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In the context of Continuous Professional Development of the medical and health of the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life (MOH), the Virtual Health Library project was initiated in November 2013. This project aims at providing online access to health information to healthcare professionals. The Mauritius Institute of Health has set up the Virtual Health Library by mid-2014. It serves: - to enhance the access to up-to-date health information by organizing and delivering comprehensive health information resources, - to increase the cost-effectiveness of the delivery of health information throughout Mauritius and - to demonstrate the efficiency of innovative approaches to delivery of health information. An online registration of medical staff was initiated in order to compile a database of potential users of the virtual library. Internet connectivity at the MIH was also upgraded and the MIH was connected to the Fibre optic network. By February 2014, 26 PCs and 12 printers had been acquired for placement in the 12 identified access points, including Rodrigues By July 2014, the portal was put on test and in August 2014, presented Headquarters of the Ministry of Health & Quality of Life. This was followed by training sessions at the 5 Regional Hospitals aimed at informing users about the project, its purposes and how to use it. The Phase 2 of this project aims at extending of this service to the nurses, paramedical staff and other departments in the public health sector. To date, 2700 users including doctors and paramedical staff have been registered. It is planned to extend services to private healthcare professionals in the near future. The following databases are accessible on VHLM: 1. HINARI 2. EBSCO 3. Emerald Insight 4. Health Digital Library Mauritius 5. Research Methods Library of Alexandria

Our world has been drastically transformed by digital technology, enabling radical changes to several processes that dramatically improve efficiency and effectiveness. The integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in healthcare includes a variety of electronic methods that are used to manage information, data, and knowledge for communication and decision making. In addition, electronic access to health information provides immediate access to updated resources without any physical boundaries. The virtual health library provides a platform where several databases and born-digital local reports, research studies, statistics and other documents in different areas of concerns are hosted. It serves: - to enhance the access to up-to-date health information by organizing and delivering comprehensive health information resources, - to increase the cost-effectiveness of the delivery of health information throughout Mauritius and - to demonstrate the efficiency of innovative approaches to delivery of health information.

Universal access to high quality, timely, reliable and valid health information plays an important role for continuing professional development in today’s world. Research evidence shows that the availability of health information and professionally led library services has a positive impact on health outcomes for patients, such as reduced error rates and improved patient safety and can lead to time savings for health professionals. Healthcare providers need the most accurate and current information to help determine the appropriate care and treat patients effectively. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has made universal access to information for health professionals a prerequisite for meeting the Millennium Development Goals and achieving Health for All. .

The VHLM task force would support and enable the health service points to respond rapidly to health professional needs for high-quality information. VHLM filled the gap for health care professionals who currently had no access to information resources and services, regardless of jurisdiction or geographic location. The VHLM addressed many of the problems that health professionals experience today gaining access to the best quality, most relevant and current information and evidence to support decisions at the point of need.

At present, there is no information sharing system in the health sector in Mauritius. The only health information agencies that exist are found at the MIH, MOH and WHO which are not within the reach of health professionals. Most of the health documentation are found scattered in different departments and are not easily available. With the advent of ICT and Internet, information could be shared and brought to the outreach. Therefore, the setting up of this Virtual Health Library in Mauritius is of utmost value that can be a solution to provide health professionals with access to information. This information sharing system, which will be available through the Internet will be a virtual resource centre where health documentation and other learning materials will be accessible.

There is a significant increase in the number of users accessing the Virtual Health Library of Mauritius from 22 doctors in January 2015 to 829 doctors in July 2015 and the users comprised of 57% registered medical officers, 32% specialists and 11% of pre-registered house officers. To date, 2700 users including doctors and paramedical staff have been registered.

The Virtual Health Library Mauritius is a first time project in Mauritius which has been implemented by the Mauritius to cater for the health information need and evidence based literature of health professionals in the public health sector and which will eventually be extended to the private health sector. This is an innovative project where to target the outreach with up to date information required at the point of care and also for decision making

This innovation is a partially original piece of work since all access to several databases are centralized under one portal and authentication is required to allow users to get access. Furthermore, open source solution (Drupal) has been used for the development of the portal. Users are able to access the portal on a 24 hours by 7 days basis through Internet access either from work site or at home. The usage is being monitored through the use of google analytics.

This is a low cost project initiative which was funded by the Ministry of Health Quality of Life (MOHQL) and implemented by the Mauritius Institute of Health (MIH). This project started as a pilot has now been integrated as a service to the health professionals of the public healt sector which is totally managed by the MIH and recurrent cost is supported by the MOHQL. As far as the technology is concerned, the MIH is responsible for development of the portal for which open source solutions have been used. In addition to the management and provision of this service, both the server and the portal are managed by the staff of MIH.

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MIH is pioneer in the implementation of this project which initially was an initiative of having a Health Information Sharing System. During a Greenstone workshop by Unesco in Mauritius, an Information Sharing System was initiated to create a national centralize digital library which would be made available to professionals, student and so on. The project did not start. The Virtual Health Library Mauritius could be a very interesting example for other areas in the local context. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED) recently contacted the MIH to look into how same could be implemented at their level. Technical exchanges between MIH and MOFED have already been organised for this purpose.

This is a sustainable project with limited financial resources but providing high quality information resources. The virtual library provide access to Hinari, Ebsco and Emerald; and other important health databases which are commonly being used and recommended in the medical field. As the Government intends to extend this service to the private sector, a sustainable plan could be devised in order to support the expansion of the services.

Health Information for All should be ensured by the Government of any country and the project should further be enhanced and developed in order to meet the needs of health professionals in terms of health information. Furthermore, in order to meet quality health care delivery and continuing medical education, healthcare providers need to acquire and keep up to date with new development in medicine and related sciences. This project could also take a national dimension by providing the public with health information.

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The main stakeholders in the project are the Mauritius Institute of Health (MIH) and the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life (MOHQL). This project was initiated and implemented by the MIH and funded by the MOHQL. The design and implementation were conducted MIH and the staff of the Documentation centre is responsible for the operations of this service. In addition, registration of users, maintenance of database, monitoring of the portal and analytics are carried out by MIH

There was a long awaiting information need among health professionals A database email of public health sector professional have been developed Canvassing should be carried out through the health services in both public and private health sector User education should be continued