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Friday, November 09, 2012

UCMS Delhi - Lecture and Workshop

I was invited to Delhi for two events early this month. The venue was the University College of Medical Sciences, Delhi. I delivered a lecture on Literature Searching at the Quarterly meeting of the Indian Association of Pathologists & Microbiologists, Delhi Chapter. There were about 50-60 members in the audience at the start and in a short while it shot up to a little more than 150! A large number were PGs and faculty from other colleges in Delhi too. It does feel good to have reached out to such a large number, even if they "took away" only the "tip of the tip of the icerberg" that I'd loved to have shared with them!


PGs of UCMS and more...after the event IAPM event    
The next day was an exciting one :). The Medical Education Unit had invited participation from PGs in the institution and later opened it to all interested. So we had a range - from 3rd Sem students to Professors! The nicest part was that they sat in mixed groups for group activities.We started at 9 am sharp and went on till 1.15 PM. 

I always enjoy every workshop I do. (Okay to be extremely honest - except for *some* of the industry sponsored ones... but let us leave that out from here).  But, there was something different here. There were UG students / Interns who knew some bits better than their seniors and were faster, but they did not have to be scared of being better. This is not always the scenario in an Indian medical college. Younger people could even tease the older people - yes faculty included and it was all part of the game. No one offended any one; every one helped the other.. and there was good learning. 

One young friend Pranab Chatterjee (First year PG) had attended my lecture about a year ago. At that time his feedback was "I just realized that I have been using PubMed the way a caveman used the hammer in the Paleolithic era". (I always loved this one and even used it in a poster I presented!) During the break I asked him "So how much of today was new learning"? And my dear friend says "Let me put it this way. Till this morning, I thought I knew all about PubMed". PC - more than your feedback, it is the way you give it to me that is so endearing! And to top it up, when you cover the workshop so well in your blog, that is like icing on the cake :)


With Pranab... QMed (and I) need you guys to promote our cause!
















Other stuff that made me feel great about this event was

a) Rajat Thawani - an intern who was assigned to arranging for "break-snacks" ensured that they spent just enough to keep people from feeling hungry. It is so different from the regular "focus on food" that often happens at CMEs

b) Dr Navjeevan Singh (my colleague calls him "one of the best friends of QMed") did a great job of telling people all about QMed before the event

c) Dr Satendra Singh Phalswal who knew a lot about PubMed and has done workshops at UCMS, earlier lent support. I wish I could spend more time with him working together!

d) There were three librarians attending the workshop!

e) Many Facebook friends' email ids became faces :)

Overall - a big thanks to every individual who attended - you were all great fun!

I cannot help mention my fabulous hosts Dr Navjeevan Singh and his wife Dr  Upreet Dhaliwal - both faculty members of UCMS who hosted me in their home. If I look like I've put on a couple of kilos in the pics here, it is thanks to their awesome hospitality and care :)

Oh - and on the travel bit... I just about made it to my return flight.. thanks to the Pre-Diwali shopping crowd as well as some other rally that caused miserable traffic jams. 
And - I was about 6 days too early to miss an excitement in the "To Delhi" flight. (Six days later - the same Indigo flight had a passenger who caused security problems). Aaah - thank God for small mercies!

UCMS - I hope I get more opportunities to come out there!

Group activity
Dr Upreet with two PGs


Dr Navjeevan Singh multitasking - supervision plus clicking pics!

With Dr Upreet and Dr Satendra

4 comments:

upreet said...

Dear Vasumathi, you made me fall in love with Mendeley! Cannot thank you enough for that. It is always immediately obvious, and we thank God for it, when the woman with the mike has a feeling for what she is teaching! Makes a much better impact on the listener. Kudos to you!

Vasumathi said...

Thanks all over again. (Yes - I can keep taking more of "em compliments", but I can say with full honesty that I am happy with the impact it makes)

Do let me know if you get stuck somewhere - we can do a brief session thru Skype

Dr Satendra Singh said...

It would be MY pleasure to work with you. From email communications to facebook chats to face-to-face side sessions at Kolkata to finally at UCMS, it's indeed a fascinating journey

Vasumathi said...

Let's make that simpler. We will work together :)
Yes - it has been a fascinating journey for me too!