Can you suggest ideas for ICMR research (STS) in dermatology? For ICMR-STS, you have to depend on a guide from your medical school. So, it would largely be guided by her/his experience […]
Dermatology Topics for ICMR-STS
Research Mentorship for MBBS/MD Students in India: The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Program
There are very limited opportunities for Indian medical students and even residency trainees, to engage in high quality mentorship program focusing on development of research skills. The newly launched DIPS program is […]
Ronald Fisher and Some Thoughts on the p-Value
One of the most discussed, debated and controversial issues in medical research is the p-value. I came across Ronald Fisher’s take on this matter in his work, Statistical Methods for the Research […]
#beggaraccess: Nature, Dark Social, Free to View and the Open Access Debate
Nature has recently opened up its vast treasure trove to all those who know someone with access to them. Here I wonder at the irony of the fact that they are raising more barriers in the name of access!
ICMR Opens STS-2015 Applications: Research Opportunity for Undergraduate Medical Students in India
The Indian Council of Medical Research has a run a very prestigious and increasingly sought after summer research programme for MBBS students in India, called the Short Term Studentship (STS) Program since […]
Thoughts on h-index (and Google Scholar Metrics 2014)
The 2014 Google Scholar Metrics have been released a week or so now. The list for the top twenty journals in Health and Medicine are: [drumroll] Now, one thing that needs to […]
The Man with a million hits: John Ioanndis
If you are not aware of Prof. John Ioannidis and his work, well, you must have been living buried under the proverbial rock (also known as AIPG/AIIMS papers). He is what people […]
JIMA: Largest Medical Journal in Print Closes Shop
The Journal of the Indian Medical Association seems to have ceased publication in March, according to this newspaper article, which caught my attention recently. There was some conflict leading to the March […]
The Parable of the Farmers Plagued by Rats: AKA Publications in Advancing Medical Careers
There was a small island kingdom, inhabited by a peaceful race of people who prospered through the advances they had made in agriculture. One day, they were visited by a shipful of […]
Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide: The Dark Knight Falls
From Aaron’s last blog post: Thus Master Wayne is left without solutions. Out of options, it’s no wonder the series ends with his staged suicide. A year younger to me, and yet, […]
Literature Search Workshop at UCMS: Extra-Curricular Academics at the MEU
The Medical Education Unit at the University College of Medical Sciences, where I am now doing my residency, is a small, but super-active group of people, and they presented today a workshop […]
Protocol Writing Workshop 2012 and Falling in Love… with UCMS!
As residents, one of the most important things that we have to do is complete a dissertation, or thesis in course of our training. This is one of the credits we need […]
Charles Beevor: The Sign of a “Bloody” Jerk
Forgive the hyperbolic title. Do not take offense and read on before hating on me. Please note the post script for added justification for this inflammatory title, if you so feel. Thanks. […]
OAW 2011: So You Hit A Paywall?
This is in celebration of the Open Access Week, which is celebrated all across the globe between October 24 – 30 every year. This year, since I am no longer in medical […]
What Flies in KVPY: A Sample Project
I have been getting a deluge of requests to post some examples of the type of projects that have been selected. While it is a bit of a chore to track down […]
House MD 8×02: Transplant
As big a fan of the House MD show I am, let me start off with the disclaimer that I consider this to be one of the worst ever episodes of House […]
Medical Student Research: The First Year Quandary
The problem with the Indian Medical Curriculum is that it is too intense, as it should be, no complaints there, but it offers no leeway to people who want to test out […]
National Conference on Students’ Medical Research
The Community Medicine department of Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram is organizing the 5th National Conference on Students’ Medical Research. The theme for this year is: Translational Medicine. Their website has more details. Here […]
Researching: A Foundation Workshop
Click pic to go to registration site. Undergraduate Medical Education in India sorely lacks any initiation into research knowledge. While I agree this MBBS training is supposed to equip people with clinical […]
KVPY: 5 Reasons To Apply
Well, this might seem like a stupid question to ask, but yesterday a medical student contacted me and posed before me several important queries as to the merits of busting one’s… erm, […]
Are patients really “worse off” with older docs?
In what appears to be a largely counter intuitive result, research by the American Journal of Medicine has unearthed that patients end up faring worse when treated by older doctors or more […]
Aaron Swartz and the Open Access Civil Disobedience
Aaron Swartz has been formally charged with a set of violations based on his hacking the MIT mainframe in order to get into JSTOR’s archives and downloading a large segment of JSTOR’s […]
Aaron Swartz: The Robbing Hood of Open Access?
Let me make it clear at the very outset that I am aware that AS is being indicted for hacking by the federal government on charges of “wire fraud, computer fraud”, etc […]
Workshop on Mesenchymal Stem Cells
Manipal University has been one of the leaders in bringing research to Indian Medical Students, so it was no surprise that they were initiating a novel workshop on Mesenchymal Stem Cell with […]
The 20% Time Rule
For understanding the purport of the rant that is about to follow, you need to take a look at this 20-odd minute long TED talk by Google Gods Sergey Brin and Larry […]
Knowledge Compression and the Beauty of Data
I stumbled onto this fantastic Ted Talk given by “data detective” David McCandless via a Tweet on the @BMJ_latest account: Editorial brainstorm today with "data detective" David McCandless http://fb.me/Di4njr4o — The BMJ […]
Get That Heroin Rush, Safely
Clinical observations and lesion based studies have long shown that the brain is an important adjunct for sexual functions. Although the role of the brain in ejaculation and orgasmic sensations is not […]
Buck-teria!
First up, a disclaimer. I know one of the researchers who conducted this short study personally and professionally. I admire their work and what they have done to further the cause of […]
Sex and the Senile
Geriatric sexuality is a very sparsely explored domain in the medical arena. With the developing world getting top heavy on the age pyramid, this has become a rather timely question to ask. […]
KVPY: 10 Tips to Succeed!
So it seems like I am on a reblogging roll today! This time I resurrect another one of my favorite and popular post from my long dead old blog pointing out the […]
