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Medical Intormatics
The National Library of Medicine and
Medical Informatics
DONALD A. B. LINDBERG, MD, and HAROLD M. SCHOOLMAN, MD, Bethesda, Maryland
Medical informatics attempts to provide the theoretic and scientific basis for the use of automated
information systems in biomedicine. Even though a new field, its roots are in the 19th century. The
National Library of Medicine (NLM) began classifying the medical literature and publishing the
Index Medicus in 1897; in the early 1960s, the growth of the index gave rise to MEDLARS, the first
successful, large-scale, computerized bibliographic system. In 1971, about the time MEDLARS
evolved into a nationwide on-line retrieval system known as MEDLINE, a committee of the Association ofAmerican Medical Colleges published a report calling for the NLM to exert strong leadership
in developing computer applications for information transfer in medicine. The NLM has sponsored
several training and research programs in this area and is now developing the concept of "centers
of excellence" in medical informatics. In addition, there are a number of current research and
development activities within the NLM internal and extramural programs that may influence the
progress ofmedical informatics.
(Lindberg DAB, Schoolman HM: The National Library of Medicine and medical informatics, In
Medical informatics [Special Issue]. West J Med 1986 Dec; 145:786-790)
M edical informatics, a new, multidisciplinary field, attempts to provide the theoretic and scientific basis for
the use of automated information systems in biomedicine.
Investigators come from health and computer sciences, engineering, library and information science and management
Like many new fields, especially in medicine, the initial
practical demonstrations of the power ofthe methods of medical informatics (in this case, to store and retrieve information, to compute quantities and to control events) precede and
overshadow its incomplete theoretic base. Nonetheless, this
field is already having a profound effect on health care affairs
because of its focus on the fundamental processes of human
medical treatment and information. Thus, studying the processes of teaching and learning the accumulated record of
scientific evidence and discovery, the general problems of
patient record-keeping and the processes of medical diagnostic and management decision-making has been of greater
interest to those in medical informatics than issues particular
to the individual specialty areas of medicine and health care
per se.
For example, the use by a surgeon of information from
statistical studies of populations along with incomplete sets of
laboratory, roentgenologic, scientific and clinical informa-
tion about a single patient to form the basis for the surgeon's
decision to operate has been of great interest in medical informatics. Sohn, Robbins' and de Dombal2 have reported the
results of such studies. These are examples of the general
clinical problem of making decisions in the face of uncertainty. Such a dilemma has since the beginning of medicine
placed a premium on learning, on skills in reasoning and on
empathy. Since the beginning of modern scientific medicine,
there has been a premium, too, on the thoroughness of a
physician's knowledge and his or her familiarity with the
rapidly changing understanding of disease processes and the
discovery of new treatments and preventatives.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has for 150
years been dedicated to organizing the knowledge of medicine
and to providing timely information to health professionals in
support of clinical health care and research. More recently,
NLM has also taken a strong interest in the cognitive processes and systems with which such knowledge is used in
timely and appropriate ways to improve health. Some aspects
ofthis evolution may be of interest to readers.
The National Library of Medicine has the legislative mandate
to assist the advancement of medical and related sciences, and to aid in the
From the National Library of Medicine, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland.
This article is considered, under the Copyright Act of 1976, a "work of the United States government" .and accordingly there is no copyright.
Reprint requests to Donald A. B. Lindberg, MD, National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894.
786
THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
�NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN TEXT
AAMC = Association of American Medical Colleges
GRACE = Graphic Arts Composing Equipment
MEDLARS = Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System
MeSH = Medical Subject Headings
NLM = National Library of Medicine
dissemination and exchange of scientific and other information important to
the progress of medicine and to the public health.3
Early NLM Development
Indeed, it was in the pursuit of this purpose that John Shaw
Billings, MD, in 1879 started the Index Medicus, "A monthly
classified record of the Current Medical Literature of the
World." In his prospectus, Billings described the new index
as follows:
In its pages the
cases, accounts
practitioner will find the titles of parallels for his anomalous
of new remedies, and the latest methods in therapeutics. The
teacher will observe what is being written or taught by the masters of his art in
all countries. The author will be enabled to add the latest views and cases to
his forthcoming work, or to discover where he has been anticipated by other
writers, and the publishers of medical books and periodicals must necessarily
profit by the publicity given to their productions.4
The first issue of Index Medicus listed 18,000 articles.
Within 50 years its annual coverage had tripled. Today the
annual coverage exceeds 250,000 articles. By the early 1950s
the logistics of maintaining the Index Medicus had become
overwhelming. Currency could not be maintained and backlogs were growing rapidly.
In 1960 a new system was put into operation that handled
125,000 citations with multiple entries for each. The system
used tape-actuated typewriters to repetitively print a unit record across the top of a Hollerith card, the keypunching of
filing indicia into a reserved area of each card, sorters and
collaters to arrange the cards into appropriate author and
subject subsets and a high-speed rotary-step camera. The
camera, capable of varying its aperture to fit the number of
lines in an entry, would photograph the cards on filmstrips
that could be cut into column length.
The Creation of MEDLARS
This early application of "automation" foreshadowed
what might be done and led to the specifications of the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS).
It was this system that produced the January 1964 issue of
Index Medicus. A machine called GRACE (Graphic Arts
Composing Equipment), developed specifically for the
NLM, typeset pages at the rate of 300 characters per second.
GRACE accepted input directly from magnetic tape that had
been reworked by a computer into a page-block format.
This photocopier tape contained a matrix of 226 characters etched on glass. These characters were in several sizes
and fonts, with a complement of diacritical marks. Behind
each character on the matrix was a high-speed flash tube; the
circuitry of GRACE timed the flashing of these lights. Between the matrix plate and a 9-in wide roll of film, there was a
mirror and reciprocating lens that constantly roved back and
forth, photographing one line of characters, character by
character, across the entire width of a three-column page. It
may be calculated that, at 1.7 seconds per sweep, GRACE
had to labor for 150 hours to compose the five volumes and
8,900 pages of the 1968 Cumulated Index Medicus.
DECEMBER 1986
*
145
*
6
Remarkable for its day, GRACE was a significant step in
computer-controlled typesetting. By showing that such a
system was operationally feasible, NLM created the precursor, if not the stimulus, for computer-based publishing.
This was recognized by GRACE's retirement in 1969 to the
collection ofthe Smithsonian Institution.
But MEDLARS was not designed solely for the publication of Index Medicus. From the beginning, retrieval was
prominent in its specifications. By the late 1960s, around
16,000 searches a year were being done in batch mode on
three computers that mounted the MEDLARS tapes. MeSH
(Medical Subject Headings) had been thoroughly revised and
greatly expanded. This structured, controlled vocabulary permitted in a computerized search a far greater specificity than
was possible through the use ofthe Index Medicus main headings.
The newly formed Lister Hill Center soon began experiments with interactive on-line searching using the teletypewriter communication network (TWX) and an abbreviated
file of 100 clinical journals called Abridged Index Medicus
thus the name AIM-TWX. The extension to the full Index
Medicus file and the utilization of common communication
carriers soon followed, and MEDLINE was launched. The
immediate and remarkable success of MEDLINE provided a
great stimulus to the common carriers to rapidly expand the
coverage of their telecommunication networks. This contributed greatly to the early introduction of on-line searching of
many other subsequent data bases.
The on-line interactive search made the rapid identification of citations a practical reality. But citations were not the
answer to a searcher's question. For that one needed the documents to which the citations referred. To assure the availability of documents, NLM, under the aegis of the Medical
Library Assistance Act of 1965, supported new library construction, collection development, training and special publications.
Perhaps most important of all, however, the Act extended
to NLM authority to establish a national communications
system, including, if necessary, construction of NLM branch
libraries in the states and construction or reconstruction of
libraries at the medical schools. Fortunately, this authority
was used wisely to build up strong local and regional libraries
and to build the Regional Medical Library network that we
know today.
In this system, documents that were not available at a
hospital library could be requested from larger resource libraries and a Regional Medical Library. If the material sought
was not available there, NLM acted as the library of last
resort. In 1985 more than 2 million documents were delivered
within the network. NLM had to supply only 160,000 of
these. This network-routing system is being even more fully
automated. A national computer-based system for interlibrary
loan requests (DOCLINE) is now being implemented in
stages throughout the nation.
Medical Education
While the Lister Hill Center was beginning to engage in
experiments in telemedicine supporting health care delivery
and medical education using the Advanced Technology Satellites ATS-1 and ATS-6, the NLM contracted with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to assess the
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�NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
future role of computer and communications technology in
medical education and health care delivery. The report of the
AAMC committee, chaired by Eugene Stead, MD, was published in 1971. The committee wrote with regard to computers in medicine
that the time has come for the Lister Hill Center to exert strong leadership in
the development of the computer science field as it relates to medical education and the preparation of professionals for the delivery of health
care. . The committee believes that we will have to reexamine the problems in medical education and practice and devise solutions utilizing computer technology which will offer new approaches to education and give new
patterns for professional staffing of clinical units, for the collection of clinical
and laboratory data, and for clinical decision making.5
These recommendations led to a revamping of the intramural
programs of the Lister Hill Center and to the establishment of
a series of research, training and career development grants in
what was then called "Computers in Medicine."
In 1971, the vast majority of academic health centers
barely tolerated such endeavors. There was no locus for such
activity, and, indeed, there was little recognition that such a
field existed. It certainly had no name. Not even the people
working in the field could agree on what it should be called,
let alone what it encompassed. Years later, the name "medical
informatics" was adopted.
For these reasons the training grants had as their primary
stated objective the training of established faculty members
who could return to their institutions not so much to research
careers in medical informatics-although that, of course, was
not discouraged-but rather to improve the environment and
to help create a greater institutional receptivity for the increasing use of automated systems in all phases of medical
education and health care delivery. The research and career
development grants, on the other hand, were designed to
support and enhance the careers of those few existing research
workers in the field.
The extent to which the training grants accomplished their
avowed purpose is difficult to assess definitively. These efforts, the emergence into prominence of general information
systems and microcomputers and the rapid introduction into
medicine of computer-mediated technology such as the
computed tomographic scan all contributed to a radical
change in environment in the decade that followed. Because
of that change, the training grants were changed in 1982 to
research training grants with the specific purpose of training
future researchers in the field.
Related to this, the NLM has recently proposed the development of centers of excellence in medical informatics.
Centers of Excellence
Don E. Detmer, MD, Vice President for Health Sciences,
University of Utah School of Medicine (Salt Lake City),
views the center of excellence as "an institutional locus for
the education of health professionals and medical informatics
experts in the techniques and problems of using computers
and information systems to improve health care."6 Jean
Mayer, PhD, President of Tlfts University School of Medicine (Boston), in proposing centers of excellence in medical
informatics describes them as providing "a highly productive
research and scholarly environment with the status of a division or department in a medical school."6
However it is described, this organization would have
three major functions: coordinating medical informatics
788
studies and skills into the overall curriculum; conducting research in medical informatics, and training and educating in
the field. Such centers of excellence will substantially enhance
the recognition and career development so badly needed in the
field.
Yet, it is not only the environment for medical informatics
that has been changing dramatically. The very boundaries of
clinical medicine are rapidly being pushed back to the molecular level, and with that development has come an explosion
of automated data bases. As the volume of medical information has rapidly expanded, access to that information has
become more and more constrained by the system that housed
it. The utility of information to a very large extent depends on
the ease with which it can be retrieved. Two great bottlenecks
to information retrieval are the difficulty of human-to-machine and machine-to-machine communication.
Knowledge Representation and
Medical Informatics
In the late 1950s, the modem NLM classification system,
MeSH, was rebuilt. It combined through a common set of
pointers the indexing of articles and cataloguing of books and
monographs. This controlled, highly structured, knowledge
representation scheme is a very powerful tool for retrieving
citations to the medical literature. Its structure and "explode"
capability make it possible through single entries to retrieve a
wide range of related material. The in-depth indexing (an
average of 12 terms assigned per article) and the use of
Boolean manipulators ("and," "or" and "and not") make
possible precise retrieval. But the system is complicated and
was originally designed for relatively well-trained users. Indeed, at first the training period for MEDLARS searchers
was three months. While this has been greatly shortened, the
vast majority of searches are still done by trained intermediaries.
