Nearly two months after issuing the draft guidelines on Knowledge Management policy for Health - Service, Education and Research, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will soon embark on a series of 'public debate' 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 first 'public debate' will be held in Delhi at ICMR headquarters on July 26 for the northern region. The second debate for the western region will be held in Mumbai at National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health on August 23 and the third debate for the southern region will be held at Tuberculosis Research Centre in Chennai on September 28. The last of the series of debate will be held at National Institute of Cholera & Enteric Disease in Kolkata on October 25.

Meanwhile, the ICMR has extended the date for making comments, suggestions and criticism on the draft policy from May 31 to July 15, 2010. The ICMR had earlier invited comments, suggestions and criticisms from experts and others on the draft policy till May 31 to improve the quality and contents of the draft policy.

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 fulfil 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.