PharmD Info

sutheeswaran wrote: ↑19 Apr 2020, 18:40 What statistical test has to be applied for finding the statistical signifance of 3 disease severe categories?

If you have numeric continuous variable and if your data is parametric , you have to use ANOVA

Rupakrishnan wrote: ↑19 Apr 2020, 17:36 How to estimate sample size for genetic polymorphisms studies

You can calculate sample size using OpenEpi [http://www.openepi.com/Menu/OE_Menu.htm]

BhavathariniArun wrote: ↑17 Apr 2020, 16:50 There are various reference management softwares available for reference management such as Zotero , Mendeley etc. In your experience which is the best to use as a beginner?

@BhavathariniArun

Hello Arun,

Personally, I suggest either Mendaly or Zotero, especially for the beginners. Although some universities offer EndNote for free, I believe that Zotero has certain advantages than EndNote.

Zotero is very easy to grab sources while surfing the internet through Chrome or Firefox. Its interface of sorting and storing the references looks better and more practical in my view.
Most importantly, it is free to use.

That being said, EndNote has some advantages over Zotero:

It has more reference types (like Dataset, Web page) that are not found in Zotero. Its styles are found almost for each Journal, while Zotero has relatively fewer styles, but you can add your own through custom tools.

I also tried Mendeley, I found it similar to Zotero as open-source and free, while its interface is alike EndNote, but the main benefit of it is that it indexes all the references in my computer, and give them a clear name. Another advantage that it enables markup on references, with its own tools.

I hope it helps.

AshnaMukesh wrote: ↑19 Apr 2020, 12:24 Will research papers give me a chance to apply for Master's degree with scholarship???

Always give a weightage or preference in any reputed universities even though it is not a mandate criteria. But, I felt it will always give an extra credit to your career and research. After all, luck really matters there

I wish you all the best

greeshma_1997 wrote: ↑19 Apr 2020, 12:55 In studies which include psychiatric patients is it necessary to obtain consent from both patient as well as the care taker??

Always better to take if possible, but do not put yourself in risk while you approach the patient. Moreover, It depends on the disease condition on which you work and what your ethical committee mandate. You can have a discussion on this with your IEC Secretariat while you take the ethical approval.

Not only in this case but also in many cases, this kind of issues has to be discussed with your concerned IECs as each one gives different perception on this.

What can i conclude with p value of 8e-05?

Shalini1697 wrote: ↑19 Apr 2020, 13:05 How does communication impact the health care sector?

However, it is not specifically related to the topic which is planned to discuss today. I would like to add that, communication plays a major role in healthcare practice in all aspects which started from patient admission till the discharge and thereafter.

You could read this systematic review which will give more insights towards your query.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4758389/

Tenzin tsering wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 21:42 What is the difference between efficacy and effectiveness with respect to clinical trials?

With respect to a clinical trial, efficacy is applicable. 'Effectiveness' is applicable for pragmatic research. Here is a well-explained article about the difference between efficacy and effectiveness (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3726789/).

mahima m wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 14:48 In routine practice, how do we know which pharmaceutical agent is more efficacious ? Is it just check graded dose response curve or side effects also?? Should we check that time it self cost effectiveness of drug also??

@mahima m

Hi Mahima,

From my point of view, whenever choosing a drug, both effectiveness and safety play a major role and then comes the cost.

Maximizing the effectiveness
Minimizing the harm and
Minimizing the cost, would be the three best principles in selecting the best drug.

The paper by prof. Tony Avery shed some light on this topic and also provided with various case scenarios on how to choose an appropriate drug in a clinical setting.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/1 ... 8013491400

Hope this helps.

bitubenny wrote: ↑19 Apr 2020, 13:15 While choosing articles for narrative review is it a must that it should contain Indian articles/studies , if yes, to what extend.

Dear Bitu Benny,

We will discuss this question in different aspects

It depends on the area what you wanna write and to which journal you wanna send the paper . Suppose, you are writing a paper on Diabetes and planning to submit to some National journal, try to capture more data from Indian aspects. And you are planning for an International journal, you need to capture the data from entire globe. Otherwise they will reject with a reason that, your paper is suitable for a National journal.

Suppose, you are writing something on disease such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome which is associated with a novel corona virus, you can not get any Indian data and you can't include any Indian studies as the disease was related to Middle East.

So, the extent and content depends on the topic you choose, the availability of content, and the journal you choose to send the paper.