Monday, February 16, 2009

MISS - HELP

Dear Blogdosts. I found

this worthwhile. Hope you do, too.

HELP - the Health Education Library for People, India's first Consumer Health Education Resource Center , and one of the world's largest consumer health libraries ( as determined by the Medical Library Association , USA ) was established in 1997 to empower people by providing them with the information they need to promote their health , and prevent and treat medical problems in the family in partnership with their doctor. We are a registered charitable trust and a non-profit organisation.
We offer the following facilities:

1. Airconditioned reading rooms, with a seating capacity for 20-25 people;
2. An upto date collection of over 5000 consumer health books, 10000 pamphlets, and many magazines and newsletters
3. Audiovisual educational media, including over 600 videotapes. Videos can be viewed in privacy in the library
4. Computer software , including over 30 CD-ROMs on all health and medical topics
5. Photocopying facilities, at Re 1 a page
6. A lecture hall ( seating capacity of over 70 people) with a big-screen projector which we give free to NGOs for health talks.

We have access to information on every health and medical topic under the sun - explained in terms which the layperson can understand.
HELP has become a prototype of the modern digital library. Our website at http://www.healthlibrary.com is India's leading health portal, and receives over half a million hits a month !
We are a public library - everyone is welcome ! Entry to HELP is free !
We are open Monday through Saturday, from 10 am to 6.30 pm. For those unable to come personally to the library, we also answer questions by post or e-mail. This is an innovative service called MISS-HELP ( Medical Information Search Services from HELP ) which allows us to provide medical information to users from all over India .

We feel patients are the largest untapped healthcare resource and that Information Therapy is Powerful Medicine !

We help patients save money on medical care by
1. Promoting SelfCare and helping them to do as much for themselves as they can
2. Helping them with Evidence-Based Guidelines , so that they can ask for the right medical treatment that they need - no more and no less
3. Helping them with Veto Power, so they can say No to medical care they don’t need, thus preventing overtesting and unnecessary surgery .

Please do come and visit HELP !

Our focus areas now are:
1. encouraging health insurance companies to invest in patient education
2. advocating information therapy
3. setting up a national network of patient education centers
4. developing patient educational materials in Indian languages for the web

Dr Aniruddha Malpani, MD
Medical Director
HELP - Health Education Library for People
Excelsior Business Center,
National Insurance Building,
Ground Floor, Near Excelsior Cinema,
206, Dr.D.N Road, Mumbai 400001
Tel. No.:65952393/65952394
helplib@vsnl.com
www.healthlibrary.com

17 comments:

Harish said...

Thanks for sharing De. HELP is a great initiative ... just that many people don't know about it. thanks to your blog people will give this a dekko.

Thanks :-)

Balvinder Balli said...

I like the new term that you have coined "Blogdosts".

Thanks for sharing valuable information.

rainboy said...

HELP has and will HELP a lot.

a nice start

A.prem said...

Thanks for the info :-)

Sidhusaaheb said...

Quite useful...Thanks!

:)

vesa50 said...

hmmm! thanks for sharing. needs inspection; seems you need to pay to get an info package. what one would need as an extra is a simple internet free help (in local languages) accessible in villages.

RK said...

My first visit to your blog and nice to read a good socialite writing about a very social matter.
Thanks a lot as all my apprehensions have disappeared.
I am happy to be here.
Regards and God bless you.

Anonymous said...

How much "malpani" has the good doctor given you, Madam, to promote his business in the garb of social welfare?

Harish said...

I HAVE TO SHARE MY CONCERN.

Let us not point fingers but appreciate the efforts of shobhaa de when she shares some harmlessly kind information. am sure neither any of her blogdosts would care about whether she gets paid for propagating HELP or not.

we are usually dub the rich and the known as slutty and attention seeking.

will we respect her if she is shy to admit that she is rich and famous? i appreciate that she does her little bit by being where she is... does she has to bend down and come down to our level everytime.. if they speakout it is a publicity stunt, if they do not, they are irresponsible. i dont feel de has to wear khakhi and travel by second class mumbai local to prove that she is a responsible citizen. she uses her medium of communication "her blog" to do her bit. im sure she didnt and doesnt get paid, but seriously we care naught. anyeays, even if she did, she would get paid much more to promote a new wine/scotch brand than to promote an NGO.

why do we have to pull down anyone who does something for the society... we are more for "AGAINST" than we are for "FOR". lets appreciate that she is being a messenger for kindness.

why shoot the messenger...?

Harish said...

Here is DE's Reply to the comment... that she emailed me.


shobhaa de>>

thank you for saying what you did. only a very petty mind would imagine I'm getting paid for something. God has been kind to me. I don't need anybody's money. I make my own. I met Malpani for the first time, very briefly. I hope and pray his intentions are noble... but I am not a detective!!

Anonymous said...

Mr JP Jindal: Your small and petty mind is sickening.

Dr Aniruddha Malpani said...

Dear Shobhaa De,

Thanks so much for helping to create more awareness about HELP.

HELP is a free library - and we would like as many people as possible to make use of our free services !

We do answer questions free by email at http://helpforhealth.org/information.htm

Dr Aniruddha Malpani, MD
Medical Director
HELP - Health Education Library for People
Excelsior Business Center,
National Insurance Building,
Ground Floor, Near Excelsior Cinema,
206, Dr.D.N Road, Mumbai 400001
Tel. No.:65952393/65952394
helplib@vsnl.com
www.healthlibrary.com

kaleidoscope said...

Thank you De and Dr. Malpani,

This is truly a wonderful initiative. The academic in me has always been the one for dissemination of knowledge.

Keep up the good work and De's blogdosts like me will surely spread the word. What do you say, *Aham*?

Harish said...

yes yes totally KSH.

have reposted the same on the MumbaiTerrorHelpline Blog.

http://mumbaiterrorhelpline.blogspot.com/2009/02/help-free-health-library.html

RK said...

HI!
Good work mam and doctor.
Keep it up.
:-)

Another Kiran In NYC said...

There will be naysayers for everything. Those who need help and look for it with the best intentions will find the good amidst the detritus of cynical comments and hatespeak on any blog.

I am sure it is a worthy cause and will likely bring much information, help and support to those who seek it. Thanks for the public service message Shobhaa!

Raja said...

Ignore the naysayers. Who cares ?
What is important is that given the huge imbalance between demand for medical services and the supply of these services, HELP could help a lot to bridge this gap.

That is enough for me. This is the first I am hearing of HELP, thanks to you. Have had a quick look at the site, looks good.

I will spread the word in my circle of friends. Thank you.