The National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), Chennai and the Non-Communicable Division of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in collaboration with American Thoracic Society (ATS) are conducting a week long workshop on 'Methods in Epidemiological, Clinical and Operations Research' (MECOR) from May 31 to June 6, 2009 at NIE, Chennai.

The main objectives of the workshop are to help healthcare professionals: to develop the research skills needed to study local, national, or international problems, and to develop and evaluate interventions; be able to use data from the literature to improve clinical practice; and use data to inform public policy and improve clinical practices, academic and teaching programmes.

The programme is primarily aimed at physicians and public health professionals who primarily see patients with respiratory problems and would like to increase their skills in research and academic physicians and public health professionals who have not had formal training in research methods. Students will learn the fundamentals of a research protocol: posing a testable research question, selecting an appropriate study design, and basic analytic approaches.

The main prerequisites for the course are: medical degree or advanced degree in related areas such as public health, nursing, physical therapy etc; ability to read and speak comfortably in English in classroom and group settings; and commitment to attend class for the full week as students are expected to do preparation before the course and in the evenings. The week long course work is demanding and participants must be willing to free themselves of all other commitments for the week of the course and participate in all class work. Participants must be prepared and willing to present their research protocols or week's work on the last day. No prior experience in research is needed.

The MECOR courses are designed to be very interactive. The central component of the course is the development of a research protocol by students working in small groups. Students get a hands-on experience in how to ask a good research question, what research design to use, what methods to use, and how to analyze the data. The interactive lectures provide the methodologic background for the development of the research protocols. The students present the protocols on the last day. Many students in MECOR courses subsequently go on to carry out the research that they designed during the course.