GRATEFUL MED
Numerous attempts have been made by NLM and others to
simplify this machine interface so that the system may be used
by nonexperts. For certain types of searches these systems are
very effective. NLM's user-friendly connection to MEDLINE, called "GRATEFUL MED," provides a transparent,
menu-driven use of Boolean operators "and" and "or" with
free language entries that are searched both as free text and as
MeSH-controlled vocabulary.7 Even in its simplest form,
using only selected features of the power of the MEDLARS
system, it will retrieve enough relevant citations to satisfy
many queries. On the other hand, more experienced users can
operate through another mode of GRATEFUL MED to bypass the menus and have all the power of MEDLARS command language searching restored. We believe GRATEFUL
MED will also be helpful to persons who wish to learn more
about information-retrieval issues and to improve their skills
in searching through a gradual and self-controlled tutorial
process. Successive versions of this front-end search system
are already being tested. Version 2.0 incorporates much of the
Medical Subject Headings thesaurus of index terms. This is
designed to assist biomedical inquirers to "map" their idiosyncratic or specialists' inquiries to the (often-more-general)
MeSH terminology to obtain access to the larger number of
scientific articles that are indexed under standard index terms.
THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
�NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
GRATEFUL MED already includes a simplistic algorithm that suggests possible improvement in phrasing a user's
search statement. It seems likely that future versions will offer
advice to users that is an increasingly intelligent equivalent of
the assistance of an expert reference librarian. (GRATEFUL
MED is available for $29.95 [1986 price] from the National
Technical Information Service, United States Department of
Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161; order number PB86158482.)
MICRO-CSIN
An obvious improvement in user-friendly front ends is for
them to be able to communicate with more than one data base.
MICRO-CSIN (Chemical Substances Information Network)
is such a system. It knows the protocols and can, therefore,
automatically log into any of the hundreds of data bases available from nine main vendors. Because its basic purpose, as
the name implies, is to search chemical systems, cross-database searching is reasonably effective. This machine-to-machine communication is facilitated by the presence of unique
identifiers in chemistry such as the chemical name and the
Chemical Abstracts Service registry number. These unique
identifiers make it possible to find the chemical of concern
regardless of the data base and the data-base structure. A
small number of key concepts, such as toxicity, physical and
chemical properties and so forth then make it possible to
retrieve the record of interest. This system, too, offers many
opportunities for improvement through adapting the growing
understanding of informatics principles. Systems such as MICRO-CSIN do not, for example, really "know" a user, much
less his or her educational level, state of urgency in making the
request or basis in having (perhaps recently) received other
information from the system. Such possibilities for systems to
do "user profiling" are still only research possibilities, even
though the fundamental concepts involved are easily understandable at the common-sense level.
Unified Medical Language System
Unfortunately for most of biomedicine, there are no
unique identifiers. Even where data bases have a shared subject domain, they use different knowledge representation
schemes, different indexing philosophies and different vocabularies. In these instances, transferring a concept from one
data base to another is extremely uncertain, being subject to all
the vagaries of normal discourse without a human to interpret
them. There are three possible solutions to this problem:
adopt a standard vocabulary, interpose an "expert" system
that simulates a human intermediary or create some canonical
knowledge representation scheme into and from which all
others can be transposed.
The NLM believes the first to be unacceptable to the community. A combination of the second and third is being
studied with the help of the academic community and professional societies. This combination has been called a "Unified
Medical Language System." It is viewed as a long-term (and
costly) project from which many intermediary benefits may
be derived in the course of its pursuit. The NLM has received
congressional support to coordinate this effort. Resources
from five universities have been contracted for, and a significant NLM staff effort has been started. The American Medical Association has agreed to coordinate the involvement of
professional societies.
DECEMBER 1986 * 145 * 6
The rate of increase in biomedical knowledge makes it
impossible for any one person to be truly up to date. One of the
greatest challenges ofthe information age is to create effective
syntheses that can be maintained automatically. The traditional medical syntheses of books and monographs are now
almost always substantially out of date before they are
printed. Review articles are somewhat better, but in the absence of some updating mechanism they, too, are soon out of
date.
Hepatitis Knowledge Base
The National Library of Medicine in 1979 built a prototype "hepatitis knowledge base" aimed at providing
up-to-date information needed to support daily diagnostic,
prognostic and management decisions.8 The hepatitis knowledge base was designed to provide substantive information
relevant to a wide variety of questions rather than citations to
the literature that may contain such information. The information in the knowledge base was hierarchically arranged to
provide increasing detail and specificity, including citations
to the primary publications on which the syntheses were built.
For this limited domain, the structure of the hepatitis knowledge base was, indeed, a knowledge representation scheme.
Expert Systems
In a related area, the NLM has supported intramurally and
by grant the development of knowledge-based "expert
systems." They have in common the components of a knowledge base and an "inference engine." To a varying extent,
each expert system may model human cognitive processes in
such areas as medical diagnosis and patient management. In
all these cases the knowledge base is constructed on some
representation scheme (often sets of production rules) and
represents a kind of synthesis for that domain. Updating and
maintaining such syntheses remain important problems for
which no adequate machine solution has yet been devised.
Image Processing
In the foregoing discussion of NLM and medical informatics, we have attempted to suggest the progress of the
solutions to the problem of providing health scientists with the
information they need when they need it and in a format that
can be readily used. We have, however, dealt only with information represented by symbols-that is, words, numbers and
so forth. Much medical information resides not in symbols of
language but in images. Therefore, NLM also supports research in image processing.
The traditional problems of storage, indexing and retrieval
are in the case of images compounded by problems such as
color fidelity and resolution. Modern technology such as optical disc storage and digitization of images suggests enormous possibilities in the effective use of information from
images. Perhaps the main bottleneck resides in indexing.
Verbal labeling of images sacrifices an enormous amount of
information. This makes retrieval very inefficient except in its
simplest form. One can visualize retrieving information from
and across images based on spatial clusters in a digitized
format. Indeed, the digitization of the images makes possible
the three-dimensional projections that conform to reality. Because much of the imaging of modern medicine-computed
tomographic scans, nuclear magnetic resonance and the
like-is digital from the beginning, this description is not a
speculation about the future but rather a view of the present.
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�NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
Institutional Settings
But solving the technical problems of knowledge representation, unified medical language systems and machine-tomachine communication is not all that is required. Institutional restructuring to manage effectively the complex information activities within health centers must also occur. For
that reason, NLM instituted in 1983 a program to support the
study, planning and effectuation of Integrated Academic Information Management Systems.9 This program was initiated
with planning grants and contracts at four academic health
centers; four additional awards were made a year later. Experimentation is now going on and several models will be
implemented in the next few years.
NLM, in collaboration with the National Institutes of
Health Division of Research Resources, has supported research in medical informatics to make possible the rapid application at the bedside of the advances in medicine resulting
from research. Now, at a rapidly increasing rate, the view of
biology is shifting to the molecular structure of genes and
their protein products. Research in the life sciences is becoming increasingly dependent on tools to store and manipulate large amounts of data on the behavior and structure of
macromolecules. The ability to measure and change events
occurring on a molecular level is particularly significant
where the development of techniques to sequence, clone and
remodel genetic material is leading to the control of life processes with a precision never before known. The continued
pursuit of this knowledge is as much an information-processing problem as it is a problem in biology. Unfortunately,
the institutional infrastructure for the support of the information-processing part of these endeavors is far less defined and
developed than that for the biology. NLM already plays a
790
crucial role in its bibliographic control ofthe published literature. The management of the rapidly emerging banks of data
needs now to be organized and integrated.
With such important issues facing it, the NLM is now
engaged in a careful look to the future. The initial phase of a
long-range planning activity has just been completed in which
NLM has had the views and advice of five panels of distinguished outside experts. The topic, "Research in Medical
Informatics," was carefully and specifically considered by
one ofthe panels.
The final recommendations of the overall panel are now
under review by our board of regents. It is already clear,
however, that the board readily accepts the importance of
automated information systems and knowledge bases in its
vision of the future and that research in medical informatics is
critical in assuring the best ofthese future developments.
REFERENCES
1. Sohn N, Robbins RD: Computer-assisted surgery (Letter). N Engl J Med
1985 Apr; 312:924
2. De Dombal FT: Computers and decision-making: An overview for gastro-enterologists, In Rosen P, de Dombal FT (Eds): Computer Aid in Gastroenterology.
Basel, Karger, 1984, pp 119-133
3. National Library of Medicine Act of 1956. PL 941 (84th Cong, chap 907, 2nd
sess) §3430
4. Billings JS: Prospectus. Index Medicus 1879 Jan; 1: 1
5. Stead EA Jr, Smythe CM, Gunn CG, et al: Educational technology for medicine: Roles for the Lister Hill Center. J Med Educ 1971; 46: (pt 2):59-66
6. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related
Agencies Appropriations for 1987: Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, 99th Congress. Government
Printing Office, 1986
7. Abrutyn E: Software: Grateful Med 1.0. Ann Intern Med 1986; 105:321
8. Bernstein LM, Siegel ER, Goldstein CM: The hepatitis knowledge base: A
prototype information transfer system. Ann Intern Med 1980; 93 (pt 2): 169-181
9. Matheson NW, Cooper JAD: Academic information in the academic health
sciences center-Roles for the library in information management. J Med Educ 1982;
57(pt 2): 1-93
THE WESTERN JOURNAL OF MEDICINE
�
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<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
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Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
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Italy
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<strong>Medical informatics attempts to provide the theoretic and scientific basis for the use of automated information systems in biomedicine</strong>. Even though a new field, its roots are in the 19th century. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) began classifying the medical literature and publishing the Index Medicus in 1897; in the early 1960s, the growth of the index gave rise to MEDLARS, the first successful, large-scale, computerized bibliographic system. In 1971, about the time MEDLARS evolved into a nationwide on-line retrieval system known as MEDLINE, a committee of the Association of American Medical Colleges published a report calling for the NLM to exert strong leadership in developing computer applications for information transfer in medicine. The NLM has sponsored several training and research programs in this area and is now developing the concept of "centers of excellence" in medical informatics. In addition, there are a number of current research and development activities within the NLM internal and extramural programs that may influence the progress of medical informatics.
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PMC1307151
0093-0415
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journalArticle
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Medical informatics [Special Issue]. Western Journal of Medicine 1986,145(6):786-790
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Lindberg, D. A.; Schoolman, H. M.
Title
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The National Library of Medicine and medical informatics
Description
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A proposito di r<strong>elazioni professionali fra bibliotecari e informatici in biomedicina</strong>, il direttore della National Library of Medicine (NLM), US precisa il ruolo dell'informatica medica:<em><em><strong><br /></strong></em></em>
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<div id="trtext"><span id="s2_1"><strong>L'informatica medica tenta di fornire la base teorica e scientifica per l'uso di sistemi informativi automatizzati in biomedicina</strong>.</span><span> </span><span id="s2_2">Anche se un nuovo campo, le sue radici sono nel 19º secolo.</span><span> </span><span id="s2_3">La National Library of Medicine (NLM) iniziò a classificare la letteratura medica e a pubblicare l'<strong>Index Medicus</strong> nel 1897. A</span><span id="s2_4">ll'inizio degli anni sessanta, la crescita dell'indice diede origine a <strong>MEDLARS</strong>, il primo sistema bibliografico computerizzato di successo su larga scala.</span><span> <br /></span><span id="s2_5">Nel 1971, all'incirca nel periodo in cui MEDLARS si è evoluto in un sistema di recupero on-line a livello nazionale noto come <strong>MEDLINE</strong>, un comitato dell'<strong>Association of American Medical Colleges</strong> ha pubblicato una relazione in cui si chiede alla NLM di esercitare una forte leadership nello sviluppo di applicazioni informatiche per il trasferimento di informazioni in medicina.</span><br /><span id="s2_6">La <strong>NLM</strong> ha sponsorizzato diversi programmi di formazione e ricerca in questo settore e sta ora sviluppando il concetto di "centri di eccellenza" in informatica medica.</span><span> </span><span id="s2_7">Inoltre, ci sono una serie di attuali attività di ricerca e sviluppo all'interno dei programmi interni ed extramurali NLM che possono influenzare il progresso dell'informatica medica.</span></div>
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<em><strong><br /></strong></em>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1986-12
Language
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en
Coverage
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PubMed
Subject
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Informatica medica
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A related resource
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1307151/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1307151/</a>
Format
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application/pdf
Banche dati biomediche
Collaborazione
Database
Informatica medica
NLM
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PDF Text
Text
NEWS FROM EAHIL
Letter from the President
Maurella Della Seta
Knowledge Service/Documentation
Istituto Superiore di Sanità
Rome, Italy
Contact: maurella.dellaseta@iss.it
Dear EAHIL Colleagues,
In this letter, I will report on an event where I was invited as a speaker last March in Milan, Italy: the annual
Workshop of the Italian Association of Information Specialists working in the Pharmaceutical Industry and
in Medical Research Institutes (GIDIF-RBM). The focus of the workshop was “Communication”, a topic
that, in my opinion, is worth mentioning in the context of our professional association. Communication is
deeply related to many aspects of our profession, and of our role within institutions. The event took place
in the framework of a more general conference, regarding all kinds of libraries “The library grows: content
and services between fragmentation and integration”, Milan 14-15 March 20191. Libraries, as Ranganathan
wrote in his famous fifth law of librarianship, are “a growing organism”. Libraries, therefore, have always to
deal with the many factors of change underway. The growth of libraries, and therefore their most significant
transformations, must necessarily face two partly divergent trends. On the one hand, the progressive
fragmentation that characterizes not only many contents, in particular digital, but also the patterns, the
practices, and the services offered; on the other hand, the search for new forms of integration: between
contents, between platforms, between services, between spaces (physical and virtual), between institutions.
