AIIMS Introduces E-book Facility

Government run healthcare institute cum hospital All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), has started an e-book facility for its students and resident doctors. The service was being discussed since the last year and is finally available for access via Wi-Fi.

Demands for such a service were being made since last year in the form of suggestions being submitted last year in September. It finally got approved but the service was not introduced until now. The service will help doctors and students alike as they were facing problems in accessing medical portals which in turn was affecting work and studies adversely.

"We have finally got an e-book facility. We have given the list of journals and e-book to the administration. The list was submitted in May 2010, and at last we got a few e-books for us," said doctor Debjyoti Karmakar, president, Resident Doctors Association (RDA), AIIMS.

Although the service will be helpful to the students, there is still a lot to be desired. While foreign universities have access to all the necessary portals like ATHENS that allows them access to the desired medical information.

"With our initiative, a lot of e-books and journals are now added to the AIIMS subscriptions, which can be accessed in the institute library through AIIMS Wi-Fi. But still accessibility to portals is inadequate," added Karmakar.

Keeping in mind the growing popularity and demand of mobile applications, maybe AIIMS can now launch an exclusive app based on medical information for the benefit of their faculty and students.