First consumer health education resource

HELP - the Health Education Library for people is the country's largest consumer health library (authenticated by the Medical Library Association, USA). Set up in 1997 by Drs Aniruddha and Anjali Malpani of Malpani Infertility Clinic Mumbai, it is a library with Internet-ready computers open to public with an aim at bridging the knowledge gap between doctors and patients.

The books cover the entire gamut of medical sciences at layman's level and are not meant to replace the services of the doctor but to supplement it by understanding the consumer rights, treatment mode and diseases better. It took Malpanis seven years to collect 5,000 books, 10,000 pamphlets, 300 videocassettes and 30-CD ROMS before they could organise it into a versatile databank.

This patient friendly medical library helps patients sit with the doctors and understand their medical problems better by accessing medical databases on the Net and going through a variety of published papers on related topics.

Source: LIMCA BOOK OF RECORDS 2002

Longest running series of talks on health awareness

Dr Hufrish Suraliwala, Medical Information Manager of Dr Malpani’s Health Education Library for People (HELP) at Mumbai has been organising free health–related talks on the first and third Saturdays of every month since 1999 at Om Chambers, Kemps Corner, Mumbai. The first session of HELP Talk was held on June 19, 1999 where oncologist Dr Vijay Haribhakti spoke on "Everything you wanted to know about cancer and did not know whom to ask”. Since then, eminent doctors and health professionals from all fields of medicine have delivered talks on every aspect of health right from cancer to cosmetology.

Source: LIMCA BOOK OF RECORDS 2003