The connection seems to be the contemporary paradigm from industry 4.0 to the semantic web. The
“integrated library” is no longer just an aspiration but a new model, and a set of techniques aimed at
favouring the social integration of information and services in a global world. Libraries envisage, therefore,
the challenge of complexity. The ability of libraries to maintain an important role in the information society
scenario relies on the idea that complexity should not be conceived as a problem, but as a resource to be
exploited. To face this challenge, and try to win it, librarians need creativity and rigor, and to define
innovative models to interpret and manage change.
The GIDIF RBM Workshop gathered together information specialists and medical librarians working in
different Italian contexts, such as public and private agencies2. From its title “The circularity of
communication in healthcare: power and risks”, you can easily guess its focus: the importance of a correct
communication by all the stakeholders involved in the healthcare process. In the current era of interactive
web and disintermediation, the classic parameters of communication: “sender-receiver” – changed in favour
of a circular relationship in which roles often switch. In the healthcare context the scenario is particularly
1
Convegno delle Stelline. La biblioteca che cresce. 14-15 marzo 2019. <http://www.convegnostelline.it/>. It is one of
the most attended events by Italian librarians. Unfortunately, the contents of the website are only in Italian: I tried
to summarise some of them in my letter.
2
GIDIF RBM. Bibliostar Pharma 2019: la circolarità della comunicazione in sanità.
https://www.convegnopharma.com/convegno
20
Journal of EAHIL 2019; Vol. 15 (2): 20-21
�News from EAHIL
challenging for three main reasons: a) what is at stake is people’s health; b) important interests, including
those of an economic nature; c) communication that plays a strategic role, since it is not easy to safeguard
the reliability of the information conveyed. Hence, the idea of proposing a workshop devoted to health
communication, as an opportunity of sharing and reflection. It aimed at highlighting communication
strategies of institutions, associations and companies towards all health professions, patients and the public.
An event that attracted not only librarians and information specialists, but also those who deal with “giving
the news” (pharmaceutical companies, publishers, communication agencies, press, etc.). We could listen
to the point of views of many actors in the health sector: medical doctors and nurses, bioethicists and
healthcare managers, medical interns and patients, pharma communicators and medical librarians.
Some of the topics discussed:
“Infodemiology”, when medicine meets new information technologies; Bio-politics of the swarm: the digital
man; How to communicate the identity of a healthcare organization; Communicating with cancer patients
in the Social Media age; Nursing profession in the web era; Jannssen Medical Cloud: an information
resource for doctors; The ISSalute portal, at citizen service (https://www.issalute.it/). My colleague Franco
Toni and myself gave the last presentation, about the portal for patients and laymen developed by our
Institute, already presented at the Cardiff EAHIL Conference, last year.
I hope that from this brief report you can draw inspiration for new ideas and that you can apply them to
your local realities and in your daily activities.
Looking forward to hearing from you with proposals or suggestions,
Maurella
Fig. 1. Participants in the workshop
Journal of EAHIL 2019; Vol. 15 (2): 20-21
21
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
An account of the resource
Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
Contributor
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IT
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Italy
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
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Identifier
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http://ojs.eahil.eu/ojs/index.php/JEAHIL/article/view/320
Type
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journalArticle
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019
Title
A name given to the resource
La <strong>circolarità della comunicazione</strong> in Sanità. Ne parla la presidente EAHIL
Source
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Journal of EAHIL 2019, 15(2): 20-21
Language
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en
Publisher
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EAHIL
Subject
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Comunicazione sanitaria
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Come in economia, anche in Sanità la comunicazione è circolare: dal paziente, al medico, infermiere, paziente, intermediario, documentalista, giornalista, paziente, medico...in un flusso che viaggia n più direzioni e su più canali. <br />Per far fronte alla complessità della comunicazione in medicina <strong>è necessario un dialogo aperto fra biblio-documentalisti biomedici, giornalisti, filosofi, medici, infermieri, pazienti...</strong><br />Il tema è stato affrontato al Workshop <a href="https://gidif-rbm.org/2019/02/27/la-circolarita-della-comunicazione-in-sanita-potenza-e-rischi/">“La circolarità della comunicazione in sanità: potere e rischi”</a> organizzato dal GIDIF-RBM a Milano il 15 marzo 2019 nell’ambito del Convegno Bibliostar. Fra i relatori, l'allora presidente dell’EAHIL<span> </span><strong>Maurella della Seta </strong>che ne parla<span> </span>nella sua <em>Lettera del presidente</em> pubblicata nel <a href="http://ojs.eahil.eu/ojs/index.php/JEAHIL/article/view/320" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of EAHIL</a>.</p>
<p>Si legge nella lettera della Presidente EAHIL: «La “<strong>biblioteca integrata</strong>” <strong>non è più solo un’aspirazione, ma un nuovo modello e una serie di tecniche volte a migliorare l’integrazione sociale di informazioni e servizi in un mondo globale. L</strong>e biblioteche prevedono, quindi, la sfida della complessità. […]. Nel<span> </span><strong>contesto sanitario</strong><span> </span>lo scenario è particolarmente impegnativo per tre ragioni principali: a) la posta in gioco è la salute delle persone; b) interessi importanti, compresi quelli di natura economica; c) comunicazione che svolge un ruolo strategico, dal momento che non è facile salvaguardare l’<strong>affidabilità </strong>dell’informazione trasmessa. Da qui l’idea di proporre un <strong>laboratorio dedicato alla comunicazione sanitaria, come opportunità di condivisione e riflessione</strong> […]. La speranza – conclude Maurella Della Seta – è che da questa breve relazione possa essere di ispirazione per nuove idee da applicare alle nostre realtà locali».<br /><br />Il <strong>testo integrale del report del Workshop</strong> è stato pubblicato su <strong>Biblioteche oggi</strong> 2019 a cura degli organizzatori <br /><a id="pub-id::doi" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3302/0392-8586-201905-041-1">http://dx.doi.org/10.3302/0392-8586-201905-041-1</a></p>
Relation
A related resource
<a href="http://ojs.eahil.eu/ojs/index.php/JEAHIL/article/view/320" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://ojs.eahil.eu/ojs/index.php/JEAHIL/article/view/320</a>
Format
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application/pdf
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Della Seta, Maurella
Bibliotecario documentalista
comunicazione
Fake news
Filosofo
Giornalista
infermiere
Medico
Modello integrato
Paziente
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
An account of the resource
Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
IT
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Italy
Website
A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ).
Local URL
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http://www.mondino.it/formazione-e-universita/biblioteca-scientifica/
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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<strong>Formazione & Informazione</strong>: Ufficio Formazione & Biblioteca scientifica
Subject
The topic of the resource
Formazione continua
Description
An account of the resource
Vi sono organizzazioni del SSN, di medio-piccola dimensione o caratterizzate da flessibilità organizzativa, in cui la <strong>Biblioteca</strong>, che si occupa dell'aggiornamento continuo del personale, e l'<strong>Ufficio Formazione</strong>, che provvede alla formazione continua ECM, sono <strong>strettamente interdipendenti </strong>[e diretti dalla stessa persona]. Una di queste è l'<a href="http://www.mondino.it/formazione-e-universita/biblioteca-scientifica/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IRCCS Neurologico Casimiro Mondino di Pavia</a>
Creator
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IRCCS Mondino Pavia
Source
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http://www.mondino.it/formazione-e-universita/biblioteca-scientifica/
Date
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2021-01-10
Relation
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<a href="http://www.mondino.it/formazione-e-universita/ufficio-formazione/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.mondino.it/formazione-e-universita/ufficio-formazione/</a>
Language
A language of the resource
it
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Italia
Bibliotecario biomedico
Bibliotecario documentalista
Biblioteche
ECM
Formazione
-
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00073329657708dd2ff8275c66849e20
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
An account of the resource
Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
IT
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Italy
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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QTLAR6JL
0276-3869, 1540-9597
10.1080/02763869.2020.1688622
Type
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journalArticle
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-01-02
Title
A name given to the resource
Providing Information-Seeking Skills Feedback within a Medical School Curriculum: <strong>a partnership between Librarians and Education Specialists</strong>
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Medical Reference Services Quarterly 2020, 39819. 27-34
3
Relation
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<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02763869.2020.1688622" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02763869.2020.1688622</a>
Language
A language of the resource
en
Description
An account of the resource
<div class="tab-content" style="color:#333333;font-family:'Open Sans', sans-serif;font-size:16px;">
<div class="tab tab-pane active">
<div class="hlFld-Abstract test">
<div class="abstractSection abstractInFull">
<p style="margin:1em 0px;">The <strong>Liaison Committee on Medical Education</strong> (LCME) revised their standards for MD program curricula with increased emphasis on the teaching and assessment of skills needed for life-long learning. This case study describes <strong>the collaboration between a team of librarians and a curriculum office to continuously improve information-seeking skills activities for medical students</strong>. This positive collaborative experience has firmly embedded librarians into the medical curriculum. <strong>Based on student feedback, the majority of students found the librarian-involved activities useful</strong>.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Thomas, Deborah;
Hardi, Angela;
Dufault, Carolyn
Subject
The topic of the resource
Bibliotecari biomedici
Bibliotecario biomedico
Formazione
Letteratura professionale
Partnership
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
An account of the resource
Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
IT
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Italy
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Text
Any textual data included in the document
Serie di <strong>interviste a bibliotecari.<br /></strong>Oltre a Silvia Molinari, <br /><strong><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/tra-biblioteche-lunione-fa-la-forza" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tra biblioteche l'unione fa la forza</a><br /></strong>
<h3 class="crp-list-title">Le altre interviste [del Pensiero Scientifico editore] sulle Biblioteche</h3>
<ul class="crp-list"><li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/commenti/fatti-amico-un-bibliotecario">Fatti amico un bibliotecario</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/commenti/bibliotecari-e-ricercatori-alleati">Bibliotecari e ricercatori alleati</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/pagine-aperte/hai-un-problema-chiedi-al-bibliotecario">Hai un problema? Chiedi al bibliotecario!</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/pagine-aperte/il-bibliotecario-di-oggi">Il bibliotecario di oggi</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/bibliotecario-medico-scientifico-chi-e-costui">Bibliotecario medico-scientifico. Chi è costui?</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/indietro-non-si-torna">Indietro non si torna</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/chi-legge-non-paga">Chi legge non paga</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/non-piu-topi-da-biblioteca">Non più topi da biblioteca</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/e-ditori-dittatori">e-ditori dittatori?</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/sognare-a-pagine-aperte">Sognare a pagine aperte</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
<div class="crp-list-item-title"><a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/commenti/pare-facile">Pare facile</a></div>
</li>
<li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none">
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Le i<strong>nterviste del Pensiero Scientifico</strong> ai bibliotecari
Description
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Il <strong>ruolo degli editori commerciali</strong>, almeno alcuni, nel promuovere e sostenere la figura del bibliotecario della salute è, da sempre, molto importante. Il Pensiero Scientifico editore ne è un esempio.<br /><br /><ul class="crp-list"><li class="crp-list-item crp-list-item-image-none"></li>
</ul>
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Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore
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<a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/tra-biblioteche-lunione-fa-la-forza" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://pensiero.it/</a>
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Biblioteche biomediche
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Il Pensiero Scientifico Editore
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2021-01-07
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<a href="https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/tra-biblioteche-lunione-fa-la-forza" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://pensiero.it/in-primo-piano/interviste/tra-biblioteche-lunione-fa-la-forza</a>
Bibliotecario biomedico
Bibliotecario documentalista
Biblioteche
Editori
interviste
-
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<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
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Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
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IT
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Italy
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video
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2:54"
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Hear librarians share their personal stories and thoughts on how they strengthen the healthcare community through their research and dependability. Filmed at the MLA Conference in Chicago, 2014
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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<strong>Medical Librarians making a difference</strong>
Description
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Hear librarians share their personal stories and thoughts on how they strengthen the healthcare community through their research and dependability. Filmed at the <strong>MLA Conference</strong> in Chicago, 2014
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OvidWoltersKluwer
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j6mrcGM4Vwk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
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2014
