Academia

1. Applicants must be members of the Sri Lanka College of Sexual Health and HIV Medicine.
2. The proposed research must be related to sexual health, STIs and HIV medicine.
3. The research proposal should have clear objectives and methodology.
4. The proposed research must be original and have the potential to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of sexual health and HIV medicine.
5. Priority will be given to operational research projects that address priority areas in sexual health, STI care and HIV medicine in Sri Lanka, as identified by the Sri Lanka College of Sexual Health and HIV Medicine.
6. The proposed research must have ethical clearance from an ethics committee or ethical issues should be adequately addressed in the proposal.
7. The proposed research must have a clear plan for dissemination of results, including publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentation at relevant conferences.
8. The proposed research must have a detailed budget, including itemized expenses, justification for each item and a Gantt chart.
9. The maximum grant amount that can be requested is Rs. 250,000.00
10. The proposed research must be completed within one year of receiving the grant.
11. The maximum number of grantees for a year would be decided by the council.
12. Applicants can only receive funding for one research project per year.
13. Funds disbursement is as follows.
    1. Twenty-five percent after accepting the research proposal and signing the contract.
    2. Twenty-five percent after submitting an interim report with data tables.
    3. Twenty-five percent after submitting and accepting the final report.
    4. Twenty-five percent after publication or presentation in an acceptable forum.
    5. Applicants need to submit a scientifically written report around 3,000-5,000 words (excluding annexes) and acceptable to two evaluators appointed by the Research subcommittee of Sri Lanka College of Sexual Health and HIV Medicine to get the final installment.
    6. The research projects which are done as a requirement of postgraduate
       examinations will not be considered under this funding scheme.
    7. Those who failed to complete the study within two years of releasing the first installment, need to pay back the research grant disbursed under this research grant.

Note:
These eligibility criteria were prepared by the Research Subcommittee of Sri Lanka College of Sexual Health and HIV Medicine on 19 th April 2023. These aim to ensure that the research fund is used to support high-quality research projects that have the potential to make a significant contribution to the field of sexual health and HIV medicine in Sri Lanka. Ethical aspects of the research have to be adequately addressed by the study proposal and there should be a plan for dissemination of results. The college aims to ensure that the research is conducted in an ethical and transparent manner and that the findings are shared widely with the relevant stakeholders.

Procedure of the disbursement of research grant

1. Submit the proposal with a covering letter to the President of the college.
2. President will submit the proposal to the research subcommittee.
3. The research subcommittee will review the proposal by two evaluators.
4. Based on the decision of the two evaluators, the research subcommittee will recommend to the council for disbursement of the research grant as described in item 13.

Five objectives /outcomes of the CPD have been identified as outlined below in accordance with the National CPD Programme (NCPDP)

1. Knowledge development while maintaining the existing knowledge in a systematic way.
2. Skill development while maintaining the existing skills in a systematic way.
3. Development of attitude and behaviour expected of a professional
4. Personal growth or development.
5. Development into a self directed reflective learner

College hosts guest lectures on variety of topics useful for the professional development of its members as a part of multiple ongoing lectures series held once a month. Guest speakers are invited to present on their research and topics on areas of expertise.

Log on to Slideshare to access Guest Lectures

Introduction

A journal club is an educational meeting in which a group of individuals discuss current articles or research papers, providing a forum for a collective effort to keep up with the current knowledge

Objective of the Journal Club

1. To give students/members experience in presenting to a professional audience
2. To learn to critique and appraise research (Critiquing) and to retrieve current research findings for specific clinical queries (Querying)
3. To become familiar with the best current clinical research, and encouraging research utilization to practice
4. To encourage active audience contribution

Two basic formats for the Journal Club

FORMAT 1: Critiquing Research(Critical appraisal)

General evaluation or appraisal of a study’s strengths and limitations. The critique should reflect an objective assessment of a study’s validity and significance. It goes beyond review or summary of a study

FORMAT 2: Clinical Queries (Specialized searches)

Specialized searches of biomedical databases intended for clinicians or researches to limit retrieval to articles that give evidence for specific clinical or research questions

How to begin

1. Chairperson – President or assignee of the college, will be the chairperson.
2. Identify facilitators – initially, this could be a senior staff member/s, later journal club members can take turns to lead subsequent journal club sessions.
3. Frequency – monthly or twice a month.
4. Time and place – Set up a convenient meeting time and location
5. Distribute copies of the research article/clinical queries and discussion questions – To Journal club members (responsibility of the facilitator/s)
6. Hold the journal club (encourage active participation of those attending by using the discussion questions)
7. Evaluate the journal club (eg, at the end of the session, gather feedback from participants).
8. Determine how the next journal club meeting could be made more beneficial, eg, encourage more attendance, hold more than one session, tape-record share slides for those unable to attend.)
9. Schedule the next meeting.

