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The value of information services in patient care

A new US study has surveyed over 16,000 physicians, residents and nurses about the value of information services for patient care.

Objective:  The research conducted a large-scale, multisite study on the value and impact of library and information services on patient care.

Results:  Of the 16,122 survey respondents (physicians, residents, nurses), 3/4 said that they had definitely or probably handled aspects of the patient care situation differently as a result of the information. Among the reported changes were advice given to the patient, diagnosis and choice of drugs, other treatment, and tests . Almost all of the respondents said the information resulted in a better informed clinical decision. Respondents reported that the information allowed them to avoid the following adverse events: patient misunderstanding of the disease, additional tests, misdiagnosis, adverse drug reactions, medication errors, and patient mortality.

Conclusions:  Library and information resources were perceived as valuable, and the information obtained was seen as having an impact on patient care.

The value of library and information services in patient care: results of a multisite study.  Joanne Gard Marshall et al    J Med Libr Assoc. 2013 January; 101(1): 38–46. 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543128/

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How doctors use UpToDate

How doctors make use of online, point-of-care clinical decision support systems: a case study of UpToDate©. Addison J, Whitcombe J, William Glover S.  Health Info Libr J. 2013 Mar;30(1):13-22. doi: 10.1111/hir.12002.  PMID: 23413790    RCSI Users Link

This recent study conducted in the UK NHS discovered doctors use UpToDate at the point of care to:

• To find information about new treatments
• To make correct treatment decisions
• To reduce delays in starting treatment
• To avoid unnecessary diagnostic tests
• To reach a final diagnosis faster
• To reassure the clinician that the intended action is appropriate
• As a reference tool
• To give immediate feedback to patients
• To avoid unnecessary consulting of senior colleagues
• To deliver cost-saving benefits

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ERIC the Educational Resources Information Centre

ERIC is a specialist education research resource, an open access  bibliographic database of general education research. It indexes many specialist publications including valuable reports and similar grey literature, research not easily found elsewhere.

ERIC indexes education journals, the majority of which are peer-reviewed. Most of these journals are indexed comprehensively - that is, a record for every article in each issue is included in ERIC. Some journals are indexed selectively - that is, only those articles that are education-related are selected for indexing.

Reports and grey literature:  ERIC indexes education-related materials from a variety of sources, including scholarly organizations, professional associations, research centers, policy organizations, university presses, the U.S. Department of Education and other federal agencies, and state and local agencies. Individual contributors submit conference papers, research papers, dissertations, and theses.

Link via RCSI Library                 Direct link

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Medical searches: PubMed and Google Scholar

Medical literature searches: a comparison of PubMed and Google Scholar    Nourbakhsh E, Nugent R, Wang H, Cevik C, Nugent K. Health Information Libraries Journal  2012 Sep;29(3):214-22.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22925384


Background:
Medical literature searches provide critical information for clinicians. However, the best strategy for identifying relevant high-quality literature is unknown.

Objectives:
We compared search results using PubMed and Google Scholar on four clinical questions and analysed these results with respect to article relevance and quality.

Conclusions:
PubMed searches and Google Scholar searches often identify different articles. In this study, Google Scholar articles were more likely to be classified as relevant, had higher numbers of citations and were published in higher impact factor journals. The identification of frequently cited articles using Google Scholar for searches probably has value for initial literature searches.



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Updates on UpToDate

See What's New in UpToDate

UpToDate is updated regularly based on a continuous comprehensive review of over 450 peer-reviewed journals, clinical databases and other resources. Updates are integrated carefully, with specific recommendations as to how they should be applied clinically. The most important updates are highlighted in the "What's New" tab located on the toolbar.

In some cases, new findings can have important and immediate implications for how clinicians practice. This information is highlighted in "Practice Changing UpDates" at the top of the list. These recommendations are also included in the specialty-specific "What's New" updates, and are discussed in greater detail in the full-length topic identified.


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Social Science Research Network

The Social Science Resarch Network SSRN is a major repository of social science research developed by a number of collaborating US, European and Asian universities.

It is “devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences”.  It has an elibrary consisting of an Abstract Database containing abstracts on over 444,700 scholarly working papers and an Electronic Paper Collection of downloadable full text documents. Of particular interest are collections in Health, Healthcare Economics, Business and Corporate Governance.

SSRN was ranked Number 1 repository in the World Ranking of Web Repositories


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