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6mrcGM4Vwk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6mrcGM4Vwk</a>
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eng
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video
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Bibliotecari biomedici
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OvidWoltersKluwer
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MLA Conference
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video
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Chicago
Biblioteche biomediche
Convegno
Editori
MLA
video
-
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Title
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<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
An account of the resource
Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
Contributor
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IT
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Italy
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In 2015, the Italian Ministry of Education in Italy launched innovative upper school educational programmes envisaging school-work initiatives. In this framework, the National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS) was among the first scientific institutions to develop <strong>educational programmes with school.</strong> Involving school students in health research activities allowed health literacy improvement, acquisition of scientific communication skills and fostered student interest in science careers. This article focuses on how health literacy and health promotion can be taught to school students through taking part in this programme. It is a multi-disciplinary collaboration among different stakeholders—ISS tutors (researchers, information and communication experts), teachers and students. This collaborative initiative is a <strong>good example of ‘teaching and learning’ in action</strong> since all stakeholders could benefit from cross-fertilisation in an informal educational context.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
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<a href="10.1111/hir.12375" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1111/hir.12375</a><br />NSWAE6BE<br />1471-1842
Type
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journalArticle
Date
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2021
Title
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<strong>Information specialists and researchers working together for health promotion: Benefits from school-work educational programmes at the National Institute of Health in Italy</strong>
Source
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Health Information and Libraries Journal
Description
An account of the resource
<span class="ng-star-inserted">Nel 2015, il Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione italiano ha lanciato nella scuola superiore innovativi </span><span class="ng-star-inserted">programmi educativi che prevedono iniziative di "alternanza scuola-lavoro".<span> </span></span><span class="ng-star-inserted">In questo quadro, l'</span><span class="ng-star-inserted">Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS è stato fra i primi istituti scientifici a sviluppare <strong>programmi educativi con la scuola</strong>.<span> </span></span><span class="ng-star-inserted">La scuola, coinvolgendo </span><span class="ng-star-inserted">gli studenti in attività di ricerca sanitaria, ha consentito un miglioramento dell'alfabetizzazione sanitaria, l'acquisizione di un maggior </span><span class="ng-star-inserted">capacità di comunicazione scientifica e interesse degli studenti per le carriere scientifiche.<br /></span><span class="ng-star-inserted">Questo articolo si concentra su come l'alfabetizzazione sanitaria e la promozione della salute possono essere insegnate a </span><span class="ng-star-inserted">studenti attraverso la partecipazione a questo programma.<span> </span></span><span class="ng-star-inserted">Si tratta di una collaborazione multidisciplinare fra diversi stakeholder-tutor ISS (ricercatori, </span><span class="ng-star-inserted">esperti di informazione e comunicazione), insegnanti e studenti.</span>
Language
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eng
Coverage
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PubMed
Subject
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Community Networks
Rights
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CC BY 4.0
Relation
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<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8519058/pdf/HIR-38-237.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8519058/pdf/HIR-38-237.pdf</a>
Format
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237-241 pp
Alfabetizzazione sanitaria
Bibliotecario documentalista
comunicazione
Health Information professionals
Health literacy
Ricerca scientifica
School
Scientific research
Scuola
Studenti
Students
-
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PDF Text
Text
BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS
Bioinformatics opportunities for health
sciences librarians and information
professionals*
By Alison J. Helms,
ajhelms@buffalo.edu
ajhelmsdlis@aol.com
Graduate Student (MLS June 2004)
Department of Library and Information Studies
School of Informatics
State University of New York at Buffalo
Buffalo, New York 14260-1020
Kevin D. Bradford, MLS
kbradford@lourdes-pad.org
Information Analyst
Lourdes Hospital
1530 Lone Oak Road
Paducah, Kentucky 42003
Nancy J. Warren, MLS
warrenn@dyc.edu
Systems Librarian
D’Youville College
320 Porter Avenue
Buffalo, New York 14201
Diane G. Schwartz, MLS, AHIP FMLA
,
dschwartz@kaleidahealth.org
Director of Libraries and Archives
Kaleida Health
100 High Street
Buffalo, New York 14203–1126
INTRODUCTION
Universities and medical research institutions are hard
at work training researchers in bioinformatics, a multidisciplinary field comprising molecular biology, genetics, mathematics, and computer science. Bioinformatics specialists with undergraduate and graduate
degrees find their skills are in high demand in a range
of research and development environments, including
universities, teaching hospitals, and the industrial sector, including pharmaceutical, vaccine, and biotechnology companies. Researchers in bioinformatics currently receive strong support from library and informational professionals in geographic areas where biotechnology corporations are established. However,
stronger support and collaboration will be necessary
* Based on a presentation at MLA ’03, the 103rd Annual Meeting of
the Medical Library Association; San Diego, California; May 5, 2003.
Slides from the presentation may be viewed at http://www
.mlanet.org/am/am2003/epresent/schwartz.pdf.
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
as the field matures. Health information professionals
and science librarians with backgrounds and aptitudes
in biological, chemical, and computer sciences; genomics; proteomics; and data analysis are ideal candidates for professional involvement and specialization
in bioinformatics.
Professional librarians seeking to contribute their
talents to the field of bioinformatics must also expand
their depth of knowledge in the biological and computer sciences. Additionally, interested librarians need
to systematically evaluate and expand traditional roles
and services to include the new resources and tools
that are emerging worldwide. The aim of this brief
communication is to assist health sciences librarians
with finding training programs and to give examples
of how some libraries are currently expanding services
to support bioinformatics research. The authors have
identified six key areas of responsibility where information professionals can expand beyond traditional
roles to meet the information needs of bioinformatics
researchers. These core areas include communication,
collection development, knowledge management, education and training, writing or publishing, and intranet systems development.
THE ROLE OF THE HEALTH INFORMATION
PROFESSIONAL AS ‘‘INFORMATIONIST’’
Two very different roles exist for health information
professionals supporting research and development efforts in bioinformatics. The first is the more traditional
role pursued in academic health sciences libraries and
corporate libraries. In this role, professional responsibilities typically focus on collection development and
teaching, although these activities require additional
education or training for the librarian supporting
bioinformatics clients. The second role is more often
seen in research and development facilities or clinical
settings, where the information professional is actively
involved in the research process and project management. Responsibilities of this role may include involvement in searching the primary literature or genomic
sequence databases, data and knowledge management
and communication, and collaborative technical writing. Significantly, this second role most closely resembles that of the ‘‘informationist’’ as set forth by Davidoff and Florance [1], where the information professional possesses both significant domain knowledge in
information science and specific technical or biological
skills, including an understanding of applied knowledge in the research or clinical setting.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
Specialized training and continuing education will enable health information professionals to reach beyond
traditional roles. While it is still easier for librarians
with science backgrounds to advance into the field of
bioinformatics, new degree programs, fellowships,
and workshops are increasingly available for infor489
�Brief communications
mation professionals of any background. The Education Web page of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) [2], the Resources Web page
of the Molecular Biology and Genomics SIG of the
Medical Library Association [3], and Alpi’s article,
‘‘Bioinformatics Training by Librarians and for Librarians: Developing the Skills Needed to Support Molecular Biology and Clinical Genetics Information Instruction’’ [4], offer additional information about training and education opportunities.
Several models of advanced training in bioinformatics currently exist in the library and information
science domain. For example, a ‘‘certificate of specialization in bioinformatics’’ is awarded in conjunction
with either a master’s of library science or a master’s
of information science from the School of Information
and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North
Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. Coursework comprises
a battery of required courses in information and library science together with courses in biology and biostatistics [5]. Hemminger’s list of the major bioinformatics programs in the United States provides information for those seeking master’s level training in
bioinformatics [6]. Another option is a master’s degree
in chemical informatics, such as that offered through
the program in chemical informatics and bioinformatics at Indiana University [7].
Health sciences librarians who develop greater
depth of knowledge in bioinformatics have much to
offer researchers in the key areas of communication,
collection development, knowledge management,
training and teaching, writing or publishing, and intranet systems development. Responsibilities of the
health sciences librarian can be extended by embracing
the role of the ‘‘informationist’’ and pursuing additional training or by seeking contacts in research and
clinical settings. The greater the depth of knowledge
in these fields, the more deeply involved health informationists can become in team-based research projects.
KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY
Communication
Communication is essential to understanding and supporting the information needs of researchers. Responsibilities in this area include supporting open communication among research groups, creating progress
reports, providing updates on new resources, marketing library services, reporting business intelligence research, providing opportunities for cross-training in
emerging research areas, and attending organizational
meetings to ensure the flow of information about library services, resources, and programs.
The University of Washington Health Sciences Library improved communication between the library
and bioinformatics researchers and students through a
number of strategic efforts. These included recruiting
a biologist with a doctorate degree to act as a liaison,
conducting needs analysis surveys, attending meetings of research groups, giving demonstrations of
490
bioinformatics resources, and holding discussions
with clients about desired resources and services [8].
An essential communication activity in university,
research, and clinical settings is that of consultation
services. Information professionals have discovered
that reference consultations range from basic questions, such as how to locate databases or software programs, to inquiries requiring the librarian to know
‘‘the range of problems that can be answered by more
advanced bioinformatics tools’’ [9] or to provide ‘‘indepth assistance with data analysis’’ [10]. To establish
and maintain credibility as research partners, librarians will need to pursue a level of training in bioinformatics that will prepare them to anticipate their clients’ consultation needs.
Collection development
Collection development responsibilities in bioinformatics go beyond traditional resources such as journals, books, literature databases, conference information, and Internet resources. These responsibilities include the identification and evaluation of specialized
databases and tools, such as genome sequencing databases, protein function analysis tools, structure prediction programs, molecular modeling programs, and
data mining software. Information professionals need
to be familiar with computer programs for processing
biological data written in various technical languages
such as Perl, Java, and extensible markup language
(XML) and have to understand database programs
such as SQL and Oracle.
Many excellent resource guides have been created to
support university bioinformatics programs, such as
the HealthLinks/BioResearcher Toolkit at the University of Washington,† the Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics Resources guide at the Weill Cornell Medical
Library,‡ and the Helix Helper for Molecular Biology
and Genetics at the University of Utah.§
Knowledge management
Knowledge management supplies collaborative research groups with effective and efficient organization
and retrieval of information, provides record keeping
systems and support, and facilitates knowledge sharing. During the course of a research project, knowledge accumulates rapidly as data are processed, interpretations are made, and decisions are recorded. This
knowledge assumes a variety of forms including log
books, databases and spreadsheets, internal reports,
progress reports, memoranda, correspondence, grant
† The Healthlinks BioResearcher Toolkit may be viewed at http://
healthlinks.washington.edu/bioresearcher.
‡ The Weill Cornell Medical Library’s Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics Resources Web page may be viewed at http://library
.med.cornell.edu/Library/HTML/molbiol.html.
§ The Spencer S. Eccles Health Science Library’s Molecular Biology
and Genetics Web page may be viewed at http://medlib.med
.utah.edu/library/helixhelper/molbioltx.html.
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
�Brief communications
materials, public relations materials, and documents
recording best practices. Access to these resources is
crucial to the success of any research project in both
corporate and academic research environments. Creating and maintaining a digital library of published
information resources, software, unpublished documents, and supporting data are knowledge management activities that allow groups of researchers to access necessary information and tools regularly (see
‘‘Intranet Systems Development’’ below).
On a larger scale, academic libraries, including the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the
University of Rochester, are currently experimenting
with the use of DSpace as a means to ‘‘collect, preserve, index and distribute the intellectual output of
an organization’’ [11]. Cooperative resource sharing
minimizes costs and pools efforts. In New York State,
universities and corporations have launched AMDeC
Microarray Resource Center, a cooperative initiative to
share the costs of expensive bioinformatics analysis
tools and equipment, help manage and archive the results of microarray analysis, and speed up the pace of
research efforts [12].
