Medical students and doctors in India can access healthcare information, including research articles from multiple reputed medical journals, courtesy an online initiative by Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD).

Explaining how the medical initiative ‘Univadis’ was different from the explosion of information already available on the Internet, MSD Managing Director KG Ananthakrishnan told Business Line that the portal had tie-ups with different independent medical journals, including the Lancet and BMJ , providing them all to medical professionals under one roof. And in the case of Lancet , some research articles would even be available a week ahead of the published version.

This is not a marketing tool, Ananthakrishnan said, adding that the company does not promote any of its products through the portal. The medical fraternity can access a host of things from the entire text of some Lancet research papers to tools such as medical calculators to three-dimensional images, among other things, on the site. Besides, it can be customised to individual requirements.

Swashraya Shah, MSD Senior Director (Medical Affairs), said doctors in the country were estimated to spend about 54 per cent of their browsing time looking for authentic medical information from reputed institutions. It is available in over 40 countries, including China and Russia, where it launched in the last couple of years, he said, adding that localised content would follow, but at a later date.

Outlining Lancet’s involvement with the portal, David Collingridge, Lancet Oncology’s Editor-in-Chief, said the Lancet articles on the portal were filtered and selected by their own editors. So not only do medical professionals gain access to different publications in one place, they also get research articles filtered and hand-picked by Lancet editors.

Responding to how the medical journal keeps an arms-length from MSD in the online initiative, Collingridge said independence was key and there was no bias from the company in the selection of articles. There are strong firewalls, he said, adding that they would not have got on board if it wasn’t the case.

For a campaign journal like Lancet, it was important that their voice be heard in more regions. Through the portal and its recent foray into China, India and Russia, Lancet gets to address the largest demographic for healthcare reform, he said.

In fact, says Anjan Sen, MSD Senior Director (Strategy and Commerical Operations), in countries such as Greece, Brazil and China, the Government was in partnership with the initiative, especially when it came to continuing medical education.

The portal was formally introduced to the medical fraternity on Saturday evening.

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