Developing a Supercourse Help Desk for India
Mita Lovalekar1, Harish K. Pemde2,
Babu L. Verma3
1Department of Sports Medicine and Nutrition,
University of Pittsburgh;
2Lady Hardinge Medical College, Kalawati Saran
Children's Hospital, New
Delhi, India; 3Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical
College & Hospital,
Jhansi, India
Keywords: Help desk, Supercourse
Editorial
Despite a vast majority of the world’s population residing in
developing countries like India, only a small fraction of the total
number of global scientific publications come from these countries.
This is an unhappy situation, undesirable because of several reasons.
In order to reduce the double impact of infectious and non-communicable
diseases that are common in India, health care of the country needs to
be based on evidence generated from research studies. Research on
diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, dengue and their relationship
with malnutrition and some other locally prevalent factors, can only be
conducted locally. Research capacity to investigate such endemic
diseases in India is limited due to lack of adequate access of growing
professionals to training in research methods, biostatistics,
epidemiological methods, logical interpretation of public health
concepts and also, medical research literature in journals. It is a
well-known fact that developing countries have relatively fewer
research articles submitted for publications to journals, and also,
have a lower acceptance rate. Whether enhancing professionals’
knowledge in research methods and biostatistics in developing countries
like India, will produce increased research opportunities in terms of
scientific contributions, is to be investigated and published. Such
research can incorporate local cultural practices that are unique to
the country.
In addition to these theoretical reasons for increasing research output
in India, there is also an important practical reason. A commonly cited
mantra in academia is publish or perish. Similar to faculty in
developed countries, medical teachers in India are under pressure to
publish regularly. Guidelines of the Medical Council of India (MCI) – a
Government autonomous agency, responsible for regulation, control and
monitoring standard of medical education in the country, issued in
1998, listed minimum qualifications for teachers in medical
institutions in the country.1 Thus, as per the
MCI, for almost all
teaching specialties, minimum of 4 research publications, indexed in
Index Medicus/recognized national journals, is desirable for promotion
to the post of reader/associate professor. In addition, for promotion
to the post of Professor in most teaching specialties, one publication
in an international journal is desirable. Furthermore, MCI has made it
mandatory for post graduate students to publish (sent for publication)
at least one research paper before they will be eligible to appear in
their final examination. These steps of MCI have increased pressure on
teaching faculty to publish.
Despite pressure to publish more journal articles, the publication
output from India is much lower than expected (Figure 1). In fact,
during recent years, there has been an increase in productivity in
India, as compared to some other South Asian countries (Figure 1).
However, there is still a wide scope for further improvement. In spite
of being the second most populous country in the world, India is not
among the top countries in the world in terms of research productivity.
India, undoubtedly, has the potential to become a research giant in
public health.
Figure 1: Published documents, selected countries, 1996-2012.9
A recent article published in the International Journal of Epidemiology
reviewed status of epidemiology in the WHO South-East Asia Region
(SEAR).2 The authors searched for peer-reviewed
epidemiology
publications in PubMed. Less than 5% of these articles were from SEAR,
with 54.9% of the SEAR articles being only from India. The authors
accepted that the number of publications might have been
under-estimated by their search criteria. Further, the paper also
describes a lack of adequate epidemiological and public health
education, training and research in this region, though the situation
is gradually improving.2 Pertinent to the issue
of lack of training in
epidemiology, a study on the quality of reporting statistics in two
Indian pharmacology journals revealed that inappropriate descriptive
statistics were used in 78.1% of the articles, and information about
checking assumptions was missing in many articles, among other issues.3
A recent review report (2012) in the Indian Journal of Public Health on
biostatistics education in India,4 found that
presently 19 institutions
offer biostatistics education of different forms in the country. Though
this number has gradually progressed in recent years, such institutions
are geographically unevenly distributed – mostly existent in the
Southern part of the country. Authors noted that in health research,
biostatistics has not been given proper importance in the country. Many
times, it does happen that a group of researchers start a study without
including a biostatistician on board and involve them only at a late
stage. By giving a citation, authors have pointed out that amongst
medical colleges in India, biostatistics is considered to be one of
those subjects which students dislike the most. It is important to look
for the reasons as to why motivation for learning biostatistics by
medical students has been so low in the country. This could be one of
the reasons for poor biostatistical quality of medical papers from
India, at times. The paper also speaks of need for capacity building
efforts in the country, especially in the area of research methods and
biostatistics. Authors have also emphasized the need for availability
of trained professionals in biostatistics to help health researchers
and clinicians, and for biostatistical training including support of
research methods for increasing research productivity in the country.