Learning organizations focused on research and development and marketing, such as pharmaceutical
companies, continuously work to improve information
and knowledge management. Lamb, manager of the
Knowledge Resource Center of Buckman Laboratories
International, uses technology ‘‘to facilitate knowledge
sharing when appropriate,’’ in the ‘‘form of online discussion forums or publishing on a corporate intranet’’
(see ‘‘Intranet Systems Development’’ below). She sees
the purpose of any knowledge management effort as
making ‘‘knowledge visible and accessible throughout
the entire organization’’ and recognizes information
professionals as ‘‘unique individuals who understand
how to capitalize on information technology, maintain
a synergy between traditional and new information
practices, and facilitate knowledge sharing’’ [13].
Education and training
Education and training responsibilities in an educational or collaborative research environment involve
offering workshops on bioinformatics-specific resources, traditional research methods and tools, and problem-based learning techniques. Librarians who already have instructional experience and have developed expertise in searching complex databases can expand their skills to include teaching workshops on
searching genomic sequence databases and protein sequence databases and using visualization tools for
structure prediction and molecular modeling.
At the Weill Cornell Medical Library, librarians offer
workshops to students, researchers, clinicians, and
other librarians on molecular biology searching tools
and resources [14]. Librarians at the University of
Washington Health Sciences Libraries offer workshops
on specific tools for microarray analysis including the
GeneSifter Webware package and Vector NTI package
[15].
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
As in other areas of medicine, science, and technology, current awareness is essential to the rapidly
growing area of bioinformatics. Examples of current
awareness resources are newsletters, such as the quarterly publication NCBI News,** the Genomics & Health
Weekly Update from the Centers for Disease Control,†† the annual database issue of Nucleic Acids Research that includes a categorized list of databases;‡‡
electronic lists such as Sigbioinform-l from the American Society for Information Science and Technology;
§§ and Websites of groups involved in bioinformatics
such as the Molecular Biology and Genomics Special
Interest Group of the Medical Library Association***
and the Genomics Working Group of the American
Medical Informatics Association [16].†††
Writing
Writing activities permeate all collaborative research
projects. These responsibilities range from planning
research strategies; creating business intelligence or
environmental scanning reports; providing updates on
local, regional, national, and global developments in
the field; creating annotated resource guides; recording and summarizing minutes of meetings; participating in email correspondence and electronic chats; editing and proofreading documents; preparing research
reports for publication; developing public relations
materials and press releases; to researching and coauthoring grant proposals.
Experienced health sciences librarians constantly integrate writing skills with communication and delivery of library services for teaching, program promotion, and grant writing and by participating in committees and associations. Information professionals
lacking a science background can adapt their writing
skills to collaborative science research projects by taking courses in medical terminology, technical writing,
or science writing. For example, Northeastern University offers graduate courses in biomedical writing, science writing, and the rhetoric of science [17], while
many schools offer both online and local classes in
technical writing for local and distance learners.
** Information about NCBI News may be viewed at http://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/About/newsletter.html.
†† The current issue of the Genomics & Health Weekly Update from
the Centers for Disease Control may be viewed at http://
www.cdc.gov/genomics/update/current.htm.
‡‡ The current Database Categories List from the Nucleic Acids Research may be viewed at http://www3.oup.co.uk/nar/database/c/.
§§ The American Society for Information Science and Technology
Special Interest Group’s Website may be viewed at http://
www.asis.org/AboutASIS/asis-sigs.html#SIGBIO.
*** The Website of the Molecular Biology and Genomics Special Interest Group of the Medical Library Association may be viewed at
http://medicine.wustl.edu/%7Emolbio/.
††† The Website of the Genomics Working Group of the American
Medical Informatics Association may be viewed at http://
www.amia.org/working/genomics/main.html.
491
�Brief communications
Intranet systems development
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Intranet systems, the backbone of knowledge management, are the contemporary medium for record keeping, information sharing, communicating, and delivering information in a collaborative research environment. Development of intranets, digital libraries, and
electronic discussion forums consists of surveys of
user information needs, evaluation of best practices,
assistance with information architecture, indexing, design of Web pages, and development of systems, as
well as purchasing and implementation of hardware
and software.
The University of Washington Health Sciences Libraries staff have developed their intranet services to
include access to licensed sequence analysis software,
electronic full-text reference titles, an extensive Web
pathfinder on molecular biology resources and tools,
and Current Contents [18]. Bishop lists general competencies for ‘‘content managers’’ primarily concerned
with digital information management and intranet development and contrasts these with the skills required
of ‘‘knowledge managers’’ [19] (see ‘‘Knowledge Management’’ above).
The authors thank and acknowledge the help of Frederick W. Stoss, associate librarian, Arts and Sciences
Libraries, Science and Engineering Library, University
at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, and Christine DeGolyer,
outreach librarian, E. G. Miner Library, University of
Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York.
CONCLUSION
Traditional librarian activities such as communication,
collection development, education and training, writing, and intranet services are equally necessary to support research in bioinformatics, as in any other field,
but the diverse set of resources and requirements for
extensive domain knowledge in multiple fields places
new demands on health information professionals
supporting the success of this field. Training and continuing education will enable health information professionals to reach beyond traditional roles and become integral participants in biomedical, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and vaccine research projects.
Considerable technical knowledge must be gained
by the health sciences librarian to contribute to bioinformatics research as a bioinformaticist. The learning
curve is shortened for information professionals who
can learn enough about the field to participate in
knowledge management activities, such as organizing
and maintaining access to accumulated research materials on an intranet platform. Knowledge management will continue to be a challenging area in biotechnology research, and environmental scanning and
maintenance of up-to-date intranet knowledgebases
will continue to be key elements to the success of research projects. This reason is one of the strongest for
bringing information professionals into the field and
encouraging multidisciplinary training in the informationist-to-bioinformaticist direction as well as from
the scientist-to-bioinformaticist direction. Bioinformatics may not be an appropriate fit for every health sciences librarian, but it can, and should, be developed
as a viable career path for those who wish to pursue
it.
492
REFERENCES
1. DAVIDOFF F, FLORANCE V. The informationist: a new health
profession? Ann Intern Med 2000 Jun 20;132(12):996–8.
2. NATIONAL CENTER FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY INFORMATION. Education. [Web document]. Bethesda, MD: The Center. [cited 16
Feb 2004]. Ͻhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Education/Ͼ.
3. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND GENOMICS SPECIAL INTEREST
GROUP OF THE MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Resources.
[Web document]. [cited 16 Feb 2004]. Ͻhttp://medicine
.wustl.edu/%7Emolbio/resources.htmlϾ.
4. ALPI K. Bioinformatics training by librarians and for librarians: developing the skills needed to support molecular
biology and clinical genetics information instruction. Issues Sci
Technol Librarianship [serial online]. Spring 2003. [cited 16
Feb 2004]. Ͻhttp://www.istl.org/03-spring/article1.htmlϾ.
5. SCHOOL OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE. Certificate of specialization in bioinformatics. [Web document].
Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. [cited 6 Apr 2004]. Ͻhttp://ils.unc.edu/bmh/bioinfo/
SILS%20Bioinformatics%20Certificate%20proposal.docϾ.
6. HEMMINGER B. Bioinformatics programs summary. [Web
document]. [cited 4 Apr 2004]. Ͻhttp://ils.unc.edu/bmh/
bioinfo/bioinformaticsprogramssummary.htmlϾ.
7. INDIANA UNIVERSITY. Chemical informatics homepage at
Indiana University. [Web document]. [cited 4 Apr 2004].
Ͻhttp://www.indiana.edu/ϳcheminfo/informatics/
cinformhome.htmlϾ.
8. YARFITZ S, KETCHELL D. A library-based bioinformatics
services program. Bull Med Libr Assoc 2000 Jan;88(1):36–48.
9. NORMAN F. Bioinformatics to bioinformation—a role for
librarians. CCP11 Newsletter [serial online]. 1997 13 Oct;
1.2(2). [cited 16 Feb 2004]. Ͻhttp://www.dl.ac.uk/CCP/
CCP11/newsletter/vol12/bioinformation.htmlϾ.
10. YARFITZ, op. cit., 39.
11. MIT LIBRARIES. MIT and six major research universities
announce DSpace federation collaboration. [Web document].
28 Jan 2003. [cited 26 Feb 2004]. Ͻhttp://libraries.mit.edu/
about/news/dspacefederationmit.htmlϾ.
12. WENTZEL M. Gene project excites science leaders. [Web
document]. 15 Feb 2004. [cited 25 Mar 2004]. Ͻhttp://www
.democratandchronicle.com/biznews/02150639QUA
business.shtmlϾ.
13. LAMB C. Creating a collaborative environment: the human element. Inf Outlook 2001 May;5(5):23–5.
14. Weill Cornell Medical Library: information workshops &
consultations. [Web document]. [cited 16 Feb 2004]. Ͻhttp://
library2.med.cornell.edu/Classes/#classscheduleϾ.
15. HealthLinks: education & training. [Web document].
Seattle, WA: University of Washington. [cited 16 Feb 2004].
Ͻhttp://healthlinks.washington.edu/index.cfm?idϭ
3887a212-ff87-4c29-aa60-966f16b6c1caϾ.
16. ALPI K, HENDLER G, OHLES J. Making sense of molecular
medicine: New York librarians’ involvement with bioinformatics. [Web document]. Presented at: NAHSL/NY-NJ Information
& Technology, 2001 Oct 15. [cited 16 Feb 2004]. Ͻhttp://
library.med.cornell.edu/Library/nahsl/molbioposter.pdfϾ.
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
�Brief communications
17. WALSH M. Communicating bioinformatics: a usability
and recommendation report to Treebase administrators.
[Web document]. 2001 Mar 29. [cited 16 Feb 2004]. Ͻhttp://
w w w. dac . neu. e du / en g l i s h / m . wa l s h / m tp w /p dfs /
MTPWproposal.pdfϾ.
18. YARFITZ, op. cit., 40–3.
19. BISHOP K. Leveraging our knowledge: the skills and attributes information service professionals bring to new roles
in information and knowledge management. [Web document]. 9th Special Health and Law Libraries Conference,
2001 Aug 26–29. [cited 26 Feb 2004]. Ͻhttp://conferences
.alia.org.au/shllc2001/papers/bishop.2.htmlϾ.
Received September 2003; accepted April 2004
The Electronic Fund Transfer System
(EFTS)
By Ralph Arcari, PhD
arcari@nso.uchc.edu
Director
Lyman Maynard Stowe Library
Jackie Lewis, MLS
jlewis@nso.uchc.edu
Program Manager
EFTS
Edward Donnald, MLS
Donnald@uchc.edu
Technical Support
EFTS
University of Connecticut Health Center
Farmington, Connecticut 06034–4003
The Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS) is an electronic bill-payment system created at the University of
Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) in Farmington.
The program was developed and implemented on a
regional basis in 1996 to replace a prepaid coupon system utilized by DOCLINE libraries. Health sciences libraries use EFTS for payment of interlibrary loan (ILL)
transactions. Centralized electronic billing of participants greatly reduces the need to create invoices and
to write reimbursement checks for ILLs and document
delivery among participants.
OVERVIEW
EFTS functions similar to a debit card system: It operates as though the loaning library is the retailer, the
borrowing library is the consumer, and EFTS is the
clearinghouse service that enables the financial aspects
of the transaction. Participants enroll in EFTS by placing funds on account at UCHC to cover the costs of
their transactions. A fundamental principle of the system is that the reciprocal of a loan is a borrow. Consequently, only lending libraries that wish to collect for
their service need to file billing information with EFTS.
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
About 20% of the participants submit files. The rest of
the participants monitor their account balances and
submit additional funds when necessary. The files are
processed as they are submitted, with lenders’ accounts credited and the corresponding borrowers’ accounts debited. The lender pays a fee based on the
amount collected on their behalf.
OPERATIONS
The primary benefit for EFTS participants is the simplification of and reduction in expenses associated
with payments for ILL charges compared to direct invoicing. Additionally, EFTS encourages resource sharing by reducing uncertainty about billing when a library considers an ILL transaction with an unfamiliar
library. Unfamiliarity often results from geographical
location. As a clearinghouse for bill payment, EFTS increases each library’s ILL options by allowing the library staff member to focus on item availability and
service considerations and not on receipt of payment.
