Helping medical students become better doctors

In February this year, I had sent out a report - "Emerging from the occasional tough time". I had mentioned about our losing a Trustee in January this year and the need to find one more. 

While we badly miss Anand our departed Trustee, I am privileged to share with you, that we have three new Trustees join the QMed board. The first to say yes to our request to be a Trustee was Usha Sunil. Usha is a librarian by training and has worked in three libraries - a University library, a health research library and the American Centre library, which is a public library. She also worked as an Economic Specialist for the US Embassy in India.

The second person to give his assent was Dr Sandeep Bavdekar. Sandeep is a Pediatrician by training and has been a medical teacher for over three decades. He has also been a faculty member in several research methodology workshops. He often expressed admiration QMed's special area of work. When I asked him if he would consider joining our board, he responded - "It will be my privilege". I was really touched! Sometimes hearing a statement like this proves to be a strong reinforcement of our efforts. 

The third was Anujaa Navaratnaa. She and I have trained together and have been friends for long. I recently asked her if she would give me a few hours of brainstorming time. She was happy to say yes. At the end of the session, I just happened to ask her "Would you consider joining our board" and she immediately gave her consent. Anujaa is also a librarian by training, and has worked first in a Medical College library and then in a corporate library for two decades. During this time she took an additional degree in Human Resources and handled that portfolio too. She is very happy at the prospect of helping QMed in several areas. 

Our existing Trustees are Dr Bhavin Jankharia - a Radiologist and Radiology educator, and P Sriganesh who is a Chartered Accountant Company Secretary. Both have served our board for nearly 12 years. 

Our new board met in the month of May to get to know each other. Everyone shared ideas and made plans of what they could help QMed with. We are looking forward to some productive months!  (Bhavin is missing in the picture as he had to leave a little early)

If you have at any time been part of a Board in any Charity, or even offered specialized volunteering, do share ideas on what we could ask our board to help with. They would all be happy to get more ideas. Do write to us at info@qmed.ngo

Dr Rittu had attended our workshop in the year 2014, when she was doing her Residency. She recently wrote to me and said that she would love to have our workshop in the hospital she is currently employed in. I was of course ready! She had the full and enthusiastic support of the Head of her Department. And so, the workshop was organized by the Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Breach Candy Hospital Trust. It was supported by the Breach Candy Medical Research Center.

The workshop on the 19th of May (a Sunday!) and it was a great success.

While chatting with Dr Rittu and the department members - a group that worked so hard to get the event going, I learned that they had not only reached out to people in their hospital, but also spread the word to people in other institutions. They also mentioned how it was challenging to get people to enrol - the reasons varying from "Why do we need to learn this", "Why do we need to pay so much" and "It is a Sunday". 

But, the group stuck to their plans. They told people that they needed to pay to learn something very useful in their profession. They did all they could to tell them why this course was important. And that a Sunday was a great option, simply because the regular work demands would not interrupt the learning! 

What was also wonderful was that there were several surgeons who participated. In fact one surgeon not only enrolled himself, but made sure that his entire team did! I learned that they were very serious about research and publications. 

This was the first time QMed conducted a workshop in this hospital (which is not attached to a medical school) and we definitely hope that we can do more events here. 

Thank you Dr Aruna, Dr Rittu and team!  When someone who has attended our workshop makes such an effort to organize one, and had the full support from her department, we feel that our efforts are very meaningful.