The project was a collaboration with the Society for Promoting Innovation in Education (SPIE) at AKU and aimed to provide an insight into the basics of literature review. It aimed to cover basic concepts of research, its importance, and the process, with the focus being primarily on literature review. Dr. Sadia Fatima highlighted several key aspects, a few of which were: the rule of the quotation, referencing, and finding journals for submission.

The project started with Dr. Sadia Fatima giving her presentation and holding an interactive discussion with the participants and then proceeded with activities conducted by VFAHT and SPIE members. The mentors- Russel Seth Martins, Asma Akbar Ladak, Umer Junaid, Mussaab Munir Cheema, Ronika Devi Ukrani, and Hassan Raza Raja divided participants into small groups in break out rooms. Topics of discussion included:

• Clinical Features of HIV
• Progress in Vaccine Development
• Prevention of HIV transmission
• New Avenues for Treatments/Management

Activity 1 required the participants to do a literature search for the given topic using the 3 web sites and note the number of papers available in the chatbox: Google Scholar PubMedPak Medinet.

Activity 2 required participants to write one paragraph on the topic with 2-3 references imported through Endnote. The meeting was recorded using Zoom and was concluded with questions and feedback from participants. The project was exceptionally well received and highly praised by the participants. It managed to give not only a basic understanding of literature review through the initial presentation but also contributed extensively with the utilization of activities led by our mentors.

A literature review competition was organized by AKU-LC in collaboration with the VFAHT LC at STMU in accordance with the HIV Vaccine Awareness Day. This competition was preceded by a session titled ‘Path to Publications’ where a renowned faculty from AKU taught medical students about how to conduct a literature search and write a literature review. Methods for referencing through EndNote and Mendeley were also taught.

The submissions were thoroughly read and graded according to set criteria by Project Director for Research and Publications Musab Munir Cheema and President LC Farzeen Fatima Syed. The first prize was won by Sarah Karim Hudani for her literature review titled ‘Effective Management of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)’. The second position was secured by Elina Nizar Ali for ‘Clinical features of HIV and it’s associated problems’ and finally Syed Mohammad Mehmood Abbas and Ali Haider Bangash secured the third position for ‘Exploring the role of AI in helping us understand HIV AIDS parthenogenesis’.

The deadline for this competition was May 31, 2020, and three entries were received within the deadline from AKU and STMU. This was advertised in the session Path to Publications and through our social media pages.

Winners of the competition were announced through the official VFAHT AKU pages and e-certificates were emailed to the organizing committee and winners of the competition. The abstracts of the winning literature reviews will also be published on the official IPAC foundation website.

Click here to read the article on “A glance at the undeniable potential of Machine Learning
to curb HIV/AIDS Pandemic”
Click here to read the article on “Effective Management of Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV).”