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!
Jul 21, 2025: Another workshop and different Nostalgia!
Date: Monday July 21, 2025
Category: Program Update
Keywords: Literature searching, Program story, QMedCourses
On the 15th of July, I was invited to give a talk at the SNDT Women’s University. The occasion was a one day workshop for faculty from different departments – (mainly Home Science). And it was on Writing and publishing.
I had to speak on the topic “Literature Review” – which is an important part of any research paper. I divided my talk into two areas – Literature Searching and the Literature Review components. I stressed – that it would be easier for them to learn the latter anywhere, but the former – is barely taught. And when I finished my talk – they agreed! They were delighted that I had put in enough emphasis on searching!
Then came the fun part. Out of four faculty for the day, one was from the host institution and three of us were invited speakers. As the three of us introduced ourselves to each other and chatted, we discovered that all of us had done our first degrees from the same college (Women’s Christian College) – in the city of Chennai! We could not stop marvelling at the coincidence.
We had all studied there at different times of course. When we later shared our picture in the college alumni group – we could not help feeling that we were all special!
Reminiscing further I feel that we had all been grounded well even in our first BSc degree and that’s what made us do well later in life too.
We went back home with a great feeling of having made our contributions for the day!
-Vasumathi Sriganesh
Jun 30, 2025: A Workshop and some Nostalgia!
Date: Monday June 30, 2025
Category: Health Sector story
Keywords: Literature searching, Peer review
End of June, I was invited to deliver a lecture on “Selection of studies” for doing a systematic review. This was at a three day workshop on systematic reviews at ACTREC – which is a centre of the well known Tata Memorial Hospital in my city. A friend of mine – Satish is the librarian there and he was delivering the lecture on the topic I normally take – which is – Literature searching. I enjoyed this change. More so because about ten years ago I had actually done the screening of studies for a major review.
At that time I was coached by another expert and remembered many steps. I planned my talk. Oh yes – this time I took the help of AI, and it made my job faster. But – I did tweak it a lot and proudly claim it IS “My talk”. I believe in doing it by myself, with help from AI.
After my talk there was a practical session where Satish, another librarian friend Medha, my colleague Dipti and I – all helped coordinate a literature searching demo cum practical.
The fun part of the day, was a fond memory – Medha, Satish and I had all started our careers in librarianship – not in a medical library, but in the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism. We recalled our respective days out there fondly, and sent a picture of the three of us, to another long time (now retired) librarian of the IIG – telling her – “We wish you were with us now for this picture!”
Some events are livened up thus!
– Vasumathi Sriganesh –
Jun 17, 2025: QMed Completes Five Years of Launching QMedCourses
QMedCourses Turns 5 – Thanks to Your Support, We’ve Created Impact That Matters!
On June 14, 2020, right in the heart of the pandemic, we launched our ELearning platform –www.qmedcourses.in– built entirely through a “work-from-home” effort.
Today, we are proud to share that in just five years:
- We have had around 45 institutions – small to large and a total of around 10,000 individuals register with us.
- Our work was cited in the Journal of the Association of Physicians of India (JAPI) – PMID: 39563131
- Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College made it mandatory for PG theses to include a documented search strategy.
- The Lancet Citizens’ Commission engaged us to coach researchers for guidance with search strategies for scoping reviews.
- Institutions like SMIMS (Sikkim) and GIMSR (Visakhapatnam) ensured that the majority of their students and faculty completed our courses and submitted certificates.
- And six undergraduate students, after learning from QMedCourses, won a prize at a Rheumatology Conference for their systematic review poster!
This is just the beginning. We believe that the National Medical Commission (NMC) should mandate structured training in literature searching and referencing in every medical institution.
Do you agree? We invite you to help us take this to the NMC and beyond
We’d love to hear from you. Please write to us at info@qmed.ngo
Thank you for being part of our journey. You’ve helped us plant the seeds—together, let’s grow a nationwide movement.
May 31, 2025: Non-profits: What Founders Go Through
I recently came across a great post on LinkedIn by Ajit Sivaram – co-founder of U&I Trust. In this post he described what it is like to be a Founder of a not for profit organization in India. In approximately a dozen paras that he wrote, every line resonated with what I feel today.
People ask me why QMed is a not for profit. Next time I am asked this question, I am going to use Ajit’s answer:
“My work isn’t just charity. It’s necessary. It’s professional. It’s the hard, unglamorous labor of building the India we keep saying we want.” Something that no one else works on. But my terrific team and I do (for QMed’s mission).
Correct Literature searching and correct referencing, using a reference manager are two skills that every health professional MUST learn. Whether they do research or not. BUT, somehow this has not sunk in. Neither the National Medical Commission nor the Directors, Deans, Principals or any Heads have yet felt this is a MUST. Many have felt it is something “nice to know” or “useful”. But not yet critical and compulsory.
And that is what we are trying to change.
People also ask me – “Why can’t your target audience pay?”
My answer – “Till they understand the importance, or till it is made mandatory, they choose not to.
We are offering to make this change with an affordable solution – a platform – www.qmedcourses.in – where people can learn at their own pace and also interact with us. Or even invite us to their institution to conduct workshops.
The day when the NMC and related boards take this seriously enough – good things will happen:
- Students will see additional reading and research in a new light
- Research standards will improve
- Medical writing standards will improve
- We will generate good quality publications and not the large quantity that is happening today – where quality is not certain
- We will generate Indian evidence
- And QMed can prove that low cost solutions CAN make a big difference!
Here is a link to Ajit Sivaram’s excellent post. Highly recommended reading!
By Vasumathi Sriganesh