Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences - [MGIMS]

On 24 Jul 2018, The Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Library was inaugurated in its new premises. The state-of-the-art library is spread across 16000 square feet, features a waiting area, lounge chairs, sofas and cushioned tiered reading spaces for 225 undergraduate students, 100 postgraduate students and 75 faculty members. In addition to 50,000 journals and books, the library also hosts an audio-visual room, a group discussion room, a 50-seat computer section, reprography area, areas for study, secure archival storage for books, theses and journals and a cafeteria. It also provides enough lockers for students to preserve their belongings. The entire area is wi-fi enabled.

The Central Library plays a vital role in the collection, development and dissemination of medical, scientific and technical information to meet the present and future needs of the departments of the Institute . The aim of college central library is to become an instrument of information and an integral part of the teaching programme. Thus the basic function of the library is to assist every department to carry its programme and adequately serve the information needs and requirements of the faculty members, research scholars, postgraduates and undergraduates. All the members can make full use of its resources and services.

This year the library subscribed to 105 medical journals; 32 of them being international journals with 7 e-journals having very high impact factor such as Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, BMJ and Archives of Internal Medicine, and 73 national journals. In addition, the National Medical Library, DGHS, New Delhi facilitated 235+ high impact e- journals (International) through ERMED Consortium under a single gateway. In addition, the library has subscribed to digital resources like Uptodate.com & DELNET library consortium as well as 2074 e-resources of the Digital Library of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik. The existing stock is of 30985 books which include reference books and e-books of each specialty as well as a robust fiction section for our young and old readers.

In 2012, MGIMS bought an annual campus wide subscription of UpToDate®, an evidence-based, physician-authored clinical knowledge resource which clinicians trust to make the right point-of-care decisions. Medical students, residents, faculty and researchers at MGIMS now use UpToDate in diverse locations - in their classrooms, in the post-graduate teaching sessions, at the point of care in the hospital wards and intensive care units and even in the crowded outpatient departments. The evidence-based electronic source of information helps doctors to use the most appropriate screening test, order the most reliable diagnostic test, choose the best option for their patients, compare and contrast the two modes of therapy and predict the outcomes of their patients. By combining rich experience with evidence, now the doctors at MGIMS help patients get the best therapy that is also tailored to their socio economic status, their wishes, and their choices.

“We have been immensely benefited by electronic access to UpToDate, said a resident working in the intensive care unit”. “Now, we can ensure that our patients are treated not by the whims and fancies, dated ideas and idiosyncrasies of their physicians, but by recommendations that have a proven track record,” said another resident. And they have a reason to be delighted. UpToDate has a team that comprises of more than 5,700 world-renowned physician authors, editors and peer reviewers who use a rigorous editorial process to synthesize the most recent medical information into trusted, evidence-based recommendations that are proven to improve patient care and quality. More than 850,000 clinicians in 164 countries and almost 90% of academic medical centers in the U.S. rely on UpToDate, and more than 30 research studies confirm the widespread usage of UpToDate and its association with improved patient care and hospital performance - including reduced length of stay, adverse complications and mortality. MGIMS is one of the few teaching hospitals in the country where students and faculty get free access to UpTodate- 24/7. International Journals