Hello Everyone!
As some of you may know IPOS congress 2018 has started with the Research Academy Workshop! An active and open participation of the members made it an amazing learning experience for all. Simply listening to scholars from different cultures and contexts itself made the discussions truly an enriching experience for me.
P.S: The IPOS is organizing this Research Academy Workshop as part of the Congress. I am really honored to have received a full scholarship to be part of 17 other scholars from the different parts of the world to attend this 3-day Research workshop and the Conference after that. I couldn’t have been here without this- really grateful!
DAY 01| We had an amazing day where we discussed various aspects of research methodologies.
Session 1: Conducting Research In Low Middle-Income Countries (LMIC)
Speaker: Chioma Asuzu (PhD)
Dr. Asuzu mentioned the importance of mentorship from personal experience and shared some insights into the common problems that present in developing countries like the importance of local body, difficulties faced while applying for research grants and how to implement psycho-oncology services and conducting research in low and middle-income countries
Session 2: Ethics in Research: History and basic principles
Speaker: Dr. Melissa Henry (PhD)
Dr. Henry explained how history had played a role in developing ethics in research. She stressed and elaborated on topics like privacy, confidentiality, need for informed consent and no harm
Session 3: Quantitative research
Speaker: Christoffer Johansen (MD PhD)
This is a huge topic to cover in one session, but Dr. Johansen managed to touch upon a lot of it through a very interactive session. There were a lot of questions raised, and all of them were answered. He managed to make it a fun experience for all of us!
DAY 2 | Qualitative Methodology and Translation Methodology
Yesterday we had quite an information session by Dr. Wendy Lam, on qualitative research. Apart from covering important concepts like Core principles, Different data collection methods, analysis, and How to report, she also found time to address some of the practical concerns raised by many of us in the session! Dr.Wendy lam is a professor at the School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong.
One of the best things we had was the quality time we had with research mentors in smaller groups. Here we had a chance to fine-tune our research proposals. As part of the scholarship, each of us is getting one mentor each for a year to guide us to take this research forward! This is also one of the highlights of the Research Scholarship by IPOS.
During the second half of the day, Prof. Paul Jacobson helped us to understand the distinctions between dissemination and implementation research. We discussed different phases of translation research and the role of resource-stratified guidelines in adapting interventions for a low-resource setting. Prof. Paul Jacobson is an Associate Director of the NCI Division of Cancer Control and Population Science’s (DCCPS) Healthcare Delivery Research Program (HDRP)
With the immense learning we had in the single day, and when everyone in the room displayed such a selfless attitude to sharing their knowledge- it became an even more enriching experience for all. I hope IPOS will continue to have such programmes for more people. If not for this generous scholarship by the IPOS, I would not have had such exposure to such an international platform for learning. I am sure there are more people out there like me.
Day 3 | Publication, Knowledge Dissemination and Grant Writing
We closed the last day of the Research workshop with quite light yet enlightening session with Prof. Maggie Watson (Editor-in-chief of Psycho-oncology journal). Professor described the modalities around grantsmanship, knowledge dissemination and getting your research published.
Even after the session, we as a group went on to discuss with her the basic principles of scientific writing, legal and ethical requirements of scientific publishing and dissemination of research findings. Kudos to the fellow-scholars who made this quite an interactive learning experience.
Although the session was short, we are all so happy to have got a chance to interact with a person like her with such immense knowledge. Personally, the session gave me such a boost to consider a career in research.
The second session was with Prof. Nick Hulbert Williams (Professor of Behavioural Medicine, University of Chester). He took us through his insights into ‘how to get grants while doing the research’. The session had started with what do grant reviewers tend to look for in good applications and involving the right people, the patients, and stakeholders, etc. Following that, as a group, we practiced elevator pitch.
In the afternoon, we divided into two groups for a mock presentation about ‘Grant applications. Prof. Claire Wakefield, Dr. Melissa Henry, and Dr. Michelle Peate also joined the presentation for giving feedback as panel members. The suggestions made to each candidate gave us a chance to learn from each other’s mistakes. Personally, the three days I spent in this workshop helped me fill a lot of gaps in my research career and gave me a better idea about my own strengths and weakness.
I am grateful to IPOS, for giving us such a golden opportunity to have quality time with such senior people in this field of psycho-oncology. It was truly a dream come true experience for me considering I am still in the early phase of my career. Hope these quick notes helped get a gist of the workshop.
Thank you.
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