The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has launched a smart Rashid Medical Library application which will provide all medical staff at the DHA with access to a huge number of medical e-books, journals, health data bases and reference materials on their fingertips.

The app features quality, content, style and display that will greatly help medical professionals.

It will also provide medical professionals with access to millions of medical images and videos.

Dr Jamila Mohammed Al Sheikh, director of medical education department at the DHA, said that the move is in line with the initiatives of the Dubai smart government strategy and the DHA health strategy 2013-2025.

“Since the last 15 years, DHA has invested time, money and resources to ensure we convert all the information available in the library in an online form. Once that was achieved, providing this information via the smart app was the next step and we are proud of this achievement,” she said.

The application will support doctors, nurses, residents doctors and interns, paramedical and administrative staff and provide them with useful information so that they can make evidence-based decisions, said Dr Al Sheikh.

Moreover, the app contents will help enhance medical knowledge by making available latest information, clinical databases, drug resources and practice guidelines to the medical fraternity,” he said.

The application is a result of cooperative work between DHA’s Medical Education Department and Information Technology Department and that it took nine months to make this app available to all DHA staff.

Amani Al Jasmi, director of information technology at the DHA, said: “This is the fourth app that has been designed in-house and we have several other apps in the pipeline which when implemented will benefit medical professionals and patients. Our strategy is aligned with the Dubai smart government approach and is designed to ensure both systems and services are electronic and smart.

“This means patients should have access to vital information and services on their fingertips and healthcare professionals and facilities should use electronic services to improve efficiencies and patient outcomes, this will help optimise overall operations in the health sector.”

The application can be downloaded from the Apple store and Google Play and has been designed in an attractive way with colourful icons representing each category or services which are available in the library.

The categories and contents available on the app include international medical search engines; electronic medical journals; electronic medical books; drug resources such as, Micromedex and BNF; clinical resources, such as nursing reference centre and others; practice guidelines; multimedia resources of millions of images and videos; CME online resources like BMJ learning; patient education resources; and reference manager programme for researchers. - TradeArabia News Service