Log on to Slideshare to access Journal club presentations

Case conferences can be conducted in different formats, depending on the local agreement. Ideally, team members who managed the case should present it as a multidisciplinary team.

Each team is given ten minutes for the presentation and 5 or more minutes for the discussion. Team should be able to highlight the salient points and discussion areas to the audience. Number of cases per session should be decided based on the availability of time.

This includes presentation of clinical cases with some clinical discussion points and learning to the audience.

Clinical picture provides a visual information and knowledge to clinicians. In a clinical picture session, multiple short clinical picture stories can be presented and discussed with the audience. Each picture discussion should be limited to 10 minutes.

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” (Goethe)

Skills training are important basically in two broad areas in the speciality.

1. Clinical competencies
2. Prevention and programme science competencies

Clinical competency-History taking, Mental and physical Examination, clinical testing, clinical procedures, clinical information management, Diagnosis, Clinical interventions, Prognosis, Practice drill on CPR, MOC Examinations, Clinical short case and long case presentations, Hands on training on Colposcopy

Prevention and programme science competencies– Planning an HIV/STI prevention project including all component of a project cycle with project cycle matrix. Writing project proposals for the ministry and various other donors, Monitoring and evaluation plans and work plans. STD, HIV strategic plan and development of work plans based on strategic plan. Data analysis, Data management, interpretation of numerical or non-numerical data presentations. Data recording and reporting systems. Use of Statistical analysis tools, Hands on training on Patient Information Management System (PIMS)

Work attitude and work behaviours are important aspects in the professional development. Attitudes relate to “feeling part of your work” and your approach towards work and behaviour relates to”doing part of your work” and how you do or how you get your work done. Usually you cannot see it or sometimes your colleagues cannot see it. But people with whom your work  and people, community or society can feel it

Examples of how you show your positive attitudes and behaviours for your work: Organizing, conducting or participation in Voluntary services to the community such as health camp, Outreach activities, Voluntary participation in community awareness programmes, Conduction of lectures or other programmes for Junior doctors or trainees. Staff meetings and listening to their suggestions and proposals. Self-evaluation by your subordinate staff. Qualitative feedback from colleagues

Personal development of doctor’s professional life is an important aspect and this will guide all doctors to gain new knowledge and skills and the vertical movement in their professional career.

Examples:

1. Attending training courses (SPSS training, International trainings/short courses, taking up relevant postgraduate diploma training, MBA, SRH, Statistics etc)
2. Attending regional/national/ international conferences (Scientific sessions of the local Colleges, ICAAP, IUSTI, IAS, CROI, Bangkok symposium on HIV etc)
3. Completing e-learning modules (there are number of reputed e-learning modules by various universities)
4. Publications (Research papers, reviews, articles, books, contribution to scientific documents, contribution to non-professional publications etc.)

Most of the learning concepts are externally driven. However, self-directed reflective learning is a self driven concept in the professional development. The self-directed reflective learning includes self-motivation (readiness to learn), self-management (setting learning goals and activities) and self-monitoring and evaluation (self evaluation modules)

Examples:

Reading on a topic or article and writing a summary of what you learnt, An experience or something you have done, with reference to your own mistake or drawbacks and how you would improve them – a critical analysis, Clinical audits

1. National CPD Certificate – Information and Guidance Book
2. Guideline on CPD points
3. Personal learning log for the CPD certificate

Sri Lanka College of Venereologists conducts different symposia programmes for other medical professionals in order to disseminate current knowledge on different aspects of STI, HIV medicine, and related sexual health, prevention and programme sciences. There are two different format of programmes that can be requested by institutions, hospitals and organizations.

1. Satellite symposia programme (SSP): Duration – two hours

Short duration symposium usually conducted in collaboration with the other professional organizations in different institutions, hospitals or organizations. Satellite symposium agenda and presentations are adjusted in accordance with the stakeholders.

2. Regional symposia programme (RSP): Duration-One day; 6 hours

Long duration symposium mainly conducted for health professionals in different institutions, hospitals or organizations. Regional symposium agenda and presentations are adjusted in accordance with the stakeholders.

How to request

Request by messaging through the web facility: https://www.slcoshh.org/contact-us/

Or requesting through the following contacts:
Secretary, Sri Lanka College of Venereologists, No 29, De Saram Place, Colombo 10.
Telephone: +94 (071) 0900003, +94 (011) 2667163
Fax: +94 (011) 5336873
Email:  [email protected]