AFPI Research Hub
Enabling residents and faculty to do more research — register your study, find a topic, learn the methods, and connect with the AFPI community.
Why we're building this
The purpose of this page is simple: help residents and faculty do more research. Today it's often hard to know what to study, how to study it, or who to ask. This hub brings the topic, the method, and the mentor into one place.
- Residents can choose from a curated list of open topics instead of starting from zero.
- Faculty can flag areas they want studied and offer to guide a project.
- AFPI gets visibility into what's being researched — and where the gaps are.
- We can steer members toward areas that are commonly under-researched.
- A public register opens the door to international collaboration with universities and practices abroad.
- Members can request feedback on topic, methodology, analysis, write-up, or choice of journal.
Concerns & boundaries — please read
- AFPI does not provide Institutional Review Board / Ethics Committee approval. Researchers must obtain IRB approval from their own or a nearby institution.
- There should be no conflict between a researcher's institutional study guide and AFPI's advisory input.
- Every AFPI suggestion on this hub will close with: "Kindly discuss with your study guide at your institution."
On this page
01 Register your study 02 Topics for residents 03 Topics for faculty 04 ICMR–NIE / NPTEL course 05 Methodology articles 06 Cochrane Library 07 PubMed Central 08 Journal of AFPI 09 Discussion forum 10 Notifications 11 Contact AFPI ＋ Our suggestionsRegister your research title
Registering early lets AFPI track what's being studied nationally, prevents two residents from unknowingly duplicating a title, and gives your study a visible record you can cite in your CV or PG thesis file.
Study Registration Form
AFPI-RES-2026-#### (assigned on submit)Topic bank — for residents
A living spreadsheet of research topics suited to PG residents — screened for feasibility within a training tenure.
New Topics for Residents.xlsx
Includes suggested topic, rationale, difficulty level, and a "claimed / open" status column so two residents don't pick the same title.
Download sheet ↓ · Suggest a topic →Topic bank — for faculty
Topics faculty want studied but haven't had the bandwidth to lead — a place to hand off an idea to a motivated resident or co-investigator.
Topics for Faculty.xlsx
Faculty can list a topic, the expertise/data access they can offer, and whether they're open to co-guiding with another institution.
Download sheet ↓ · Post a topic →ICMR–NIE course on medical research
The free, NMC-recognised research methodology course every PG resident should complete early in training.
Basic Course in Biomedical Research (BCBR)
A self-paced course from ICMR–National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, covering study design, sampling, ethics, and protocol/manuscript writing. Mandatory for many PG curricula.
Go to course ↗Research methodology articles
Short, practical guides — pick the design that matches your question before you touch a data sheet.
Observational studies
What they can and can't tell you, and when to reach for one.
Read guide →Cohort studies
Prospective vs retrospective, and how to handle loss to follow-up.
Read guide →Analytical studies
Framing a testable hypothesis and picking the right comparison.
Read guide →Clinical trials
Randomisation, blinding, and registering on CTRI before you start.
Read guide →Systematic reviews
Search strategy, PRISMA flow, and screening two reviewers at once.
Read guide →The Cochrane Library
Systematic reviews of the evidence
The gold standard for systematic reviews in health care — free to search and read.
Open Cochrane Library ↗PubMed Central
PMC — free full-text biomedical literature
NIH's free archive of full-text journal articles — useful for a literature review with no paywall.
Open PubMed Central ↗Journal of AFPI — current issue
Read the latest issue
See what's being published by AFPI members right now — and where your finished study could go.
Open Journal page ↗Discussion forum
All national and state executive members can respond to any query posted here.
Should only members with a registered study be able to post a query, to avoid residents posting unrelated or random questions?
Our suggestion: let anyone read the forum, but require a completed registration (Section 01) to post a new query — replies from executive members stay open to all registered members. This keeps the forum on-topic without shutting residents out before they've picked a study.
Notifications
Support and collaboration opportunities, announced as they come in.
Collaboration open — multi-site diabetic foot study
AFPI Kerala is inviting 3 more sites nationally to join a multi-centre cohort study. Contact the Research Chair to join.
BCBR (ICMR-NIE) enrolment window reminder
Batch registration for the NPTEL-hosted biomedical research course closes soon — see Section 04.
New faculty topic posted
Dr. Jyotika Gupta added a new topic to the Faculty bank: "Hypertension follow-up in semi-urban PHCs."
Contact AFPI
Reach the President, General Secretary, or Research Chair directly with questions this page can't answer.
Names shown reflect the current National Executive listed on afpinational.org. Email addresses are placeholders — please confirm the exact routing addresses with the AFPI secretariat before this page goes live.
Suggestions to consider
A few additions worth discussing with the Executive Committee, building on the goals in your brief.
Duplicate-title check on registration
When someone types a study title, flag similar registered titles so two residents don't unknowingly overlap.
Study status tracker
Let each registered study move through simple stages — Proposal → IRB → Data collection → Analysis → Write-up → Submitted — visible to the researcher and their mentor.
Mentor / co-investigator matching
A simple "open to mentoring" flag on faculty profiles, searchable by state, so a resident anywhere can find a guide.
Research map by region
An aggregate map or table showing which states/topics are actively being researched — directly supports "know what areas research is happening."
Reporting-guideline templates
Add STROBE, CONSORT, and PRISMA checklists as downloadable templates next to the relevant methodology article.
Moderated forum queue
New queries go to a light moderation queue (any exec member can approve) rather than posting instantly — keeps quality high without full gatekeeping.
International collaboration board
A short, separate list for partner universities/practices abroad open to co-authoring — supports the international collaboration goal directly.
Consent & data-collection templates
Downloadable Patient Information Sheet and Informed Consent templates, clearly marked "adapt to your institution's IRB format."
