An evaluation of awareness about medication error among paramedical staff working at tertiary care hospital

Background: Medication error is most common medical error and which is also under-reported particularly in developing countries. It can cause serious harm to the patients in several settings, particularly in hospitals. Aim and Objective: The aim of the study was to bring awareness among paramedical staff about medication error and to encourage them to report medication. Materials and Methods: This was a questionnaire-based-cross sectional study conducted over 6 months of duration in tertiary care hospital in 100 paramedical staff. Results: Out of 100 participants, majority of them (91%) knows about term medication error. Only 26% participants know how to report medication error in our hospital. Three-fourth (75%) do not know where to report, while 22% believes that it is professional obligation to report medication error. The majority of participants 88% agree that proper communication between health-care professionals minimizes medication error. About 77% participants believe that there is a need of independent body/committee for medication error in hospital. About 87% participants recommended training or CME about medication error in health-care professionals. Conclusion: The majority of participants had basic knowledge about medication error but lacuna on the reporting of medication error was noted. Continued medication education among paramedical staff may improver reporting.

Medical students’ perception of online learning during COVID-19 pandemic in India-a survey

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic situation has immensely affected teaching in all institutions, especially in medical colleges. To minimize the impact of lockdown, current technology enabled online learning (E-learning) to be the important method of teaching the student during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aim and Objectives: The main objective of the present study to analyze perception of online teaching approach of medical students after 1 month of online learning without faceto-face learning. Materials and Methods: A survey was conducted by distributing an online questionnaire to 710 medical students. This research study was conducted from May 15 to May 16, 2021. Data gathered from the survey were analyzed with Epi info 7.1.5.0 software. Results: A total of 452 (63.66%) were male and 258 (36.34%) were female. Learning on your own place (80.1%), ability to stay at home (72.1%), access to online materials (59.2%), and ability to record meeting (49.8%) were the most frequent advantages of e-learning selected by medical students. The majority of students chose lack of interaction with patients (66.8%), technical problems (53.9%), reduced interaction with faculty (50.3%), social isolation (44.9%) as the main disadvantages. E-learning was considered less effective than face-to-face learning in terms of increasing skills (M = 2.1, M = 4.6, respectively) (P < 0.001) and social competences (M = 2.8, M = 4.8, respectively) (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The online learning was found to be advantageous as it provided flexibility and convenience for the learners. All these factors should be considered while developing an online course to make it more effective and productive for the learner.

Selective High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Amodiaquine and Artesunate in bulk and pharmaceutical formulation.

Aim of the study was to develop a new selective high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the quantification of amodiaquine and artesunate in bulk and pharmaceutical dosage form. The HPLC analysis was performed on the LCGC Qualisil C 8 (5 m, 250 mm  4.6 mm i.d.) column in isocratic mode, at 300C temperature using a mobile phase consisting of Acetonitrile: phosphate buffer (70:30, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.8 ml/min. The detection was carried out at 254nm for amodiaquine and 221nm for artesunate. The retention time for AMQ and ART were found to be 2.8 min. and 5.6 min. respectively. The method was validated for precision, recovery, robustness, specificity, and detection and quantification limits, in accordance with International Conference on Harmonization guidelines. Linearity was observed in the concentration range from 2-12 μg/ml (r2=0.998) for AMQ and for ART 0.2-1.2 mg/ml (r2=0.998). The limit of detection and quantification of AMQ were 0.07 μg/ml and 0.21 μg/ml respectively. While for ART it was 0.044 mg/ml and 0.133 mg/ml, respectively. The method has been successively applied for the determination of AMQ and ART in tablets. There was no interference from the excipients commonly present in the tablets. The drug content was found to be 100.83 % for AMQ and 98.63 for ART. Accuracy of the method was studied by the recovery studies at three different levels 80 %, 100 % and 120 %. The % recovery was found to be within the limits of the acceptance criteria with average recovery of 98.55–101.46% for AMQ and 99.48–101.60% for ART. The % RSD below 2.0 shows the high precision of proposed method. The above method was a rapid and cost-effective quality-control tool for routine analysis of amodiaquine and artesunate in bulk and in pharmaceutical dosage form.

Effect of gender on antisperm antibodies in infertile couples in central India.

The presence of antisperm antibodies in serum may impair sperm function leading to immunological infertility. The aim of study was to determine the presence of antisperm antibodies in the circulating blood of infertile couples. This cross sectional study included 109 couples suffering from infertility for more than one-year duration. Serum antisperm antibodies were determined by Varelisa Sperm Antibodies Enzyme Immunoassay kit. The percentage incidence of antisperm antibodies in infertile men was 30.27% was statistically not significant from the 33.03% incidence in infertile women (P Value >0.05). In the nineteen (15.59%) couples both the husband as well as wife was positive for sperm antibodies. The presence of antisperm antibodies may impair fertilizing ability therefore its assessment should be considered as an essential part of infertility management.

Solid state cultivation of Curvularia lunata for transformation of rifamycin B to S.

Biotransformation of rifamycin B to rifamycin S using two strains of C. lunata namely NCIM 716 and NMU grown on various solid substrates viz., grass, paper, jowar/wheat straw, bran and bagasse was studied. Almost complete biotransformation efficiency of rifamycin B at 0. 06 mM concentration was observed within 24 hr. Among these two strains, C. lunata NMU showed 90% of biotransformation and higher rate of cellulose utilization on solid substrates vis-à-vis reference strain. Cellulase activity of both strains was also studied for exoglucanase, endoglucanase and beta-glucosidase. Column bioreactor studies with bagasse revealed further improvement in biotransformation efficiency of C. lunata NMU.