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!
April 2, 2024: Stakeholder Story – Dr Jawahar Panjwani – help for a lecture he was deliveringApril 2, 2024:
At QMed we marvel at so many things that are unique about us. One aspect is that very often the people who experience the benefits of our work, give us a donation to support our work.
One such person is Dr Jawahar Panjwani – an Orthopedic Surgeon. Some years ago he had attended our workshop. But there is that much a practising surgeon can retain from a workshop and actually apply. The best learning they get is – they know what they can and cannot expect and they know how to communicate their needs, to information specialists like us.
Recently Dr Panjwani called and requested:
“I have to talk on diagnosing infections in hip Arthroplasty. The target audience is Maharashtra Orthopaedic Association surgeons. Do you think you could help me with some references specially targeting newer infection markers (blood) and protocols for diagnosis?”
If you read this carefully – he told us all that we needed. The topic. The purpose for his search. The target audience. The topic’s nuances. He further mentioned that there were others talking on other aspects, and he specifically needed only the above.
Very often people who have not gone through our programs, do not give us such specifics, let alone the reason for their wanting a search done. Every bit matters when one does a literature search. We can learn lots of techniques (QMed indeed teaches plenty of them) – but one needs to know how to apply them for different purposes and contexts.
It took me very little time to work on this and we sent him around 50 results. In two days he responded – “The references are great” and sent us a donation for the same!
We really appreciate Dr Panjwani – not just for his donation (though we are indeed grateful for it). We think it is great that that he made the effort to ask for professional help, and that he read up a number of very relevant articles in order to cover the best of the latest, in his talk. And of course – we are really happy to have contributed to this. Do listen to this short video clip by Dr. Panjwani
March 15, 2024: Founder Story – Spreading QMed’s Mission – Travel Challenges
Date: Friday March 15, 2024
Category: Founder Story
Keywords: Human Experience, QMedCourses, Train Travel
Sharing a story from our Founder – the human experiences of her train travels, as she spreads QMed’s mission
When I conduct workshops in cities, most often I fly. We read a lot about flying woes these days – delayed flights and more. With train journeys, for me they are a wee bit more challenging as I get on in years. But my love for delivering lectures and conducting workshops all over India, makes me decide to accept most of these challenges!
I am sharing the “good aspects” that I recently encountered, in the midst of challenges.
In 2023, I had done a workshop in Anand (Gujarat), and later a lecture in Dhule (Maharashtra). After the workshop at Anand, during my return journey, there was a confusion about where my train coach would appear. I kept getting different inputs from the railway website and from people on the platform.
Finally, I approached a room with policemen and asked them. One cop came out and said – “Please wait for a bit and I will revert”. In a short while he came out and escorted me to almost the other end of the platform. Not just that, he carried my laptop bag and my small suitcase, seeing that I had some difficulty in walking. He ensured that I had a comfortable seat on the platform and also told me where exactly my coach would come. He had to leave. He gave me his mobile number and said “If you have any problem, please call me”!
Most often we only read about complaints regarding officials and cops. This was a wonderful human story that I felt I must share.
Similarly, on my return trip from Dhule, my train was delayed by a full three hours. Which meant that instead of a (late enough) 10.30 PM, I had to wait till 1.30 AM to board the train – in a small town station. I reached the platform at 11.30 AM (knowing that the train would be late). The Professor who invited me, sent his driver to drop me at the station. This driver came with me to the platform, spoke with some railway personnel, found my coach position and settled me there. And the railway personnel also told me that he would be around (on night duty) and would assist me if I needed.
He kept his word and checked twice more with the control room and made sure that my coach would be at the point where I was waiting.
I’d like to stress that in these stations, the train stops for barely two minutes and for people like me it is important that I do not have to run a distance to reach my coach. Officials like these make it so good for senior citizens.
In addition – they help us carry out QMed’s mission. A silent thank you to them!
QMed has miles to go before our teaching reaches all health sciences institutions – by inclusion in the curriculum. All of us at QMed have pledged that we will not rest till we achieve this mission. All of us constantly move out of our comfort zones. I did my share recently by accepting the challenges of unearthly travel times and some unpredictable instances. I love what I do.
March 1, 2024: Program Update – Single Sign On for our ELearning site for InstitutionsMarch 1, 2024:
At QMed, we continuously explore how we can make things better with our ELearning courses – www.qmedcourses.in
One of the things we explored was the option of a Single Sign On, also known SSO. Several libraries have an SSO tool to allow their students and faculty to access various library resources they subscribe to. This helps in many ways
- Library users – do not need to remember several different user ids and passwords
- The resource providers – do not need to physically enroll each person. They also need not worry about ineligible users having access – when students or employees leave the organization
- The institution and the library feel good about making things easy for their users.
QMed first provided access using the SSO – to Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. The librarian Ms Indira and the vendors of the SSO – (Knimbus) coordinated with us and helped us make this happen
The next two institutions were AIIMS Bhopal and AIIMS Bathinda – through their SSO – MyLoft. Again the vendors were very helpful.
We hope to do this in more institutions that have an SSO platform and we hope that those who do not have one, will get one soon!
February 15, 2024: Founder Story – Interaction with Government Agencies
The year – 1996. I was the librarian of HELP – Health Education Library for People. Many in or from India may remember that Internet access became available to the public from August 1995. It was Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) that was the only Internet Service Provider then. (VSNL was a Government of India undertaking). Understandably there was a large waiting list for connections.
Our library got its connection sometime in 1996, with what was then called the “Shell” account, (Unix based). A Shell account got us to see a black screen with white characters. No images, graphics, colours. This account cost us Rs 5000/- for 500 hours of usage. (If we needed a Browser based graphics account it would cost Rs 15,000/- for 500 hours!)
I got familiar with its use and soon after we had access to the Medline database too. PubMed was not yet launched then! The Medline access was available at a reasonable cost. Our library soon also became a centre through which we could offer Medline passwords to doctors or health professionals at a reasonable fee. All this happened thanks to the efforts of the Founder of HELP – Dr Malpani
Coming back to the VSNL – I started going there often for meetings that were held, to promote the usage of the Internet. I got to know Mr Syngal – then CMD of VSNL, and Mr A Kumar, then Director Operations, pretty well. When I was due to go to Chennai for a wedding, I wrote an email to both of them asking if the Chennai VSNL office could arrange to invite doctors for a presentation that I would make, on Medline. I got an immediate yes and it was done in no time. My notice was short and it was a week day, so there were just a few doctors, but they were delighted with the presentation. Two doctors immediately took the Medline access too.
Later, when our library’s Internet access expired, I made a visit to the VSNL Office and requested for a waiver or a discount as we were a public library offering health information services. That too was granted to us very soon.
On both occasions I was pleasantly surprised by very quick positive responses. Government offices have been good on so many occasions! Yes – we are aware of red tapism and more, but it is good to remember these stories too. Such stories help me stay optimistic today.
A post script – In 2020, my husband and I got a copy of Mr Syngal’s book – “Telecom Man: Leading From the Front in India’s Digital Revolution” After reading it, I wrote him an email, sharing all these incidents and also telling him how the Internet access led me to eventually start a Trust like QMed. He responded with a lovely “Thank you and best wishes”. We were supposed to meet at his book launch in March, but the pandemic and lock down followed. Sadly Mr Syngal expired a few months later and my wish to meet him did not happen. However he has left the optimistic streak in me!