By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: In an effort to improve health and well-being through education, research and training, a three-day National Convention of Medical Library Association of India (MLAI) themed ‘Role of Medical Librarians in Global Health Initiatives’ was organised at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) here on Wednesday.
The convention saw the participation of many medical practitioners from all over the country who laid stress on global health initiatives which is a programme dedicated to improving health and well-being through education.
Addressing the gathering at the convention, NEIGRIHMS Director Dr AG Ahangar stated that the during the era of globalization, medical sciences have become so advanced that almost all chronic and dreaded diseases have become curable.
Dr Ahangar said that increasing prevalence of dreaded diseases has reached epidemic proportions and it is important to develop cost effective strategies for prevention and treatment of diseases.
Providing an insight into the development of medical library through the ages, MLAI president RP Kumar said that there have been rapid advancements in bio-medical research in the last few years.
North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) Vice Chancellor Prof AN Rai called for evolving a ‘seamless data access system’ while stating that a vast majority of the people in the country had no access to public libraries.
“A data base should be developed with all the information in it,” he said while reasoning on the difficulty people endure since they have to refer to many sites to gather information.
NEIGRIHMS librarian Wandahun Dkhar expressed confidence that the convention would offer ‘credible interface’ for exchange of information on newer techniques which would be of immense help in the endeavour to acquire, retrieve and disseminate information to help health information seekers, researchers and the medical fraternity in general.
Altogether 34 research papers related to medical sciences would be discussed at the ongoing convention.