Virtual Health Sciences Library of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region:

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Virtual Health Sciences Library of theWHO
Eastern Mediterranean Region

• Bridging the Knowledge Gap

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What makes the gap

• Healthcare is an informationintensive sector
  that requires continuous flow of scientific and
  technical information for education, planning,
  monitoring and evaluation
• Health information is produced in abundance with
  very limited means to find the right information
• Health information is not available/accessible to
  majority of health professionals and citizens of
  developing countries.

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• High rate of information and information
  technology illiteracy
• Week information and communication
  infrastructure.

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The Mandate

• In 1978, the EMR RC Resolution on Regional
  Medical library recommended that the Regional
  Director takes further steps for the
  consolidation of the resources and services of
  the WHO Regional Medical Library and the
  development of a viable Network for biomedical
  information

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• Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran,
  Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco,
  Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
  Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab
  Emirates, and Yemen

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The East Mediterranean Region
Lebanon
Syria
Palestine
Tunisia
Afghanistan
Iraq
Iran
Morocco
Jordan
Kuwait
Pakistan
Egypt
United Arab Emirates
Libya
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Oman
Bahrain
Sudan
Yemen
Djibouti
Somalia
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The Approach

• National planning of national health information
  systems
• Development of resources-sharing networks for
  health sciences libraries and information centres
  on a national and regional basis
• Promoting of training of health sciences library
  personnel

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• Improvement of the bibliographic control of the
  health literature both at the Regional and the
  national levels
• Provision of library and information services in
  support of country health programmes and,
• Development and support of networking activities
  and eventual building of the EMR Virtual Health
  Science Library
• Development of information infrastructure at
  healthcare and medical education institution.

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The Solution
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Development and Maintenance of Bilingual Web Site

• The World Wide Web represents the fastest growing
  medium for dissemination of health information
• Arabic and English with potential to add more
  local languages
• It is used to provide health information for
  healthcare professionals, decision makers, and
  citizens
• It includes health topics and country profiles in
  addition to Regional Office information services
  and networks.

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Development of the Virtual Health Sciences Library

• Developing information and telecommunication
  infrastructure
• Building of electronic collections in health
  sciences libraries
• Connecting libraries to the Internet
• Pooling of electronic resources.

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World resources
Regional Libraries and Information Centres
Libraries in Health Care Institutions at the
National Level
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EMR Index Medicus a tool for enhancing access
to locally produced health literature

• Over 400 medical journals are published in the
  Region
• A few journals are indexed in international
  indexing and abstracting services such as
  MEDLINE
• A tool for south-north information flow
• Includes over 80,000 records from 18 countries.

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Index Medicus for the Eastern Mediterranean

• Started in 1987 to index 1984 articles
• Continued as retrospective until 1998
• Since 1999 it became current
• The only in the world to include this
  information
• Journals increased from 70 journals to 320 now

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Publishing and Distribution Policy of the IMEMR

• Printed form of the Bulletin on a quarterly basis
  (500 copies)
• The Bulletin is published on the RO Intranet
• Access through EMRO Web site on the Internet
• CD-ROM update on six monthly basis
• Special bibliographies upon request
• Distributed free in all cases.

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EMRO Networks and Communities of Practice

• Connecting professionals through Listservs and
  collaborative workspace
• Discussion groups
• Networks and associations.

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Union Catalogue of Medical Journals

• A central database of journals holdings of 40
  medical libraries in the Region
• A memorandum of Understanding between
  institutions and the Regional Office
• A collection of 3500 journals titles with full
  details on each titles holding and libraries
• A document delivery service at no cost on
  participating libraries.

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E-Health

• is the use, in the health sector, of digital
  datatransmitted, stored and retrieved
  electronicallyfor clinical, educational and
  administrative purposes, both at the local site
  and at a distance.

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EMRO e-Health Programme

• Consultation and assessment of needs
• Provision of training
• Logistics support for equipment and software
• Professional meetings and conferences
• Policy setting national planning.

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Education and Training

• National training courses
• Conferences, professional meetings and Seminars
• Fellowships
• Internships.

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Provision of health literature

• Free distribution of WHO and EMRO publications
• Provision of access to health information
  resources on the Internet
• Provision of electronic publications and
  databases.

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Development of Systems and tools

• Development of the \unified medical Dictionary
• Arabicization of the International Classification
  of Diseases
• Arabicization of the National Library of Medicine
  Medical Subject Headings

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• Development of the EMR Medical Library Handbook
  in Arabic and English
• Arabicization of the library management software.

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Mobile Health Libraries

• Reaching out to remote areas
• Health information at the district level.

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Results and Statistics

• A budget allocation of over US 2,000,000 for
  Knowledge Management
• A network of over 250 libraries in the Region
• Training courses for health information workers
  in 10 countries of the Region
• Assessment of needs and evaluation for most of
  the countries of the Region

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• Substantial increase in number of participants in
  Listservs and virtual communities
• Twelve Regional Conferences over the last four
  years
• Four conference on Virtual Library Network
• Four conferences on e-health and telemedicine
• Two conferences on medical publishing and
  translation
• Over 40 national training courses.

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Future steps

• Forming of consortia for medical journals
  subscriptions
• Surveys on needs assessment and e-readiness in
  healthcare institutions
• Approach donors for support to health information
  access projects
• Expand the IMEMR to cover full text of regional
  journals.