Wednesday, 24 June 2015

How to write MD / MS thesis protocol - steps to be followed

Detailed systematic protocol to be followed while submitting your thesis presentation. It will help you out in preparing your thesis protocol for the topics concerned in a better way.

It is not tailor made, can be changed according to the needs of the study and also as per one's wish.

If you follow these necessary steps in preparing your thesis protocol, then the outlook of the protocol will be good and will make a case for easy presentation.



MD / MS - Thesis Protocol

1. Title of the study
            - What you want to study?
            - at the outset, it should convey your study
            - be brief, informative and not too lengthy titles
            - should be short, concise, and preferably refer to a certain key study result
            - avoid words such as
            “A study of ........”, 
“Observations on ..........”,
 “Investigation of ........”

Examples:

“ Prevalence of Hypertension and Variation in Blood Pressure among School Children in  
  Rural Area of Tamil Nadu”

“ Predictors of mortality among myocardial infraction patients admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Chennai, Tamil Nadu”

“ Correlation of carotid intimal medial thickness with eGFR and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with chronic kidney disease”



2.  Name of the Investigator / Student:
     Name: Dr. ............................
     Degree: MD / MS [....................]
     Institution / College:
     Contact No:
     Email:


3.  Guide / Co-guide for the study
     Name: Dr. ............................
     Designation:
     Institution / College:
     Contact No:
     Email:

4.  Introduction / Background for the study
            - Literature review of the study [what has been done on the topic and what you are
  going to do]
            - identify the gaps and how are you going to bridge the gap
- Select the important articles that give valid information and data regarding the study
- take main ideas from the articles and write down in a comprehensive manner
            - Give information to appreciate your objectives
            - 150 to 300 words

5. Aims and Objectives
    Aim: What you hope to achieve eventually
    Objective: What you try to do in the study
            - It can have primary objective and secondary objective
- In the form of statements with action verbs like    
Ø  “to describe……, to assess……,  to define…..    “to compare.......,   
Ø  “to study………, “to identify...  etc

6.  Methodology [Materials and methods]
            - how are you going to do the study
   
 i) Study Design / type:
              - case reports / case series
              - Cross Sectional (descriptive) Study
              - prospective study
              - Retrospective case study
              - Randamized controlled trials (Clinical trials)
    
 ii)  Study Setting:
           
- place / institution where the study to be done

iii) Study Period / duration:  ......  months / years

- preparation for study and any pilot testing
- data Collection & entry
- data analysis & report

iv)  Study subjects / population:
           
- whom you are going to involve in the study as participants

v)  Inclusion criteria:
           
- criteria for subjects to be involved in the study

vi)  Exclusion criteria:
            - whom who are going to exclude from the study

vii) Sampling & sample size:
Sample size:
- How much participants are to be taken for the study
                        - Depends upon the study and its parameters
                        - Have formulas to calculate required sample size
            Sampling:
                        - what sampling method are you going to apply?
                        - Non random or random sampling
                        - probability or Non probability sampling

viii) Study Tool:

- Interviewer administered Pre – tested, Semi-Structured Questionnaire or any other       
   tools
- checklist
- scoring or grading scales

ix)  Variables under Study:
            - what are the variables who are going to study
[Ex. Socio-demographic details, medical H/o, treatment H/o, determinants,
investigations etc]

7. Data collection:
            - how are you going to collect the data
            - by way of questionnaires / case reports / checklist / scoring methods
8. Data analysis:
            - presently data entry and analysis is done by software’s
            - data can be entered into Microsoft excel sheet or other likes
            - data analysis is done by SPSS software or Epiinfo or other software’s
            - how to present the results, quantitative and qualitative data
            - tests of significance if applicable
  
9.  Expected outcome of the study
            - possible outcome of the study will improve the knowledge base / treatment aspects /
              diagnostic purposes

10. Funding source
            - tell about any source of funding for the study
            - self or any other agencies like ICMR, TBC India, DST etc
11. Ethical considerations
- Prior clearance / approval have to be obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee
  (IEC)  of the concerned institution before starting the study.
- Written informed consent from all study participants
- any other permissions as required for the study
12. References
            - for introduction part
            - any grading or scoring scales
            - as they appear in the text (Superscript)
            - should include the name of the author(s), title, journal name, month/year of
  publication, volume and page number 
- web references with the url address
13. Questionnaire
            - semi structured or structured
            - to collect the data from subjects
            - signature of investigator
14. Informed Consent
            - written consent
            - both English and in local language
- to be given to the subjects
            - explaining the purpose of study
            - willingness to participate in the study
            - signature of investigator and subjects

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