EFTS is an individual transaction billing system; it
allows the loaning library to charge whatever it chooses for each transaction. Lending libraries can submit
files in a variety of ways. An ASCII-based text file can
be generated by such third-party ILL management
programs as QuickDOC, Clio, and ILLiad. For lenders
who do not use such programs, a small program can
be downloaded from the EFTS Website* that will assist
in creating the transaction file.
A 3% service fee is currently deducted from the
lender for each transaction to cover EFTS operational
costs. This fee is analogous to the bank charge a retailer pays for debit card account management.
EFTS participants are now in all eight National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) regions, including 48 of the 50 states (Figure 1). EFTS was implemented on a regional basis by the New England
(1996), Mid-Atlantic (1998), and South Central (1999)
Regions. This implementation resulted in an immediately recognized billing standard for those regions.
The EFTS Website contains instructions for joining,
policies, and procedures as well as a current participants list.
Looking at 2004 first-quarter data, 85% of the members saw account activity, with 1% of them strictly
lending, 70% strictly borrowing, and 29% both lending
and borrowing. EFTS has become a substantial benefit
to those net loaning libraries in that they maintain a
positive cash flow because of EFTS. Those libraries
whose lending exceeds their borrowing can elect to
receive a check—issued quarterly in January, April,
July, and October—from EFTS drawn on their account
for the difference between their account balance and
the minimum needed to cover their own borrowing
activity. The first quarter of 2004 saw 50 libraries receiving a total of $495,000 in redistributions. The regularity of quarterly payments allows for accurate in* The Electronic Fund Transfer System Website may be viewed at
https://efts.uchc.edu.
493
�Brief communications
Figure 1
Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS) participants (April 2004)
come projection and forecasting compared with the irregularity associated with the collection process when
paper bills are sent to multiple potential payers.
A primary strategic goal for EFTS has been to meet
the needs of the NN/LM DOCLINE community. Table
1 indicates a current snapshot of this relationship.
Regions 1, 5, and 8, where EFTS has been in use the
longest, have an average 69% EFTS participation rate
for active DOCLINE libraries. Were this percentage
applied to the total number of active DOCLINE libraries in the United States (2,899), the potential domestic growth for EFTS is 2,000 institutions or more
than double the current level of participation.
Table 1
Electronic Fund Transfer System participants by region
Region
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Total
DOCLINE
libraries
EFTS
participants
478
673
541
202
180
162
412
251
2,899
339
40
59
48
109
27
88
191
781
Data taken from DOCUSER June 2004.
494
Percentage
71%
6%
11%
24%
61%
17%
21%
76%
EFTS has an Advisory Committee that meets via
telephone conferencing to review program policies and
procedures. Each region of NN/LM is represented
with a hospital librarian, a medical school librarian,
and the regional network development coordinator.
The Advisory Committee roster is on the EFTS Website.
COMPOSITION
NN/LM consists of libraries of various types and
functions. A library can be classified as academic, hospital, or other and function as a Regional Medical Library, Resource Library, Primary Access Library, or
other. Participation in EFTS spans all of these areas.
Figure 2 indicates EFTS participation by type.
Ammon Ripple from the Children’s Hospital of
Pittsburgh told EFTS, ‘‘We fill 150–250 DOCLINE requests every day. Using EFTS in tandem with
QuickDOC helps us take care of most of our billing in
just 15 minutes a month instead of the many, many
hours it used to take to process all those checks and
invoices!! EFTS not only saves us time and money, but
helps us provide better service to our ILL customers.’’
Even smaller libraries have found EFTS beneficial,
as Pat Davis from Falmouth Hospital, Massachusetts,
indicated, ‘‘I am the only person in a small hospital
library, so I truly appreciate the ease and convenience
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
�Brief communications
Figure 2
EFTS participation by type
Updating hospital reference resources
in the United States–associated Pacific
Basin: efforts of the Pacific Islands
Continuing Clinical Education Program
(PICCEP)*
By Karin E. Johnson, PhD
kjohnson@fammed.washington.edu
Research Associate
Susan M. Skillman, MS
sskillman@fammed.washington.edu
Deputy Director
Kathleen E. Ellsbury, MD, MSPH
ellsbury@u.washington.edu
Associate Professor
Matthew J. Thompson, MBChB, MPH, DTMH†
matthew.thompson@public-health.ox.ac.uk
Associate Professor
of using EFTS over paying individual invoices from
libraries who charge for ILLs.’’
DEVELOPMENTS
In August 2002, the National Library of Medicine
awarded UCHC a 36-month contract to implement
EFTS on a national basis. During the first year, the
EFTS staff actively promoted EFTS by attending regional meetings, obtaining the support of network coordinators at each of the 8 Regional Medical Libraries,
updating EFTS resources, establishing the EFTS-L
email discussion list, and preparing for development
of a Web-based system upgrade.
During the second year, the National Library of
Medicine became an EFTS participant. Ralph Arcari
and Edward Donnald were awarded the Thomson Scientific/Frank Bradway Rogers Information Advancement Award at MLA ’03 in San Diego, California, for
their work with EFTS. The Web-based EFTS was rolled
out in January 2004. Participants were assigned secure
online accounts, where they could check their account
balances, make deposits, monitor transactions, and
upload billing files at their convenience.
Financial self-sufficiency is the strategic objective for
EFTS. The National Library of Medicine is committed
to supporting EFTS until this objective is met. The
goal for EFTS now is to maintain the extremely reasonable service fee for the services provided in the interest of increasing EFTS participation. If readers have
any questions or would like to discuss EFTS participation, they may contact the office.
Received April 2004; accepted June 2004
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
L. Gary Hart, PhD
ghart@fammed.washington.edu
Professor and Principal Investigator
Center for Health Workforce Studies
University of Washington
Box 354982
Seattle, Washington 98195-4982
BACKGROUND
This article describes a project by the Pacific Islands
Continuing Clinical Education Program (PICCEP) at
the University of Washington (UW) to supplement
hospital reference materials in six jurisdictions in the
US-associated Pacific Islands. It outlines a model for
cooperatively developing a suite of clinical reference
materials suitable to low-resource settings.
The US-associated Pacific Islands encompass the US
flag territories of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and
Guam, as well as the independent countries, ‘‘freely
associated with the United States,’’‡ of the Federated
States of Micronesia (FSM), the Republic of the Mar* This study was conducted by the University of Washington’s Pacific
Islands Continuing Clinical Education Program, in the Center for
Health Workforce Studies, and was funded by the Bureau of Primary
Health Care and the Bureau of Health Professions, US Health Resources and Services Administration.
† Matthew J. Thompson is currently a clinical lecturer in the Department of Primary Health Care, Institute of Health Sciences, Oxford University.
‡ When these previous trust territories gained independence in 1986
(Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall
Islands) and 1994 (Palau), they negotiated a special status that gives
their citizens the right to travel freely to the United States and the
United States the right to exclude any foreign power from having a
military presence in the region.
495
�Brief communications
shall Islands (RMI), and the Republic of Palau. The
region contains 104 inhabited islands that cover an
area of the Pacific that is larger than the continental
United States. Nearly 500,000 total residents live in the
jurisdictions. Gross domestic product per capita in
2000 varied from $1,600 in RMI to $21,000 in Guam.
English is an official language throughout the region,
although many people speak one or more other languages [1]. The United States serves as the region’s
primary funder of social and health services. Each jurisdiction has one or more secondary hospitals, with
bed sizes ranging from under 50 to over 200. Only a
few of them offer advanced specialty services.
In 1998, the federal Institute of Medicine (IOM)
found numerous health care challenges in the region:
deteriorating health infrastructure, high health care
costs, serious health problems on some islands such as
high rates of substance abuse and infant mortality, and
particularly ‘‘shortages of adequately trained health
care personnel’’ [2]. The IOM recommended an emphasis on health workforce improvement, in large part
through continuing medical education (CME). The
federal government responded, in part, by funding
PICCEP, a four-year effort implemented by the UW
Center for Health Workforce Studies.
PICCEP conducted a needs assessment and concluded that, among other problems, the region’s health care
providers lacked current clinical reference materials
[3]. Most hospitals did not have libraries or librarians.
They all had at least a small collection of reference
materials, but most physicians felt these materials
were too limited to help solve specific clinical problems or maintain skills. Personal computers were few
in number and not readily available for most clinicians. In addition, limited, slow, and expensive Internet access made computerized references impractical
in all but the most developed jurisdictions, such as
Guam and the Republic of Palau.
THE PACIFIC ISLANDS CONTINUING CLINICAL
EDUCATION PROGRAM TO IMPROVE
HOSPITAL REFERENCE RESOURCES
Given the need for reference materials expressed by
regional physicians and observed by PICCEP staff,
PICCEP sought to improve access to key clinical reference resources as part of its overall CME program.
During 2000–2001, it obtained $40,000 for this purpose. Because most health systems in the US-associated Pacific Islands were divided distinctly into a central hospital and a public health system, PICCEP targeted hospitals, where most physicians were based. To
distribute available resources equitably in the region,
PICCEP divided the funding roughly equally among
the eleven major hospitals. PICCEP sought to coordinate its program supplementing reference materials
with other organizations engaged in similar efforts.
An investigation revealed no preexisting programs in
the region and only one documented program in the
world, the Blue Trunk Program run by the Library of
the World Health Organization (WHO). This program
496
provided African district health centers with about 100
books on medicine and public health and a few medical journal subscriptions [4]. WHO worked with local
trainers to help deliver, publicize, and monitor the collection.
Book donation programs can fail for reasons including materials that do not reach their intended audience
or are inappropriate to local conditions, placement of
materials where few potential users know about them,
materials that are removed for personal use and not
returned, resources for updating that are missing, and
recipients who are unaccustomed to using books and
journals as information sources [5]. Aware of these potential pitfalls, PICCEP resolved to develop a program
that would ensure long-term access to useful reference
materials.
PICCEP wanted to involve each hospital in the selection of suitable materials. But given the limited and
one-time availability of funds, PICCEP sought to guide
each hospital in creating a package of resources that
would suit the needs of a variety of health professionals in clinical settings ranging from urgent care to patient counseling. Program physicians consulted with a
medical librarian to develop a reference resource catalog (available from the authors). The Brandon/Hill
list for small medical libraries served as the basis for
the catalog of recommended resources [6]. The final
selection differed slightly due to availability and suitability for hospitals located outside of the United
States. The catalog was divided into ‘‘core references,’’
material which was determined to be essential for the
hospitals, and ‘‘supplemental resources,’’ additional
options from which respondents could choose, and
was further categorized by topic. Hospitals could add
their own requests for additional items.
PICCEP identified a key contact at each hospital and
asked that contact to consult with physicians, nurses,
and allied health staff about their preferences in reference materials. Respondents were instructed to rank
the priority of each item in the catalog. This method
of assessing preferences worked extremely well; all
hospitals returned a carefully considered list that encompassed a wide range of materials suited to a range
of clinical topics and professions.
PICCEP attempted to purchase all of the identified
materials as ‘‘very strongly desired’’ and as many other requested materials as possible. Because the requests from the jurisdictions far exceeded the project
budget, PICCEP staff analyzed each hospital’s choices
to put together a comprehensive package of materials.
Staff prioritized core items and materials most relevant
to each hospital’s resources and community. PICCEP
purchased some electronic journal subscriptions for
hospitals with greater technical capacity. To help minimize the loss of materials over time, PICCEP gave
each hospital a personalized rubber stamp, so they
could indicate ownership of each item.
Most selections were purchased through a bookstore
in Seattle that offered a discount and free shipping to
PICCEP. Most items were shipped to the hospitals and
insured by private carrier. Delivery expenses were sigJ Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
�Brief communications
nificantly higher than anticipated. Similar programs in
the future should budget 5% to 10% above purchasing
costs to cover the high costs associated with shipping
to remote regions.
The American Academy of Family Physicians
(AAFP) Medical Education Materials Clearinghouse,
which channels donations of medical reference resources to needy hospitals around the world, contributed additional materials. PICCEP staff selected appropriate materials from the fund’s catalog and distributed them to each hospital based on their most appropriate use. University colleagues offered a variety
of additional materials. PICCEP accepted many for
distribution after screening for relevance and currency.
PICCEP followed up with each hospital to ensure
that all items arrived. Two hospitals required a letter
from PICCEP indicating that the shipped items were
donated, so that they were not assessed import duties.
Otherwise, all of the materials reached their intended
destinations without difficulty, and PICCEP received
enthusiastic feedback about them.
