SUPERVISION IN RESEARCH

1
SUPERVISION IN RESEARCH

• Dr. Priya Chandran
• Assistant Professor
• Dept. of Community Medicine
• Medical College Calicut

2

• Supervisor acts as a facilitator who
• Encourages inquiry
• Explores and challenges ideas
• Provides resources

3
Central issue

• How to achieve quality
• How to achieve effectiveness
• How to achieve productiveness

4
Research Supervision

• Is a process of fostering and enhancing learning
  , research and communication at the highest level
• The supervisory process is crucial to the success
  of students
• (Larke Zubert Skeritt 1996)

5
Roles Functions of Research Supervision

• Perspective of Students
• Perspective of Supervisors
• Perspective of University / Society

6
Perspective of Students

• Helps them to achieve a scientific , professional
  or personal goal
• Helps them to learn about research
• Help them to conduct responsible research to meet
  the quality standards of the system

7
Perspective of the supervisor

• Should be able to contribute to the advancement
  of scientific knowledge
• Create effective learning/ research situations
• Enhance their own learning , research and
  reputation

8
View of the University/ Society

• Increases links between universities and
  communities
• Contribute to the production of high level
  scientists
• (Larke Zubert Skeritt 1996)

9
Models of research supervision

• Traditional model
• Single supervisor working with a motivated well
  prepared student

10

• Joint supervision
• - Single student supervised by 2 or more
  supervisors
• - Supervisory committee
• - Supervisory group

11
Supervisory plan

• Supervision Process
• Facilitating students access to knowledge,
  information, database
• Creating knowledge repositories through guiding
  students to present and publish their work
• Enhancing knowledge/research environment
  through facilitating students networking
  sharing knowledge/research
• Embedding knowledge in the students and their
  thesis

• Research Process/Milestone
• Defining research topic/problem
• Developing research methodology
• Designing research
• Conducting literature review
• Collecting data
• Analyzing/interpreting data
• Writing thesis

12
Supervisory process

• Selecting candidates
• Providing academic guidance
• Providing pastoral support
• Helping manage the research process

13
Selecting candidates

• Good working relationship

14
Providing academic guidance

• Key role of supervisor
• Encourage students to challenge / be critical
  about established theoretical values their
  own/other peers research progress
• Provide timely feedback
• Ask for students feedback / self evaluation

15
Providing pastoral support

• Students may encounter difficulties
• Structured supervision with emotional warmth is
  more effective
• (Brown Atkins)
• Introduce students to collegial and scholarly
  community within the faculty and outside

16
Helping Manage the research process

• Effective project management
• Time management
• Maintain regular contact with student
• Give timely and constructive feedback
• Encourage and motivate students to move on
• Monitor their progress closely
• Offer help if any academic or a personal crisis
  happens

17
Final Stage

• Monitor the final production and presentation of
  students research
• Provide career advice
• Assist with publication

18
Research Monitoring
19

• Research monitoring is a step forward
• in re-establishing public confidence in medical
  research.

20

• Dr. Roger Poisson, a respected
• surgeon working in breast-cancer treatment at
• the hospital, had falsified data on 99 of the
  1511 patients
• he had enrolled in the US-based National Surgical
  Adjuvant
• Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) between 1977
• and 1990.
• changed the dates of surgery and biopsy to make
  patients eligible for inclusion in the trial
• the patients' levels of a hormone receptor had
  been fabricated in seven cases
• that informed consent had not been obtained,

21
Purpose of Monitoring

• To ensure that research is conducted as planned
• That research participants comprehend the
  information presented to them in the consent
  process
• That the potential benefits and risks of study
  participation remain acceptable.

22
Why researchers commit fraud?

• Prestige
• The high societal value placed on research
• Competitive nature of biomedical research

23
Who ?

• Institutional Ethics Board / Research Monitoring
  Committee
• Governmental
• Funding agencies
• Cooperative groups
• Researchers themselves

24
Types of activities

• Annual review of continuing research
• Monitoring informed consent
• Monitoring adherence to approved protocols
• Monitoring integrity of research data
• ( Heath E J )

25
Annual Review

• Minimum standard for continuing review
• The investigator should report
• the number of patients accrued
• his assessment of the outcome or progress of
  these subjects
• any adverse drug reactions
• must report any new information, generated
  outside the trial, that may disturb clinical
  equipoise

26
Informed consent

• Informed consent is properly obtained
• Documented
• Involvement of family members in
• consent
• Extreme case REB member present
• In the first case of heart transplantation
• with a non human heart the REB had a member
• present during the consent process.

27
Adherence to protocol

• Relatively common for investigators to deviate
  from approved protocols.
• Researchers to develop self-monitoring mechanisms
  which may involve other experts within or outside
  the institution.
• Procedures may be monitored directly by a member
  of the REB.

28

• As a response to procedural violations by Cooley
  and Liotta in the first mechanical-heart
  transplantation, the University of Utah
  Institutional Review Board appointed a member to
  ensure that procedures were followed in the
  subsequent implantation of an artificial heart in
  Barney Clark."

29
Integrity of data

• Periodic in-house auditing
• External audits of data.

30
Drawbacks of monitoring

• Negatively affect the atmosphere of trust between
  the REB and the investigator.
• Monitoring process are unduly expensive
• (Robert J Levine)

31
Administrative models for monitoring
32
(No Transcript)
33
(No Transcript)
34

• It usually comes as a surprize to students to
  learn that some (perhaps most ) published
  articles belong to the bin and should certainly
  not be used to inform practice
• (Trisha Greenhalgh BMJ 1997)

35
T H A N K Y O U