Animated Concept of ANS Pharmacology under the aegis of ISRPT

Animated Concept of ANS Pharmacology selectively dealing with the Pharmacological action of drugs on organs (organ-specific effects) under the aegis of the Indian Society for Rational Pharmacotherapeutics (ISRPT) was held on 1st October 2022. The students of the Batch 2020-21 (Students in Phase 2 MBBS) were given a task to make an animated concept - to keep things simpler for better understanding each student was given a task to make a small video (less than 3 minutes) depicting the action of specific drug from ANS on any one organ. This activity was supposed to provide clarity on ANS as this is one topic which was considered confusing for the students. This exercise was part of Self Directed Learning (SDL) recently introduced in the new curriculum of NMC and has been laid special emphasis where students were guided for self-sufficient learning. All the students completed the activity in the stipulated time and the activity was completed in concordance with the theory completion of the topic of ANS by March 2022, which was further short-listed by the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology, TMMC&RC. Based on clear, understanding and presentation 28 students were short-listed for the Final Round which was held on 1st October 2022. The event was held on an online platform via Zoom online meeting and was Judged by the Faculty of immense repute in the stream of Pharmacology. The Judges for this online event were Prof (Dr.) Anuradha Joshi, Prof, Dept. of Pharmacology, PSMC, Karamsad; Dr.Smita M Sontakke, GMCH, Nagpur; and Dr C M Divyashanthi, JIPMER, Karaikal. All the students presented their animated video on the online platform within 2-3 minutes which was followed by a Question-Answer Session by the judges the students were judged on three criteria for their presentation – Concept, Content and Understanding of the Topic. The entire batch participated in the online event. Based on the results of students' performance which were taken average from all judges all students were given certificates of participation. The second runner-up for the event was Vishal Pathak, Suhani Mittal and Palak Singh, while First Runner-up was Divya Jain, the event was won by Mohd Tariq.

The concept of having an animated concept stirs the mind of students to give a description of the action in motion, it enhances rote learning and concept-making of the students. The aid of incorporating technology into the medical field also enhances their memory and understanding of the topic. All the Judges were quite happy with the performance of the students and liked this innovative teaching-learning method and gave full credit to students for their enthusiastic presentation and participation. The conclusion of the event was done by Prof. (Dr.) Principal Singh Matreja, Prof & Head, Dept. of Pharmacology, TMMC&RC by thanking all the judges for sparing their valuable time for this event.

Dr Prithpal Singh Matreja thanked the students for their active participation as well as the entire Department of Pharmacology consisting of Dr Shilpa Patrick, Dr Preeti Singh, Dr Meenu Thomas, Dr Pooja Agarwal and Dr Dhyuti Gupta.