During subsequent PICCEP-provided courses, faculty assessed program success. Most of the reference
materials were located in secured areas of the target
hospitals, such as a designated room or an area in the
doctor’s lounge. Specific texts were assigned to individual doctors or wards, where the specialty was most
appropriate. Some PICCEP faculty referred to the materials in their sessions to help encourage use of the
resources.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FOLLOW-UP AND
FUTURE PROGRAMS
Ideally, personnel and funding would be available to
encourage access to and use of resources over a longer
period. Initiatives such as the Health InterNetwork [7]
may help poor countries do so. WHO and several publishing companies established the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) in
2000 to ensure equitable access to health information
around the world. Its first phase makes a large range
of scientific publications available for free or at reduced
costs to selected countries, depending on their income.
Where applicable—FSM and the RMI became eligible
in 2003—this initiative, combined with global efforts
to increase telecommunications capacity, logically extends efforts such as PICCEP’s to provide clinical reference materials on a limited budget.
PICCEP’s initiative overcame many of the challenges
facing efforts to donate references. While goals such
as fully evaluating the use of reference materials and
updating them when they are outdated or lost remain,
PICCEP did establish a suite of suitable materials accessible to a variety of clinicians in 11 hospitals at an
average cost of under $4,000 per site.
ington) and the AAFP Office of International Activities
and assistance in distribution from Heather Deacon,
editing from Alice Porter, and word processing from
Martha Reeves. The AAFP Office of International Activities sponsors the AAFP Medical Education Materials Clearinghouse, which is happy to accept contributions of medical books, audiotapes, videotapes, and
complete volumes of journals that are less than five
years old. It distributes these materials free of charge
(recipient is requested to cover shipping) to organizations outside of the United States whose works are
related directly to family medicine. Persons interested
in making contributions to the AAFP Medical Education Materials Clearinghouse, or requesting materials
from it, should contact Ms. Terry Smalley, senior program coordinator, AAFP Office of International Activities, 11400 Tomahawk Creek Parkway, Leawood, Kansas 66211-2672; 800.274.2237 x4512; int@aafp.org. The
AAFP Medical Education Materials Clearinghouse
would appreciate advance notification of the titles of
any materials contributors would like to donate.
REFERENCES
1. CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY. The world factbook.
[Web document]. The Agency, 2004. [cited 24 Jun 2004].
Ͻhttp://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/Ͼ.
2. INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE. Pacific partnerships for health:
charting a new course. Washington, DC: National Academies
Press, 1998.
3. THOMPSON MJ, SKILLMAN SM, JOHNSON K, SCHNEEWEISS
R, ELLSBURY K, HART LG. Assessing physicians’ continuing
medical education (CME) needs in the US-associated Pacific
jurisdictions. Pac Health Dialog 2002 Mar;9(1):11–6.
4. WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION. Blue trunk libraries.
2001. [Web document]. The Organization, 2001. [cited 24
Jun 2004]. Ͻhttp://www.who.int/library/country/trunks/
index.en.shtmlϾ.
5. IBID.
6. HILL DR. Brandon/Hill selected list of books and journals
for the small medical library. Bull Med Libr Assoc 1999 Apr;
87(2):145–69.
7. HEALTH INTERNETWORK ACCESS TO RESEARCH INITIATIVE.
Health InterNetwork. 2003. [Web document]. [cited 24 Jun
2004]. Ͻhttp://www.healthinternetwork.netϾ.
Received November 2003; accepted April 2004
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors greatly appreciate the contributions to this
program by the University Book Store (Seattle, WashJ Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
497
�Brief communications
The role of librarians in patient safety:
gaps and strengths in the current
culture*
By Lorri Zipperer, MA
lorri@zpm1.com
Cybrarian
Zipperer Project Management
1002 Washington Street, #3E
Evanston, Illinois 60202
Jan Sykes
jansykes@ameritech.net
Information Management Services
9211 North Nagle Avenue
Morton Grove, Illinois 60053
BACKGROUND
Overall error avoidance and analysis of errors, with
the intent of learning from mistakes and preventing
future occurrences, are critical issues for persons involved in all aspects of health care. Launched in 1999
by the release of the Institute of Medicine’s report ‘‘To
Err Is Human’’ [1], a dialogue in health care has been
continually nurtured by the reports of that organization [2–4]; new organizations devoted to patient safety,
such as the National Patient Safety Foundation† and
the National Quality Forum‡; and state initiatives
seeking ways to improve the situation, such as the
Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical
Errors§ or Virginians Improving Patient Care and
Safety (VIPCS).**
Surveys have been used by the patient safety community to not only glean information from the patient
community about their awareness of patient safety issues [5], but to gauge individuals’ comfort with the
culture of safety at their health care organization [6]
and to assess the quality of processes in place to assure
safe medication delivery [7]. Yet none of these surveys,
to the authors’ knowledge, have reached out specifically to the community of library and information professionals to seek knowledge about their involvement
in safety efforts. The medical library community collects benchmark data from its members on various resources, populations served, and traffic data but does
not specifically include queries about medical librari* Presented as a poster session at the Fifth Annual Wisconsin Patient
Safety Forum Meeting; Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; November 12–13,
2003.
† The National Patient Safety Foundation Website may be viewed at
http://www.npsf.org.
‡ The National Quality Forum Website may be viewed at http://
www.qualityforum.org.
§ The Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors
may be viewed at http://www.macoalition.org.
** The Virginians Improving Patient Care and Safety (VIPCS) may
be viewed at http://www.vipcs.org.
498
ans’ contributions to safety from a distinct systems or
safety perspective [8].
To begin filling this gap, an exploratory survey was
undertaken to assess whether or not information professionals were directly involved in patient safety initiatives and how much they believed they could positively affect patient safety in the organizations in
which they worked. One anticipated outcome of the
survey was documentation of whether or not information professionals saw themselves as substantively
contributing to safety initiatives by aligning themselves with this leadership-valued issue. Questions
were developed by two information professionals with
backgrounds in (a) patient safety and medical information and (b) strategic planning for information centers, including analysis of return on investment (ROI)
and content selection and evaluation. Prior to posting,
the questions were reviewed by five information professionals representing a variety of clinical environments.
It should be noted that the terms ‘‘librarians’’ and
‘‘information professionals’’ are used interchangeably
in this paper as a number of persons working in information and knowledge management in health care
environments have transitioned to such roles from information technology, clinical work, or other areas and
are not specifically trained as librarians.
METHODOLOGY
The survey was announced in May 2003 on discussion
lists for information professionals in the health care,
medical, and pharmaceutical sectors. Table 1 presents
the queried lists. The total number of subscribers on
these lists was approximately 2,700, and some interested parties forwarded announcements of the survey
to colleagues on other discussion lists and in other
countries; the extent of the circulation is not definitely
known.
The sampling of 142 responses collected from health
care information professionals provides early and limited insights into the extent to which patient safety
initiatives are an explicit concern for them. The low
response rate is an indicator in itself. Individuals typically respond to a survey when they are interested in
the topical area and when they have something to contribute. Members of any community ignore requests to
participate in a survey if they are not interested in the
topic, are not involved with the area being studied,
have nothing to contribute, are simply too busy, or are
not interested in the incentive [9]. Based on some of
the responses, there is a need for a much greater level
of awareness about the topic and guidance in how information professionals can become involved with patient safety efforts.
KEY FINDINGS
Ⅲ The culture of safety has not permeated the library
community in the sense of leaders and administrators
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
�Brief communications
Figure 1
Activities in which information professionals are included
Table 1
Queried email discussion lists
List
Subscriber
numbers
(approximate)
Medical librarians discussion group
Illinois Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (SLA)
Biomedical and Life Sciences division of SLA
Aliahealth Australian/New Zealand Medical Librarians
1,800
330
230
350
seeing librarians as having a crucial role in improving
safety.
Ⅲ Leadership in health care organizations is not proactive about recruiting librarians to take part in the
safety work of their organizations.
Ⅲ Information professionals and librarians responding
to the survey are aware of the importance of patient
safety initiatives.
Ⅲ Some information professionals are proactively becoming involved with safety initiatives—particularly
promoting the role of evidence-based medical decisions.
Ⅲ Information professionals have interesting opportunities to define their roles in and contributions to
this vitally important area.
Of the survey participants, 47.4% worked in teaching hospitals, 21.4% in nonteaching hospitals, 11.6%
in academic medical centers, 6.4% in health care–related organizations (such as pharmaceutical companies), and 5.8% in other health care environments
(such as a not-for-profit organization). Thirteen persons (7.5%) selected ‘‘Other’’ and identified work places such as medical professional associations and law
firms.
Current activities by librarians related to safety were
explored. Only 4 of the 142 respondents believed they
had no role in patient safety initiatives. Of the respondents, 83.1% responded to ad hoc inquiries on patient
safety. A significant number—48% and 46%, respectively—created resource guides (e.g., Websites, brochures, and guides to articles or books) for patients
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
and practitioners and provided training for practitioners who wished to increase their skills.
Only twenty persons (14% of persons responding)
created and maintained knowledgebases of incidents
and institutional responses. While they might still be
sensitive about dealing with errors and incidents, information professionals could use their skills in organizing information, making it easy for the information
to be analyzed and shared. This true knowledge-management effort has profound implications for organizational learning (Figure 1). The last five activities in
Figure 1 are proactive roles for information professionals in minimizing error and promoting safety.
Responses indicated that opportunities for information professionals to learn about safety were not robust. Of the survey participants, 58.5% indicated that
the library staff did not participate in organizationsponsored events designed to increase understanding
of patient safety practices or in meetings outside of the
workplace on this topic. Sixty-four percent of survey
participants indicated that their supervisor did not
talk with them about their work in the context of safety.
However, the authors find that the library community seems to have made inroads into a major issue
that is difficult for many departments—that of openly
discussing errors. The impact of the errors considered
by this set of respondents might be less than catastrophic, and hence broaching the subject is easier.
However, the openness to learning from mistakes is a
key attribute of a culture of safety [10]. It is encouraging that the library community has accepted this review-and-improvement process as a normal way of
working.
A parallel point is that 67% of respondents indicate
that weaknesses in library services and products are
openly discussed with a goal of making improvements. In a microcosm, information centers have organized themselves to be learning organizations.
Stringent and ongoing process review with a goal of
continuous learning and improvement is a hallmark of
the learning organization.
Six areas percolate to the top when reviewing the
narrative answers to the question asking librarians
about ‘‘what keeps them up at night?’’ regarding safety and the information transfer process at their institutions. Whereas the results might not be fully representative of the profession as a whole, the authors believe that the results can provide a snapshot of areas
of concern for librarians and their roles in safety.
The six general areas of concern relate to:
Ⅲ Culture: inbred notions, norms, and philosophies of
the organization that affect how work is done
Ⅲ Leadership: relationships between leaders and administrators in the librarian’s organization and the library staff
Ⅲ Process: the ways certain tasks are accomplished
and the defined ways of doing them
Ⅲ Research skills: the impact of real or perceived expertise by clinicians in online and Web-based research
on the process of information identification and use
499
�Brief communications
Figure 2
Examples illustrating current ways that librarians and clinicians are
working together to improve safety
Ⅲ Involvement with instituting a personal digital assistant (PDA)
program to assist in answering questions at the point of care
Ⅲ Updates to hospital policy and procedures to reflect current
thinking
Ⅲ Role on the clinical team for information professionals by
proactively providing point-to-point dissemination of patient safety
information
Ⅲ Active clinical librarianship program that affects how clinicians find
and utilize relevant evidence
Ⅲ Literature search activity for patient safety initiatives, practice
guidelines review, and root cause analysis
Ⅲ Personal relationships with patient safety officers, risk
management, and other quality personnel to establish an effective
information exchange relationship
Ⅲ Involvement in root cause analysis efforts
Ⅲ Participation on the medication errors reduction team
Ⅲ Effort to make library resources available to the clinical team,
24/7
Ⅲ Individual responsibilities and skills: the individual
professional’s competencies and the ways they affect
the professional’s safety role
Ⅲ Resources/access issues and time factors: blunt end
factors such as budget, technology, personnel, and collection items
DISCUSSION
Librarians and information professionals should have
an integral role in patient safety efforts. Results of this
exploratory study indicate a level of comfort with discussing errors with an eye toward improvement. An
innovative and proactive relationship between librarians and those responsible for patient safety initiatives
should be nurtured to most effectively identify, acquire, and disseminate information to support system
improvements, learning organization behaviors, and
clinical decisions, so that the information dimensions
of patient safety are fully integrated and leveraged
(Figure 2). Such a relationship will also encourage the
creative thinking, feedback loops, and constructive dialogue needed to alter the status quo and mental models about the library profession that inhibit change.
