The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has begun a series of 'public debate' on the draft guidelines on 'Knowledge Management Policy for Health Service, Education and Research' which the council had issued some months ago. The debate for the western region was conducted in Mumbai on August 23.

The public debates are being conducted in different regions of the country to evolve a consensus on the issue among the various stakeholders. After the elaborate debate, the ICMR, if needed, will make the necessary amendments in the guidelines.

The debate for the southern region will be held at Tuberculosis Research Centre in Chennai on September 28 and the last of the series of debate will be held at National Institute of Cholera & Enteric Disease in Kolkatta on October 25.

After inviting comments and suggestions from the experts and the public on the draft policy till July 15, 2010, the ICMR has now begun the public debate to improve the quality and contents of the draft policy. The first one was held in Delhi in July.

The drat policy proposes to establish an appropriate authority for developing and implementing a comprehensive plan for utilization of knowledge network for health service delivery, medical education and research.

Earlier, the union health ministry had asked Dr VK Katoch, secretary, department of health research, to chair a committee on healthcare, education, research and delivery to identify the applications that could use national knowledge network. Once developed this knowledge network would enable scientists, researchers, students, specialists, and other stakeholders to work closely for advancing human development in critical areas pertaining to health. This would also fulfill one of the mandates of the department of health research that is to improve governance of health research and preparation of such a policy is mandated. As a first step, a draft Knowledge Management Policy for Health Services, Education and Research was formulated with active participation and contributions from the experts in the field.

The policy aims to develop an efficient health knowledge management system for collection, dissemination and utilization of knowledge for improving the quality of health services, education and research. It also aims to make authentic information about health services available to health professionals, managers, policy makers and common man. It proposes to promote sharing of health resources in health services delivery, education and research and to manage health aspects of disasters effectively using knowledge management tools. The draft policy also aims to enable access to high quality health and medical education and also to contribute towards development of an efficient health research system.