Donor Connect: Our fortnightly updates to donors
Dear Donors - In case you have missed any of our mailers, you could check this page and catch up. And if you are someone who has stumbled upon this page for the first time, we invite you to join us in our journey. Give us a donation to sustain our work. Contribute your time/ expertise. Connect us with people who matter - in the National Medical Commission / ICMR or any of the Councils. Help us reach medical / nursing / dental / pharmacy and other colleges. In short - Become a part of the history we are creating! We welcome you!
Mar 31, 2025: QMed completes utilization of its first Grant
March has been a busy month with two workshops and three lectures. We finished the last two workshops with the first ever grant money we received from Pfizer in 2023. These two were at the Tata Memorial Hospital and the Seth GSMC & KEM Hospital. A slightly disappointing part was that at both venues, while about 35 registered, we had far less that actually attended. In medical institutions sometimes other emergencies make this happen and it was sad that it happened in both these institutions.
Of course those who came, made it up with 100% enthusiastic participation and encouraged others who missed, to learn from our ELearning courses.
We also had two lectures at the YMT Ayurvedic college and one webinar for the ML Dhawale Memorial Homeopathic College. I must confess that I miss the interactions that happen in live events, when I speak over a webinar session. But for institutions, it is sometimes more effective to plan for webinars rather than live events.
We are at the end of another Financial year of not having made ends meet. But we strive on! And keep hoping that people WILL support us financially to take things ahead. Importantly the bodies like the NMC, the DCI and more will make our courses mandatory. Then with every institution subscribing, we will have the finances to put in much more than we are able to now and make a huge change in the country!
Mar 04, 2025: A workshop where it matters. Where research is for rural public health
After 12 long years, Vasumathi Sriganesh, our CEO visited SEARCH, Gadchiroli – this time to conduct a one day workshop on PubMed & Zotero. Her earlier visit in 2012, was to explore SEARCH, spend time there, and understand if QMed could help them in any way. She spent a full week and had written some blog posts on her personal blog.
This time the workshop was on the 27th of February. She reached there on the 26th and left on the 28th morning. On the 27th, around 15 people attended the workshop. The audience had a mix of young doctors, public health researchers and a Statistician, Mr Mahesh who has been with SEARCH for years. Vasumathi had met him last time too and was impressed with all his committed work!
Dr Abhay Bang himself was present to inaugurate the event. He exchanged a few words with Vasumathi and introduced her to the audience, after the brief lamp lighting ceremony. He then requested all participants to make the best use of the workshop.
The group was extremely committed. They seemed to be on the edge of their chairs all the time – waiting to absorb every input. They participated a 100% – answering questions, solving problems that were set, and more. Ms Roshni Babu was the coordinator for this workshop and did all that she could to make the trip comfortable and memorable. At the end of the workshop – she told the others the most important thing. She said “we are aiming to increase our publications – so that we share our research findings across”! If this was an organization that had brought down infant mortality by a whopping 72% – after their founders moved in there, they definitely did need to share how they worked, how they carried out public health research, and more!
At the end of the day, Vasumathi got to meet Drs Abhay and Rani Bang once again, after the daily prayer meeting. Dr Rani told that she remembered Vasumathi’s last visit very well. They had a brief chat and was told that she was welcome to visit more often.
SEARCH is really a place for a quiet “getaway” from cities and stresses. You only hear birds out there! For Vasumathi it was the perfect combination of a lovely break plus doing what I love doing!
Feb 20,2025: One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
The One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative by the Govt of India has created a buzz amongst the academic community in India. This initiative is geared towards enhancing research in all fields. This is about providing access to over 13000 journals from 30 reputed publishers, to academic institutions in India.
Launched in Jan 2025, it currently is for government supported institutions. In the coming years, access will be provided to a bigger network of institutions. All details are available in the website – https://www.onos.gov.in/
Recently our CEO, Vasumathi Sriganesh was invited to be a panelist on this topic at an event held in the Dr DY Patil University, in Navi Mumbai. The librarian from their “Centre of Excellence”, Dr Padma planned a great session. She organized a panel discussion between four librarians, and also had invited another senior librarian Dr Satish as a keynote speaker on the topic.
She asked relevant questions to each librarian. What Vasumathi shared was
1. Access alone does not guarantee the right use. Along with access, users need to be provided with good training to find and use the right articles from this huge volume of literature
2. One also need to have efforts where the collection needs to be integrated with databases like PubMed. When one searches PubMed – he/she should get a filter that allows for locating articles that are available free through the ONOS platform
3. Users need to be trained to use this filter
Every panelist and the keynote speaker Dr Satish, provided similar useful inputs. At the end, Dr Padma encouraged all attendees to explore the site thoroughly, keep learning more and keep teaching their users continuously.
For me – it was a day well spent, said Vasumathi
But it also made her reminisce. Years ago, our country had access to a very useful resource – “The Cochrane Library” – a database of evidence in medicine. This resource was open to just anyone in India. Sadly after a few years, this was quietly withdrawn. And during the few years, at every lecture that she delivered – when she asked “How many of you have heard of the Cochrane Library” – very few hands would go up.
The effort towards promotion and training was negligible. The Government spent money to provide access, but this lacuna led to low usage and a quiet withdrawal. During the discussion, she stressed the need for promotional awareness and training, using this example
She sincerely hopes that we will have a much larger effort towards promotion and training – with ONOS. From QMed’s side, we commit to spreading the word about the ONOS and exploring how best we can help people to exploit this resource.
Jan 21, 2025: A Ten year old girl understands QMed’s objectives
A couple of months ago, I traveled to Lucknow to attend a conference. During this time, I was collaborating on a project with a group of doctors. One of them, Dr. Sai, invited me to visit his home when he learned I would be in Lucknow. I gladly accepted and went over.
Dr. Sai and his wife, Dr. Namrata, were warm and welcoming. As we chatted, their ten-year-old daughter returned from her music classes. She was a bright and friendly child who quickly struck up a conversation with me. She shared stories about her school, music lessons, and an upcoming exam she was preparing for.
During our conversation, she noticed a badge I was wearing, pinned just below my shoulder. It read, “Ask me about Evidence-Based Practice and Research.” I had picked it up at a Medical Librarians’ conference in the USA, created by the Medical Library Association.
Curious, she asked me what it meant. I started by asking if she knew what the word “evidence” meant. She promptly replied, “proof.” I smiled and told her she was absolutely right. Then I explained:
“Your parents are doctors, and they prescribe medicines for their patients. But how do they know which medicines to prescribe? Researchers study these medicines by testing them on many patients and recording what works and what doesn’t. Other researchers then gather all these studies and analyze them together. This process helps us understand the ‘evidence’ for a particular treatment. And my job is to teach researchers how to find all the studies on a topic and make sure they don’t miss anything important.”
Without hesitation, she said, “That’s the most important part, isn’t it?”
Her quick understanding left me amazed. A ten-year-old grasped in moments, what many adults struggle to appreciate — that there are structured and precise methods for searching and synthesizing research.
This interaction reaffirmed why QMed’s mission is so important. At QMed, we ensure that every researcher and healthcare professional has the tools and training to find reliable evidence. Better research leads to better healthcare, and effective searching is at the heart of it all.
Your support has been crucial in making this possible. It enables us to teach and empower individuals to improve healthcare through evidence-based practices.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this story. Perhaps you’d like to share it with someone who might find it meaningful. And if you’re inspired to contribute further, your generosity will help us continue creating a ripple effect in the world of healthcare and research.
Thank you for being an integral part of this journey.