Access to Information for Health Professionals in Developing Countries

The review started with a launch meeting at the British Medical Association on July 12 2004, and the publication of a discussion paper in The Lancet. These have been transformed into an ongoing theme through a series of existing international and country-level meetings already scheduled for 2004-5, each organised by one or more of the participating organisations. The meetings aim to cover the full range of professional and geographical perspectives. The project will combine a series of meetings for face-to-face dialogue as well as a series of moderated discussions on HIF-net at the World Health Organisation (WHO). HIF-net is an interdisciplinary email forum with more than 1500 people worldwide committed to improve access to health information, over half of whom are from developing countries - click here for more information on this discussion forum.

The Review will build on what is already known. It will draw from pre-existing material on the subject (formal and informal, including previous dialogue on HIF-net) and new findings from parallel health information research projects.

Project facilitators expect to see a real increase in financial commitment to health information activities worldwide over the coming months. The Global Review aims to serve partly as a mechanism for those in positions of influence to "take into account the needs of diverse groups of constituencies and stakeholders" and to contribute to more effective advocacy.

Interested partners can contribute to the dialogue by participating in the series of international conferences; the current listing of conferences runs until September 2005. Participants can also connect to the HIF-net.

In addition there is the INASP Newsletter - the November 2004 issue was devoted to the Global Review. INASP sought submissions and short articles from a wide range of contributors. These were an effort to illustrate the wide range of experience, lessons learned, ideas and suggested ways forward to improve access to health information in developing countries. INASP has sought contributions from Africa, Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, Latin America and Caribbean, and the Western Pacific region.

INASP is consulting with all those involved in the use, creation and exchange of information for health professionals in developing countries and are engaging ideas and perspectives from healthcare providers, researchers, journal publishers, indexers, systematic reviewers, producers of health learning and reference materials, librarians, technologists, development workers, evaluators, funding agencies and others.

Health, Technology.

According to INASP, despite many successful initiatives during the past 10 years, most healthcare providers in developing countries continue to lack access to the information they need to deliver safe, effective healthcare with available resources.

Access to health information is increasingly recognised as a prerequisite for the Millennium Development Goals. The issue has never been so high on the political agenda. The recent draft 'World Report on Knowledge for Better Health' [by the World Health Organisation (WHO)] argues that, "access to relevant, reliable and up-to-date health and health research information [in] the developing world must be improved and must take into account the needs of diverse groups of constituencies and stakeholders."