MoS Health urges healthcare professionals to stay updated with latest developments

New Delhi: Continuous learning allows health care professionals to stay updated with the latest developments and integrate them into their practices, ensuring the best possible care for patients, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said on Friday.

Pawar was speaking after inaugurating the National Conference on Electronic Resources in Medicine (ERMED) Consortium: Empowering Libraries for Digital Health Transformation at the National Media Library (NML) here.

Also Read:National Emergency Life Support modules for doctors, nurses, paramedics: MoS Health informs Rajya Sabha

The ERMED stands for collaborative excellence and transformative impact within the medical landscape of India and for its unwavering commitment to cater to the diverse information needs of the medical fraternity.

The ERMED consortium access facility has been extended to 74 select government institutes, including 14 AIIMS and even AYUSH research colleges.

Accentuating the importance and impact of NML, Pawar stated that "now faculty and research students living in remote areas are also taking advantage of e-Resources of NML, the metadata of books and journals of NML that have been uploaded on NIC's cloud software eGranthalaya and is easily searchable by information seekers".

The NML's e-Resources such as eBooks, eJournals, clinical cases, high-resolution images are available through ERMED consortium with member institutions.

"The pursuit of knowledge is beneficial not only for patient care but also for personal and professional development," she added.

The MoS emphasised that under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the last nine years, the government has taken several steps to increase the number of seats in various medical institutions/colleges in the country, as a result of which the number of undergraduate seats which were 51,348 before 2014 has increased to more than 1,07,948 as of today.

Similarly, since 2014, the number of PG (post-graduation) seats in the country has increased by 117 per cent to 67,802 seats. It means that in the coming times, NML has a pivotal role to play in making medical education accessible to all via the digital platform, she said.

She also highlighted the continuous innovations and new developments in the field of treatment, diagnostic methods and technologies.

"Continuous learning allows health care professionals to stay updated with the latest developments and integrate them into their practices, ensuring the best possible care for patients," she stressed.

"Continuous learning ensures that we meet this responsibility by offering the latest and most effective treatments available," she said.

The Minister of State suggested that more medical eResources should be included in the ERMED consortium that is accessible to all.

"The world of medicine is constantly evolving, driven by groundbreaking discoveries, new technologies, and advances in patient care. In this fast changing scenario, the importance of lifelong learning cannot be underestimated. Medicine is a field of precision and compassion where the lives of individuals depend on the knowledge, skill, and expertise of health care professionals," she further stated.

"Continuous learning is not just an option, but a responsibility that every healthcare professional must shoulder," she added.