the curriculum and the requirements in the Indian Scenario. The medical curriculum is more data oriented; it makes you learn a lot, but passively. It requires you to assimilate everything like a capsule. Even if research projects have been incorporated, either there are no funds or there is so little time for execution that they become a "job to be completed" rather than an activity where the students can actually learn. Probably the first real time experience of research methodology most people get is when they get into post graduation and by that time they already have too many responsibilities. The curriculum needs to be made more research oriented instead of being primarily textbook based. In fact it should be made more activity oriented.
