EduSat - Education Initiative by the Indian Govt.

Today's experience at Vigyan Prashar's office was rather different. I am now used to speaking on health related matters to gatherings of hundreds of people. My smallest audience till now was probably a group of seven ladies at a private gathering at a close friend's residence.

Today I was speaking from a virtual classroom inside Vigyan Prashar's studio. I was connected to the students through India's education satellite, EduSat.

The topic was the same...'Breast Self Examination -Why? When? How?' What was different was the audience. I was not seeing my audience who, I am told, were viewing the program in their schools and offices across India. There were schools, colleges and offices in UP, Kashmir, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, etc from where students had logged in to attend the health tutorial. It was strange having to talk into a camera, with not much reaction on the face of the camera person. I was wondering if she really bothered what I was speaking about! But she was prompt to focus on my hands when I demonstrated the examination on the mannequin.

After the lecture, came the questions and it was a nice experience speaking to girls in schools from different states and clearing their queries. A new experience for me altogether.

EduSat, the world's first dedicated satellite for distance education, has made virtual classrooms a revolution in Indian education. Kerala was the first state to start virtual classes through EduSat in 2005. Today, as I spoke, a school in Kashmir was launching its virtual classes with my program.

Preventing Major Non-Communicable Diseases

International World Health Day... I was one of the judges for a poster making competition at a management institute in Ghaziabad.

There was overwhelming response from the students. There were over 90 students who had participated in the poster making competition. Some of the posters were very well designed. There were innovative ideas too.

Many of the students had listed out 10-20 harmful substances found in cigarette smoke. There were some posters that depicted the many ways in which tobacco acts on the different systems of the body. I was really impressed with the amount of homework the undergraduate students had done. Awareness is probably the first step towards abstinence from smoking.

After the competitions, there was a 2 hr lecture session on health awareness. Dr Agarwal introduced the term 'non-communicable diseases' and discussed the signs and symptoms of common non-communicable diseases (heart disease, diabetes, cancer etc). I spoke on the preventing measures common to these three  diseases...tobacco control, eating right and exercising.

Tobacco Awareness Workshop

Last afternoon, I was speaking to a group of students at ABES Engineering College, Ghaziabad on the topic "Tobacco & Your Health: Make an Informed Choice". It was a new experience for me to talk about tobacco and that too to a group of youngsters who had 'heard too much about tobacco' and did not want to receive any new gyaan. Our preworkshop assessment showed that though 93% of the students answered over 50% of the questions about tobacco correctly, they actually needed to know a lot more. Of the 214 respondents, only 8 had answered all the questions correctly. That's less than 4%.

My book titled "Things You Always Wanted to Know About Tobacco" is almost done. It's a book targeted at school goers. Hope it clicks well with them. There's already lots of information about tobacco all around. I am just trying to collate these together. 

Experience - A challenge as well as an opportunity

Earlier this month, I was speaking at the 4th Annual Conference of the Indian Society for Clinical Research (ISCR). I was there as a last minute replacement for the scheduled speaker who could not make it. My topic for the day was 'Opportunities and Challenges in Medical Writing'.

Lack of experienced medical writers in India is a major challenge. However, young medical writers can even look at it as an opportunity.

Medical Writing is relatively new in India. Oh yes, some of the oldest writings in the field of medicine like the Sushrutasamhita and the Charakasamhita are from India. What I mean here, is that Medical Writing as a  profession is a relatively new concept in India. There are very few medical writers in India who have a writing experience of over 5 years.

Data from an online survey I conducted in 2008, part of which was later presented at the 68th Annual Conference of AMWA in Louisville, KY the same year, showed that most medical writers in India had less than 5 years of experience. Nearly 90% of the respondents had less than 10 years of experience in the field.

This becomes a challenge for people deciding to outsource their writing to India. More often than not when I have had to hire writers for my work, I almost had to handhold them and teach them how to maintain uniform quality in their work. This is often more time consuming than doing the project on my own. However, with a little guidance some of the writers have learnt the skill really well. I am glad when I see their work.

And that's why I say that lack of experienced medical writers in India may be a challenge for service buyers. However, for service providers, it is an opportunity that they can cash on. If the young medical writers in this country work with sincerity and discipline, they can develop great skills. In this field, if you can provide the quality a client expects and stick to the deadlines, nobody is going to ask you about the training you have received or the number of years of experience you have in this field.

P.S. The complete report of the results of the first ever Survey of Medical Writers in India is available as a free bonus on ordering the ebook Becoming a Medical Writer (Indian Edition).