You are invited to a meeting at the Royal College of Nursing, on Tuesday
23rd September 2003:

"IMPROVING ACCESS TO INFORMATION FOR NURSES AND MIDWIVES IN DEVELOPING AND
EMERGING COUNTRIES"

The Royal College of Nursing, International Council of Nurses, International
Confederation of Midwives, and the International Network for the
Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) invite you to a special
meeting of the Health Information Forum, on 23 September 2003 at the Royal
College of Nursing, London, starting at *15:30h*.

The aim of the meeting is to raise awareness about issues relating to the
continuing professional development of nurses and midwives in developing
countries. The conference will focus particularly on exploring ways to
increase access to healthcare information and knowledge for nurses and
midwives in low-resource settings, who are currently professionally
isolated.

The meeting is being preceded by a global email discussion on this subject,
on 'HIF-net at WHO', from now until the date of the meeting. If you would
like to join, please send an email to [log in to unmask] and we shall be
delighted to subscribe you.

PROGRAMME (also available on INASP Home page: www.inasp.info )
Venue: Royal College of Nursing, Cavendish Square, London W1G 0RN
Date: Tuesday 23 September 2003

15:00 Registration and refreshments

15:30 Welcome from Sylvia Denton, President, Royal College of Nursing

15:40 Pat Hughes, International Council of Nurses, Geneva: "The ICN Mobile
Library for Nurses"

16:00 Mariama Sumani, DHF Problem Solving for Better Health for Nurses,
Ghana

16:20 Jennifer Depasquale, Dreyfus Health Foundation, New York, USA:
"Communicating for Better Health - Problem Solving for Better Nursing"

16:40 Nester Moyo, Midwifery Trainer, Zimbabwe; Programme Manager,
International Confederation of Midwives: 'Access to information for midwives
in developing countries' (to be confirmed)

17:00 Richard Koman, AnywhereBooks, USA: 'The digital bookmobile for health
information, anywhere, anytime'

17:10 Naeema Al-Gasseer, Senior Scientist for Nursing and Midwifery,
Department of Health Service Provision, WHO [to be confirmed]

17:30 Plenary discussion - Next steps.

18:00 - 18:30 Drinks reception

Participants: This conference is expected to be of interest to nurses,
midwives, health and development NGOs, health and development NGOs,
publishers, librarians, international agencies and all those with an
interest in healthcare in developing countries.

The meeting is FREE of charge thanks to provision of facilities by the Royal
College of Nursing, and sponsorship from the BMJ Publishing Group and
Exchange <www.healthcomms.org>.

The meeting is open to all. Please note, however, that travel and
accommodation expenses are *not* available.

To reserve your place, please send an email to Neil Pakenham-Walsh at
<[log in to unmask]>.

Thanks,
Neil

Dr Neil Pakenham-Walsh MD
Senior Programme Manager, INASP-Health
International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications
27 Park End Street, Oxford OX1 1HU, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1865 248124
<[log in to unmask]>

The organizing group for this meeting includes:
* Jackie Lord (Royal College of Nursing)
* Caroline Hyde-Price (Royal College of Nursing)
* Pat Hughes (International Council of Nurses)
* Petra ten Hoope-Bender (International Confederation of Midwives)
* Neil Pakenham-Walsh (INASP-Health/HIF organizing group) coordinator
* HIF Organizing group
- Ahmed Aliko (Institute of Psychiatry, London)
- Paul Chinnock (Cochrane Collaboration)
- Luis Cuervo (BMJ 'Clinical Evidence')
- Harry McConnell (Interactive Health Network)
- Ahmad Risk (Health Informatics Europe)
- Jean Shaw (Partnerships in Health Information)
- Rachel Stancliffe (Update Software)
- David Tibbutt (CME Uganda)
- Seshadri Vasan (Journal Server Trust, Oxford)
- Chris Zielinski (IWSP Network)

For further details on Health Information Forum, including proceedings of
previous meetings, see: <http://www.inasp.info/health>.