KARACHI, Sept 6: Federal Health Secretary Ijaz Rahim said medical libraries in the country could play an effective role in improving quality of medical education, saying dissemination of medical knowledge could help redress health challenges facing common man.

He stated this while speaking at the concluding ceremony of four-day ‘Third Regional Conference on Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) Health Sciences Virtual Library: Creating Digital Health Sciences Libraries in the Region’ at the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) on Saturday.

The event was jointly hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO)/EMRO, Government of Pakistan, the Islamic Educational Scientific and cultural Organizations, CPSP, Aga Khan University (AKU), Ziauddun Medical University and Pakistan Science and Technology Information Centre (PASTIC).

The participants of the conference included both national and international librarians associated with different medical institutions in the EMR.

Mr Rahim pointed out that an overwhelming segment of country’s population was faced with acute poverty, which resulted in various lethal and endemic diseases, adversely affecting the health of the people.

He said that the country was not only facing poverty of health but also poverty of knowledge and imagination, which he said was adversely affecting our development and growth.

Mr Rahim underscored the need for taking up issues of reproductive health, saying that due to widespread illiteracy and poverty in the country the challenges had multiplied with the passage of time, mainly due to lack of effective planning.

Appreciating the initiation of IT-based education by the people related to medical field, he said: “In order to accomplish this desired objective the ability to use the technology and knowledge for accomplishment of meaningful results, should be the ultimate goal, which is pre-requisite in toady’s world.”

Lauding the holding of the event, he said that medical librarianship in the country had entered a new era with the holding of WHO’s third regional conference.

He said libraries in Pakistan “could also accrue benefit from other’s experiences of transforming traditional paper based libraries into more viable digital ones.”

Dr Najeeb-al-Shorbaji, Regional Advisor, WHO, EMRO, highlighted the importance of networking of resources by the regional countries towards achievement of virtual library project of the WHO, aimed at digitalizing library resources.

Mrs Azra Qureshi, presented recommendations.—PPI