Helping medical students become better doctors

"This workshop should be conducted at all ICMR institutions" ...

declared a few senior scientists of the ICMR Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, Orissa. 

In July we were invited to conduct a special two day workshop at the ICMR RMRC, Bhubaneswar. We had twenty five participants - a mix of Students of a Masters Degree in Public Health, PhD scholars, medical doctors and other research personnel. The Director of the Institute also wanted to attend the two day workshop, but was called to the headquarters for something important. 

The program was customized for this audience. Apart from teaching Literature searching, PubMed and Mendeley, we also taught them the method of doing a sensitive, systematic search in both PubMed and the Cochrane Library, for finding studies to do a Systematic Review. 

What was very special about this workshop? 

We had tried for long to get to do a workshop for the ICMR, but it did not happen for various reasons. We wanted them to go through our workshop to sensitize them for the need for such skill building in the country, if we wanted great research outputs.

At the end of the two day session, senior scientists declared that every ICMR institute should organize our workshop for all their personnel! 

This comment was very important for us. It really brought home something we always suspected - that the skills we teach are much needed at the highest levels too. 

The Indian Council of Medical Research is the premier body for medical research in India. Headquartered in the country's capital city of New Delhi, it has twenty six institutions in various parts of the country.