AFMC Pune To Host IMPACT 2021 – An Online Conference Cum Workshop On Scientific Writing And Reviewing
Pune, 16th September 2021: The Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) at Pune is hosting a completely online conference cum workshop IMPACT 2021 from 16-18 Sep 2021. It is a unique conference designed with the medical researcher in mind. The three-day event will feature distinguished faculty from among authors, reviewers, and editors who will conduct interactive sessions on contemporary issues in medical publishing.
It may be noted that the new academic guidelines for the academic promotion of teachers in the medical profession mandate the publication of research articles in peer-reviewed indexed journals.
The conference has been organized by the Medical Journal Armed Forces India, a leading and one of the oldest surviving multi-speciality research journals of the country, for the last 10 years.
Published from the portals of AFMC, Pune, MJAFI is celebrating its 77th publishing volume this year. Over the years, the journal has become a well indexed medical publication with researchers from all across the globe submitting articles. As part of IMPACT 2021, there will be multiple sessions including workshops on medical writing, peer review, biostatistics, ethics in research and so on.
Contemporary topics like the challenges of plagiarism and predatory journals will be discussed. On the last day, a guest lecture on “How to conduct a clinical trial” will be delivered by Dr Sanjay Mehendale, Director Research, PD Hinduja Hospital.
The conference was inaugurated online by Surgeon Vice Admiral Rajat Datta, AVSM, SM, VSM PHS, Director General Armed Forces Medical Services. The DGAFMS stressed upon the importance of learning the art of medical writing and reviewing specially when the recent guidelines for teachership has mandated basic minimum publications. The Admiral also highlighted the virtues of adapting to an online platform especially in the prevailing environment when the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the conventional system of education.
Air Vice Marshal Rajesh Vaidya, VSM Dean & Deputy Commandant, Armed Forces Medical College, welcomed and congratulated the delegates for showing such keen enthusiasm in participating in a whole new format. Apart from the importance of learning the skills of medical writing and editing, the deputy director also emphasized the ethics in publishing and how one should not fall in the traps of publishing in predatory journals.
Around 100 delegates from around the country are attending the conference, apart from the faculty and students of AFMC. The attendees would include mainly budding authors, reviewers and editors who will contribute to successful publishing in the future. The tagline of the conference is ‘Giving life to your research with effective and genuine publishing’ and focuses on providing impetus to the scientists in the field to effectively communicate their research across the world and for providing the scientific basis to change medical practice and policies.
