A Nationwide Virtual Research Education Program for Medical Students in Pakistan: Methodological Framework, Feasibility Testing, and Outcomes

Introduction: Equipping young medical trainees with fundamental research skills can be a promising strategy to address the need for professionals who can understand and responsibly communicate evolving scientific evidence during a pandemic. Despite an ardent interest to partake in research, most educational institutions in Pakistan and other low-middle income countries have not yet adopted a comprehensive strategy for research skills education. The authors aimed to design and assess the feasibility of implementing the first nation-wide virtual research workshop for medical students in Pakistan.Methods: The course “Beginners Guide to Research,” designed as a nation-wide virtual research workshop series, was conducted for medical students across Pakistan in June 2020. Four interactive live workshops took place online on alternate days from June 22nd, 2020, to June 27th, 2020, each lasting 1–2 h. Outcomes included: (i) reach, (ii) efficacy as indexed by pre-post change in score pertaining to knowledge and application of research and (iii) self-rated perceptions about understanding of research on a Likert scale.Results: 3,862 participants enrolled from 41 cities and 123 institutions. Enrolled participants belonged to the following provinces: Sindh (n = 1,852, 48.0%), Punjab (n = 1,767, 45.8%), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (n = 109, 2.8%), Azad Jammu and Kashmir (n = 84, 2.2%) Balochistan (n = 42, 1.1%). We also saw a few registrations from international students (n = 8, 0.2%). Mean (SD) age of enrolled medical students was 21.1 (2.1) years, 2,453 (63.5%) participants were female and 2,394 (62.0%) were from private-sector medical colleges. Two thousand ninety-three participants participants filled out all four pre-test and post-test forms. The total median knowledge score improved from 39.7 to 60.3% with the highest improvements in concepts of research bioethics and literature search (p < 0.001) with greater change for females compared to males (+20.6 vs. +16.2%, p < 0.001) and private institutions compared to public ones (+16.2 vs. +22.1%, p < 0.001).Conclusion: The overwhelming enrollment and significant improvement in learning outcomes (>50% of baseline) indicate feasibility of a medical student-led research course during a pandemic, highlighting its role in catering to the research needs in the LMICs.

Direct-to-Caregivers Research Dissemination: A Novel Approach to Targeting End-Users

Dissemination of geriatrics research usually occurs through conference presentations or publications viewed by colleagues in the same field. Older adults and their family caregivers have limited direct access to research findings. We sought to pilot a direct-to-caregiver workshop with the intent to disseminate geriatrics research directly to family caregivers of older adults. As part of an academic national conference, an ‘Updates in Geriatrics Research’ workshop is presented as a compilation of innovative research published in the prior year. We distilled workshop content into a lay format which was presented to family caregivers at two community-based caregiver symposiums. Mixed method surveys were completed by family caregiver attendees with open-ended responses analyzed using content and constant-comparative techniques. Of the 29 survey respondents, all were female, mean age 58.9 yrs. (range 52-72), providing care to older adults, mean age 87.2 years (range 66-97). Respondents unanimously identified learning information pertinent to their care recipient. When asked: Do you feel that direct-to-caregiver research dissemination is useful, all respondents selected yes. Open-ended responses for reasons why revealed two main themes: 1.) Creating informed caregivers: “Caregivers need this information in their toolbox.” and 2.) Empowering caregiver-advocates: “The more we know, the better we can advocate for our loved ones and challenge their health care.” Respondents all planned on sharing information with others, specifically family, friends, and physicians. In conclusion, disseminating geriatrics research direct-to-caregivers is feasible. Researchers, who present their work for scientific conferences, should consider translating their findings into presentations for community-based family caregivers.

IMPLEMENTASI PENERAPAN PROTOKOL KESEHATAN DI ERA NEW NORMAL PADA PEKERJA DI LOKA PENELITIAN KAMBING POTONG (LPKP) SEI PUTIH KECAMATAN GALANG

At the end of 2019 a new virus was discovered which is now an infectious disease outbreak around the world and WHO (World Health Organization) gives the name of the virus that is currently endemic as Covid-19 (Corona Virus Diseases 2019). This research is a qualitative research that aims to collect in-depth data from sources or informants by conducting direct interviews. The number of informants in this study were 10 people. The data collection is done by direct observation to field conducted in-depth interviews of workers and equipped with recording equipment sound made to 10 informants. The results of the research carried out are that there are workers who have not been able to carry out and implement health protocols in accordance with the recommendations of the government. Of the several health protocols that exist at the Slaughter Goat Research Workshop, there are health protocols that have been violated by workers, namely all workers do not wear masks when in the work environment, the absence of workers who apply physical or social distancing during work or during rest hours, water and hand washing soap are not provided and hand sanitizers are never used and are only for display in the office, and workers believe that it is impossible for fellow workers to transmit the Covid-19 virus to fellow workers although there are already some workers in Loka Penelitian Kambing Potong who have contracted the virus, they are not worried and are not afraid of it. The advice that can be given is that workers must be aware of the importance of implementing health protocols and Loka Penelitian Kambing Potong should provide guidance and direction to workers in an effort to suppress the decline in Covid-19 cases

Cardography as a research method through writing and drawing in higher education workshops

This article is supported by the author’s experience through a methodology created during her Ph.D. thesis ‘The experience of book’s place at the university’, also during COVID-19 restrictions. The student transformed public presentations into collaborative research workshops, where new interrelations and concepts occurred rooted in arts-based research methodologies, exploring art and education, in its scope. Cardography is an invented designation based on a/r/tography, as a creative living research methodology that uses cards as a device for a visual inquiry, considering that each book’s page is a card to be written or drawn (digital or paper), documenting the dialogic process during each research workshop. The research result contemplates an artistic object, which is displayed afterwards in university and art exhibitions. The reader is invited to follow a fil rouge alignment, inspired by a book structure, reflecting upon concepts and research methods not yet implemented at the art education doctoral course.

Audio Forensics on Smartphone with Digital Forensics Research Workshop (DFRWS) Method

Audio is one of the digital items that can reveal a happened case. However, audio evidence can also be manipulated and changed to hide information. Forensics audio is a technique to identify the sound’s owner from the audio using pitch, formant, and spectrogram parameters. The conducted research examines the similarity of the original sound with the manipulated voice to determine the owner of the sound. It analyzes the level of similarity or identical sound using spectrogram analysis with the Digital Forensics Research Workshop (DFRWS) Method. The research objects are original and manipulated files. Both files are in mp3 format, which is encoded to WAV format. Then, the live forensics method is used by picking up the data on a smartphone. Several applications are also used. The results show that the research successfully gets digital evidence on a smartphone with the Oxygen Forensic application. It extracts digital evidence in the form of two audio files and two video files. Then, by the hashing process, the four obtained files are proven to be authentic. Around 90% of the data are identical to the original voice recording. Only 10% of the data are not identical.