Value and ROI for such initiatives will ultimately be
measured by a reduction in the number of days patients are hospitalized, fewer legal actions, and improved diagnostic and treatment strategies as a result
of access to accurate and timely information.
Further study is required for a deeper understanding of the actual role of information professionals with
respect to patient safety and perceptions regarding the
interplay among information professionals, organization leadership, and patients. More probing about how
librarians view the value of their experience and train-
500
ing in contributing to patient safety programs would
be beneficial. For communicating best practices, it is
important to learn about initiatives that are led by the
library versus those which the library has been invited
to participate in, and it is important to describe the
culture of those organizations, documenting what the
library has done that helped the parent institution perceive the library’s value in a patient safety initiative.
This activity would help to draw a clear connection
between information work and patient safety improvements. It would also provide the industry with models
to expand upon in recruiting the information sector
and to assist in identifying metrics from which to measure the impact of these activities on the outcomes of
safety initiatives.
REFERENCES
1. KOHN LT, CORRIGAN JM, DONALDSON MS, EDS. To err is
human: building a safer health system. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2000.
2. COMMITTEE ON QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE IN AMERICA,
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE. Crossing the quality chasm: a new
health system for the 21st century. Washington, DC: National
Academies Press, 2002.
3. BOARD ON HEALTH CARE SERVICES, INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE. Keeping patients safe: transforming the work environment of nurses. Washington, DC: The Institute, 2004.
4. COMMITTEE ON DATA STANDARDS FOR PATIENT SAFETY,
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE. Achieving a new standard of care.
Washington, DC: The Institute, 2004.
5. NATIONAL PATIENT SAFETY FOUNDATION. Public opinion
of patient safety issues: research findings. [Web document].
Chicago, IL: National Patient Safety Foundation, 1997. [cited
17 Jun 2004]. Ͻhttp://www.npsf.org/download/1997survey
.pdfϾ.
6. SEXTON JA, HELMREICH R, PROVANOST PJ, THOMAS E.
Safety climate survey. 2003. Austin, TX: The Center of Excellence for Patient Safety Research & Practice, University of
Texas. [cited 17 Jun 2004]. Ͻhttp://www.qualityhealthcare
.org/IHI/Topics/PatientSafety/MedicationSystems/Tools/
SafetyϩClimateϩSurveyϩ%28IHIϩTool%29.htmϾ.
7. INSTITUTE FOR SAFE MEDICATION PRACTICE. 2004 ISMP
medication safety self-assessment for hospitals. [Web document]. Huntingdon Valley, PA: The Institute, May 2004. [cited
17 Jun 2004]. Ͻhttp://www.ismp.org/Survey/Ͼ.
8. BENCHMARKING NETWORK, MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. Single institution profile data. [Web document]. Chicago, IL: The Association. [cited 17 Jun 2004]. Ͻhttp://
www.mlanet.org/members/benchmark/worksheet2003–04
.html#3Ͼ.
9. FALCONER DJ, HODGETT RA. Why executives don’t respond to your survey. Adelaide, Australia: School of Accounting & Information Systems, University of South Australia, 1999. [cited 17 Jun 2004]. Ͻhttp://www.vuw.ac.nz/
acis99/Papers/PaperHodgett-060.pdfϾ.
10. GAWANDE A. When doctors make mistakes. In: Gawande A. Complications: a surgeon’s notes on an imperfect science. New York, NY: Henry Holt, 2002:47–74.
Received January 2004; accepted April 2004
J Med Libr Assoc 92(4) October 2004
�
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<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
An account of the resource
Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
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IT
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Italy
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...Two very different roles exist for health information professionals supporting research and development efforts in bioinformatics. The first is the more traditional role pursued in academic health sciences libraries and corporate libraries. In this role, professional responsibilities typically focus on collection development and teaching, although these activities require additional education or training for the librarian supporting bioinformatics clients. The second role is more often seen in research and development facilities or clinical settings, where the information professional is actively involved in the research process and project management. Responsibilities of this role may include involvement in searching the primary literature or genomic sequence databases, data and knowledge management and communication, and collaborative technical writing. Significantly, this second role most closely resembles that of the “informationist” as set forth by Davidoff and Florance [1], where the information professional possesses both significant domain knowledge in information science and specific technical or biological skills, including an understanding of applied knowledge in the research or clinical setting.
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Identifier
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R2MIPCZM
1536-5050
Type
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journalArticle
Date
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2004
Creator
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Helms, Alison J.; Bradford, Kevin D.; Warren, Nancy J.; Schwartz, Diane G.
Title
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Bioinformatics opportunities for health sciences librarians and information professionals
Source
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Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA
2004-10
489-493
4
92
Language
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eng
Subject
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Informatica medica
Description
An account of the resource
Esistono due ruoli molto diversi per i professionisti dell'informazione sanitaria che sostengono gli sforzi di ricerca e sviluppo in bioinformatica. Il primo è il ruolo più tradizionale perseguito nelle biblioteche accademiche di scienze della salute e nelle biblioteche aziendali. In questo ruolo, le responsabilità professionali si concentrano tipicamente sullo sviluppo della raccolta e sull'insegnamento, anche se queste attività richiedono un'istruzione o una formazione supplementari per il bibliotecario che supporta i clienti della bioinformatica. Il secondo ruolo è più spesso visto in strutture di ricerca e sviluppo o ambienti clinici, in cui il professionista dell'informazione è attivamente coinvolto nel processo di ricerca e gestione del progetto. Le responsabilità di questo ruolo possono includere il coinvolgimento nella ricerca della letteratura primaria o delle banche dati di sequenze genomiche, la gestione dei dati e delle conoscenze e la comunicazione e la scrittura tecnica collaborativa. Significativamente, questo secondo ruolo assomiglia più da vicino a quello dell'"informazionista", come indicato da Davidoff e Florance [1], in cui il professionista dell'informazione possiede sia una conoscenza di dominio significativa in scienza dell'informazione che competenze tecniche o biologiche specifiche, compresa la comprensione delle conoscenze applicate nella ricerca o nel contesto clinico.
-
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68c16cc1c02782943249c28bedb313f6
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Title
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<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
An account of the resource
Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
Contributor
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IT
Coverage
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Italy
Website
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https://www.laboratoribibliosociali.it/a-casier-per-rimettere-al-centro-la-comunita/
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KEVFQ9QP
Type
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webpage
Title
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<strong>Quando le biblioteche, anche biomediche, incontrano la comunità</strong>: I "Laboratori bibliosociali" in collaborazione con <a href="http://www.animazionesociale.it/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Animazione Sociale</a>
Relation
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<a href="https://www.laboratoribibliosociali.it/a-casier-per-rimettere-al-centro-la-comunita/">https://www.laboratoribibliosociali.it/a-casier-per-rimettere-al-centro-la-comunita/</a>
Description
An account of the resource
Laboratori bibliosociali - Percorso collettivo di ricerca e confronto sul r<strong>uolo socioculturale delle biblioteche oggi in vari territori</strong> d'Italia.<br /><br />[...una competenza da acquisire anche per le biblioteche biomediche, i cui utenti sono innanzitutto dei cittadini, un intreccio di saperi di forte impatto!]
Date
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2021-01-16 00:37:17
Language
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it
Subject
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Partecipazione alla comunità
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Laboratori BiblioSociali
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<a href="https://www.laboratoribibliosociali.it/#home">https://www.laboratoribibliosociali.it/#home</a>
Biblioteche
Coinvolgimento dei cittadini
Comunità
Fare insieme
Partecipazione
-
Dublin Core
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Title
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<strong>Bibliotecari documentalisti biomedici e professioni “sorelle” </strong>
Territori di confine, opportunità di collaborazione virtuosa
Description
An account of the resource
Esiste<strong> un rapporto spesso confuso tra la figura del bibliotecario documentalista biomedico e alcune figure di professionisti che operano in campi vicini</strong>: <strong>giornalisti </strong>esperti di comunicazione sanitaria<strong>, informatici </strong>esperti di banche dati biomediche e software in campo biblioteconomico<strong>, </strong> operatori degli<strong> Uffici Relazione con il Pubblico (URP) delle organizzazioni sanitarie, responsabili dei </strong>servizi di formazione continua<strong> in medicina (ECM), educatori alla salute, editori.</strong><br /><br />Un dialogo paritario e aperto fra questi operatori è auspicabile, una collaborazione necessaria e, in qualche modo, iniziata...<br />Alcuni esempi in questa collezione
Contributor
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IT
Coverage
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Italy
Text
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Text
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La ricerca bibliografica è un’importante necessità che spinge il professionista sanitario a navigare in Internet, dove si possono reperire, più o meno facilmente, articoli full-text, riassunti o semplici citazioni, contenuti in banche dati bibliografiche. Tuttavia, il sovraccarico informativo (cosiddetto “information overload”) richiede delle competenze che consentano di affrontare la quantità e la complessità delle informazioni e di individuare le informazioni di qualità. Per fare una buona ricerca è innanzitutto necessario scegliere con accuratezza le fonti (banche dati bibliografiche) e, in secondo luogo, sviluppare una corretta strategia di ricerca. La scelta della banca dati dipende strettamente dal tipo di quesito cui si vuole trovare risposta.
In questo corso sarà affrontato il tema della ricerca bibliografica nelle principali banche dati, con l’obiettivo di fornire alcuni strumenti conoscitivi utili per agevolare l’accesso alla letteratura scientifica, lo sviluppo di un approccio critico alle evidenze e un interesse maggiore per la letteratura scientifica. Dato l’ampio interesse al tema, come dimostrato dai risultati dello stesso corso tenutosi nel 2018, che sono stati inclusi nella rilevazione dei fabbisogni, i destinatari del corso sono stati ampliati per includere tutte le professioni.
Le conoscenze e competenze acquisite potranno favorire lo sviluppo professionale e l’applicazione delle evidenze scientifiche, con l’obiettivo di migliorare la qualità dei servizi offerti, tramite l’adozione di pratiche evidence based.
Original Format
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WebSite
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ZEID86ZN
Type
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webpage
Publisher
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Springer Healthcare Italia Srl
Relation
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<a href="https://formazione.springerhealthcare.it/event/documentazione-scientifica-e-banche-dati-biomediche-create-collect-and-search" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://formazione.springerhealthcare.it/event/documentazione-scientifica-e-banche-dati-biomediche-create-collect-and-search</a>
Date
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2019
Title
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Documentazione scientifica e banche dati biomediche: Create, Collect and Search
Description
An account of the resource
I biblio-documentalisti biomedici svolgono molta attività di formazione sia in presenza che a distanza. <br /><strong>Talvolta vi è una collaborazione attiva con gli editori commerciali come in questo caso con Springer Healthcare Italia</strong>. <br />La presentazione dell'esempio "tipo":<br />"La ricerca bibliografica è un’importante necessità che spinge il professionista sanitario a navigare in Internet, dove si possono reperire, più o meno facilmente, articoli full-text, riassunti o semplici citazioni, contenuti in banche dati bibliografiche. Tuttavia, il sovraccarico informativo (cosiddetto “information overload”) richiede delle competenze che consentano di affrontare la quantità e la complessità delle informazioni e di individuare le informazioni di qualità. Per fare una buona ricerca è innanzitutto necessario scegliere con accuratezza le fonti (banche dati bibliografiche) e, in secondo luogo, sviluppare una corretta strategia di ricerca. La scelta della banca dati dipende strettamente dal tipo di quesito cui si vuole trovare risposta. In questo corso sarà affrontato il tema della ricerca bibliografica nelle principali banche dati, con l’obiettivo di fornire alcuni strumenti conoscitivi utili per agevolare l’accesso alla letteratura scientifica, lo sviluppo di un approccio critico alle evidenze e un interesse maggiore per la letteratura scientifica. Dato l’ampio interesse al tema, come dimostrato dai risultati dello stesso corso tenutosi nel 2018, che sono stati inclusi nella rilevazione dei fabbisogni, i destinatari del corso sono stati ampliati per includere tutte le professioni. Le conoscenze e competenze acquisite potranno favorire lo sviluppo professionale e l’applicazione delle evidenze scientifiche, con l’obiettivo di migliorare la qualità dei servizi offerti, tramite l’adozione di pratiche evidence based"
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Springer Healthcare Italia
Contributor
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<a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GFpwUIUAAAAJ&hl=it">Formigoni, Chiara</a>
EBM
ECM
Formazione
Ricerca bibliografica