Thursday, May 23, 2013

What is desirable in any article being submitted to the International Journal of User Driven Healthcare?

For articles submitted to the International Journal of User Driven Healthcare http://www.igi-global.com/journal/international-journal-user-driven-healthcare/41022 we look forward to write ups that take the topic of the research as the backdrop, and provide summary overviews of the topic's background and the project's findings, but centre stage is given to unpacking the research project's narrative, from question formation, research design through to data gathering, fieldwork,analysis and research outputs. Particular attention may be paid to any methodological problems or points of interest generated in the carrying out of the study and how these were dealt with or raised questions of research practice.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

POCET UDHC and the taste of blue mangoes( http://care.udhc.co.in as a point of care engagement toolkit POCET)?

‘Engagement’ is a generic, inclusive term to describe the broad range of interactions between people. It can include a variety of approaches, such as one-way communication or information delivery, consultation, involvement and collaboration in decision-making, and empowered action in informal groups or formal partnerships. http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/105823/Book_1_-_An_Introduction_to_Engagement.pdf

The UDHC community of practice is a blended learning ecosystem that merges offline point of care engagements between health professional and patient stakeholders along with online user-driven point of care engagement through patient and health-professional/social worker 'user' inputs that are further processed online through research-evidence searching and matching to effect immediate patient outcomes posted back as outputs in http://care.udhc.co.in and 'tabula-rasa.' Unanswered questions generated in this activity remain as seeds for further primary research.

Slightly provocatively for the 'population based researchers' in our community UDHC is all about 'tasting the mangoes rather than counting the mango trees' (' ' is currently an un-google-able Indian proverb). UDHC learners/researchers are mostly secondary researchers who are uniquely privileged 'birds'  perched on the branches of these patient 'mango trees' and have easy access to tasting and sharing the mangoes and dropping its seeds here and there for 'population based researchers' to pick up, plant on the ground and keep count.

(More provocatively) Einstein too was one such bird who made a life out of creating mathematical models mostly from the fruits of the labors of primary researchers. He never did a single experiment himself (other than his thought experiments) but simply generated ideas good enough to drive more and more primary researchers (worker ants) who could give up their lives to be driven by this 'Albatross'(bird).

Would medical students of this day and age wish to be 'Einsteins' and share their 'problem solving abilities' for immediate patient benefits and taste and share the mangoes (outcomes) or like to remain worker ants? More likely they may prefer to do both? Would 'population based researchers' like to rethink their current positions and get nearer to patients?