QMedCONNECT Newsletter: April 2016

Dear friends

The month of April was good as we did four workshops - two at AIIMS, Jodhpur and two at Karunashraya, Bengaluru. We also delivered six lectures and conducted one Workshop@QMed for an individual. And yet, I am getting impatient (in a positive way). As we conduct each workshop or deliver a lecture, we know the dire need for these to reach out to every medical student, resident and professional (when I say medical, I mean - all the health sciences). Why are we not doing three workshops a week? At every lecture that one of us delivers, participants and organizers declare that what we teach must be in the curriculum, and wished that they had learned it all much earlier. Then why is it not translating into more workshops? The answers so far have been based on a lower priority of time and budgets. In a way, it is like the importance of exercising. Too many tend to postpone it, because not exercising may not affect us immediately (read - today). Who will bell the cat and get our workshops to be regular events in their institutions? Better still - who is ready to organize Training of Trainers - workshops, to build capacity in their institution? Will you prioritize the learning of literature searching as well as reference management? Will you organize the necessary budgets to conduct our workshops? Will you ensure that your librarian/s also attend the workshop/s?

We at QMed are waiting!

Vasumathi Sriganesh

From our Blog

"Why don't we get all articles for free in PubMed?" We are asked this question often in our workshops. Here is the answer in our latest blogpost

Did You Know

Finding Journals in your specialty in PubMed:

Wish to find out what journals are available in your specialty? Start your search at the US National Library of Medicine's web page - Broad Subject Terms for Indexed Journals. Click on any specialty to see the list of journals that are included in the NCBI databases. If you wish to limit your search to those that are indexed for Medline, then click the link on the right side - "Currently indexed in Medline"

If you wish to run a PubMed search for one or more journal titles, then select them, and click Add to Search builder, and then Search PubMed.

Interesting Reading

Haddaway NR, Collins AM, Coughlin D, Kirk S.

The Role of Google Scholar in Evidence Reviews and Its Applicability to Grey Literature Searching.

PLoS One. 2015 Sep 17;10(9):e0138237

A very interesting article that touches upon GS in several contexts, including tracing its improvements over the years. The authors also discuss the debates about how GS works and then also about how useful it is in finding grey literature for conducting evidence reviews. The article concludes that GS is indeed a useful supplement in searches for evidence, particularly grey literature so long as its limitations are recognised. The authors recommend that the assessment of results from Google Scholar, should move on to recording snapshots of all viewable search results: i.e. the first 1,000 records, instead of the first 50 that most Systematic Review authors use. They feel that this change in practice could significantly improve both the transparency and coverage of systematic reviews, especially with respect to their grey literature components. Happy reading!

From QMed’s Calendar

Talks on Literature Search, Referencing, Citing at:

• Quest- A lecture series for UG students, Mumbai - 1st April

• Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai- Research Methodology Workshop for DNB students - 22nd April

• Podar Ayurvedic College, Mumbai-Research Methodology Workshop - 25th April

• FAIMER 2016 - 27th April

• Seth GS Medical College and KEM Hospital, Mumbai- Research Methodology Workshop for DNB students - 29th April

• Journal of Clinical Ophthalmology and Research (JCOR)- Research Methodology Workshop - 30th April

Workshops@Institutions

• Two full-day hands-on workshop at AIIMS Jodhpur on Literature Search and Reference Management as part of CME for World Health Day- 8th and 9th April

• One and half-days workshop at Karunashraya, Bangalore ( A palliative care centre) on Literature Search, Reference Management and The Cochrane Library- 18th and 19th April

Workshops@QMed

• Workshop on Reference Management with Mendeley for a PG student from DY Patil College of Ayurveda

Participant Feedback

• An excellent workshop on Literature Search and Reference Management. I am in my first year of MD and this workshop has happened to me at the right time, since I would need to know a lot of Literature Searching for my thesis in the coming two years of MD. This will definitely help in reducing the wastage of time in Literature searching and reference management. Mrs. Vasumathi & Mrs. Lakshmi were very clear and concise in their Lectures and very patient in teaching us the concepts. The best part was the Hands on Experience for the same. Thanks to Mrs. Vasumathi and Mrs. Lakshmi for the interesting and educational experience - Dr Ganesh Nair, participant at AIIMS Jodhpur.

• This workshop has taken using the Cochrane Library database to a whole new level or three! Improved my knowledge and ability to search/make sense of the data. Ability to look at systematic reviews and also clinical trials. Excellent all round. Now have to put to practice - Dr Jeremy Johnson, Dir. Education & Research, Karunashraya.

• My aim was to become a scientist once upon a time, to do research but because of the tedious preocess involved I abandoned that idea. Now because of this class I am actually able to realize that I can still continue doing research as well as be a Palliative Care Physician - Dr Babita Varkey, Palliatvie Care Physician, Karunashraya.

From our Picture Gallery

Events attended

CAP Compliance Conference

The Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy had organized a one day conference for NGOs on April 16. The event was on Compliance for NGOs. The stress was that compliance was not just putting a tick mark against a set of rules to be followed. The spirit of compliance was discussed in detail, by expert panelists for various topics like Finance, HR, Governance, and more. An interesting and different session was the one where panelists were from the Corporate world and were involved with CSR activities. It was wonderful hearing them stress that several corporates took CSR very seriously and they looked for good NGOs to work with. More importantly, they encouraged NGOs to make realistic budgets for salaries of good professionals, for capacity building within their organizations - and such related areas, which so far seemed to always take a lower priority. Overall a day wonderfully spent - lots of great interactions, learning and a wonderful musical event by students of the National Association for the Blind.