Tuesday, September 6, 2011

MD/DNB/UG MBBS pediatric icmr project/ thesis topics: how to decide, what to decide?

lets be more practical .
for a 3 year MD course say in pediatrics, you need to have 2 years for study and at least 1 year around the topic ( though its supposed to be throughout course)
first 6 months: basic reading and topic submission to EC
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next 1 year project completion, then analysis/results/submission etc
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process: Please read rules of ECARP  or ethics comittee before u prepare draft.
1. decide a topic
2.check feasibility
3.check similar studies
4.understand what and why
5.prepare a protocol as per needs of local ethics committee or ECARP
6. protocol should have a title page, index page and drafts for each of the following headings: on separate page. The headings are title, introduction, rationale, aims and objectives, inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria, methodology study type and  flow chart,  Study process, statistical plan for analysable variables as per the type of study, past research or review of literature references, limitations of the study and a one page protocol summary, case record form, consent /assent forms (ICF) ,Patient information sheet (PIS), in different languages, Bibliography, appendix, special permissions if any and master chart format if prepared
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any delay in this will affect your exam reading/practice schedules.
difficult topics will require interventions follow up , more no of cases and may be finances so wont be easy for dissertations, though RCTs are best and easy to do, you need to select topics carefully, it should not only remain as a drug trial.
metaanalysis is not taken well by examiners as it doesnt involve direct patient contact.
Short term, easy topics, easy methods, easy but intellectual analysis: 
1. those who dont need an intervention like blood investigation or scan
2. doesnt involve lots of finances/sponsors
3. has no or short follow up
4. some one has previously worked on it
5. cases should be easy to pick up from every day OPD

best studies for such easy ones are done by
1. finding a study from last few journals or old thesis topics
2. zero down your area or subject of interest
3 look for some tool/scale/policy/guidelines/score, that may  help in validating tool , studying the application of tool and making the tool and study statistically stronger.
Teachers prefer their area of interest for study topics so think  than search regarding such topics too.
4 look for some day to day cases where you dont find much uniformity in management, search for studies in this regard.


statistics:
for descriptive study:
This is an observational study .No power calculations are involved. The study period will be for 6 months. For calculating percentage of use topic under study, total number of surgeries done during the same period will be taken as denominator. Data will be assessed for normality and presented as mean (sd), median, range, and Frequency. (percentage). Unpaired t test will be used for numerical data and Chi square test or Fischer Exact test ( for binary data) for categorical data.
Dr kondekar
also visit http://medicalthesis.blogspot.com