Efficacy of levonorgestrel intrauterine system [LNG-IUS] for abnormal uterine bleeding and contraception

To find out clinical response, side effects and patients' acceptability of levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system [LNG-IUS]. Observational study. Gynaecology Department of Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, from June 2005 to May 2008. Adult women were enrolled in the study. In group-A, 57 married women were enrolled presented with abnormal uterine bleeding while in group-B, 16 married women attended for contraception. All women in group-A had thyroid stimulating hormone, pelvic ultrasound and outpatient endometrial biopsy. Detailed counselling was done before insertion. Outcome variables were improvement in bleeding pattern, safety profile, spontaneous expulsion rate and continuation at the end of one year. In group-A [abnormal bleeding] menstrual cycle became normal in 40.4% women in the first 3 months. At the end of one year, 50.9% women experienced normal cycle, 8.8% were oligomenorrhic and 12.3% were amenorrhic. In group-B [contraceptive group] all women started with normal cycles. At the end of 3 months 42% complained of vaginal spotting which reduced to 10% at the end of one year. Menstrual pattern at the end of one year showed normal cycles in 52%, oligomenorrhea in 19% and amenorrhea in 10% women. Vaginal spotting was experienced by 42% women at 3 months as main complaint which reduced to 10% at the end of one year, however, 7% women requested for removal of device at one year. LNG-IUS is an effective and acceptable treatment for abnormal uterine bleeding as well as for contraception. Vaginal spotting was the most frequent side effect experienced by both groups

Training in reference management software: a part of new medical informatics workshops in Pakistan

Researchers in Pakistan can increase writing productivity, reduce errors in manuscripts and improve quality of their papers by hands-on workshops on bibliographic reference software. A workshop was conducted in an interactive tutorial format using an overhead projector to show screenshots of software at each step. Our Workshop included:1 starting the Endnote program [www.endnote.com];[2] manually entering a reference of a journal article[3] searching and importing references from PubMed[3] inserting a reference in Microsoft Word document in a journal-specific format;[4] essentials of journal article formatting; and[5] the ethics of respecting other peoples of intellectual effort by proper citations and avoiding plagiarism. A post-workshop test was administered to assess whether instructional objectives were attained. All the participants passed the post-workshop multiple choice questions and 85% rated the workshop as good, very good or excellent. A workshop on reference formatting in research writing is useful to promote high quality research work. We recommend holding workshops twice a year on research article formatting and reference software at medical colleges in Pakistan and other developing countries

Novel ways to increase medical informatics use by clinicians

Medical informatics is a multi disciplinary field, which combines different disciplines of medicine with information technology. Some of the major components of Medical Informatics are Hospital Information System, Computer based patient record, Medical imaging, Telemedicine, Bio informatics and Expert system or Artificial Intelligence, Neural networks and Robotics. In a medical college setting there are data analysis tools like S.P.S.S, presentation tools, e learning and web portals for students