The Supercourse is an Open Source lecture library developed at the
University of Pittsburgh Web server, and all Supercourse lectures are
available without charge to any one.5,6 The
Supercourse team has
developed the Indian Supercourse Network as a part of the main
Supercourse.7 The Indian Supercourse Network is
a collection of
lectures in epidemiology, public health and community medicine, on
topics of particular interest to teachers and students in India.
Currently, we have 6,700 collaborators in India, who are physicians,
public health professionals, academicians and researchers. They have
contributed more than 200 lectures. The Indian Supercourse allows a
2-way exchange of public health information from India to the rest of
the world, and then back to India.
The question is - how can publications in public health by authors from
India be increased? The solution lies in enhancing research knowledge
and skills of Indian researchers along with consistent guidance to
improve research capabilities. A research methods “Supercourse Help
Desk” will provide the platform, needed for such support to researchers
in India. The Supercourse Help Desk was launched in June 2013.8
We have
a team of over 250 research methods experts who are ready to answer
research methods and biostatistics questions. The Indian Supercourse
Help Desk will connect researchers in India with research experts
around the world. After a question is submitted on the Help Desk
Website, the client is directed to research methods lectures and
bio-statistical lectures from the Supercourse and also from other
sources. After examining the background material, if the client still
needs help, questions will be presented to the research methods
experts. Our Help Desk is thus, designed not only to answer specific
Help Desk questions, but also to build capacity and teach basic
research skills. The Supercourse is uniquely poised to launch a
research methods Help Desk for India due to the extensive network of
Indian Supercourse faculty and local “buy in” for the Supercourse from
India. Professional medical associations can play a critical role in
extending these resources to their members. Such steps are likely to
improve patient care, based on locally produced health research based
evidences.
References
1. Minimum Qualifications for Teachers in Medical Institutions
Regulations, 1998. Available from
http://www.mciindia.org/RulesandRegulations/TeachersEligibilityQualifications1998.
aspx.
2. Dhillon PK, Jeemon P, Arora NK, Mathur P, Maskey M, Sukirna RD,
Prabhakaran D. Status of epidemiology in the WHO South-East Asia
Region: Burden of disease, determinants of health and epidemiological
research workforce and training capacity. Int. J Epidemiol. 2012;
41(3): 847-60.
3. Jaykaran, Yadav P. Quality of reporting statistics in two Indian
Pharmacology journals. J Pharmacol Pharmacother. 2011; 2(2): 85-9.
4. Singh R, Zodpey SP, Sharma K, Bangdiwala SI, Ugade S. Landscaping
biostatistics education in India. Indian J Public Health. 2012; 56(4):
273-80.
5. Global Health Network Supercourse. Available from
www.pitt.edu/~super1.
6. Linkov F, Omenn GS, Serageldin I, Cerf V, Lovalekar M, LaPorte R.
Multilayer and multimetric quality control: the Supercourse. J Cancer
Educ. 2010; 25(4): 478-83.
7. Lovalekar MT, Linkov F, Mathur SC, Bhave SY. Indian Supercourse in
Epidemiology. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2010; 30(4): 260.
8. Supercourse and Library of Alexandria Help Desk (Beta version).
Available from
http://ssc.bibalex.org/staging/helpdesk/introduction.jsf.
9. SCImago. (2007). SJR — SCImago Journal & Country Rank.
Available from http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php. Accessed
August 29, 2013.