Information support for healthcare leaders in the Russian Federation

Healthcare decision makers constitute a crucial group of information users of WHO materials and data on international projects. The new information policy perused by the WHO Regional Office for Europe prioritizes information support for this particular group of users.
The current information situation in Russia is characterized as follows:
1. The majority of the Russian regions are geographically remote from Moscow where the principal information centers providing WHO materials and data on international projects are situated; therefore, their availability to the regions is limited. 
2. The Internet movers the user closer to info resources enabling an easy access at the working station. However, the Internet is overflowed with information and a layperson or a very busy one is most likely to get lost.
3. The majority of international data is available in English, which limits its wide use in the R ussian regions.
Development of the relevant web sites similar to “ZdravInform” Project site and WHO Documentation Center site, has greatly contributed to better information support of the regions. However, in this case the information is received passively and it remains unclear to what extent and how regularly the data finds its consumer.    
On the other hand, the information support for decision makers requires preparation of brief informative digests of massive documents.
All this necessitates release of an Information bulletin specifically tailored for this group of users in the form of brief yet informative executive summaries of WHO documents related to main questions of healthcare policy and international projects implemented world-wide, especially in countries in transition. Translation of basic papers from English into Russian is provided if WHO documents and international projects materials are available in English only. The summary is thought to outline the projects’ goal, objectives, and results with images, i.e. graphs, tables and diagrams if required. The same approach is used in preparing summaries of WHO documents. The summary will contain web links and references so that the user can retrieve the full version of any document. All summaries will be combined into a monthly information bulletin of no more than 5 electronic pages.
The Information bulletin is circulated by e-mail to the heads of the regional healthcare departments once a month. The Bulletin is also disseminated at workshops and conferences for the regional health authorities. The Bulletin is also included on “ZdravInform” and WHO DC web sites.