Monday, October 24, 2011

Speed of updating online evidence based point of care summaries: prospective cohort analysis

A September 2011 article in BMJ addressing a study conducted on point-of-care resources. Failure to incorporate results of new research into practice can affect individual and population outcomes. This is the main reason for updating any medical information sources such as systematic reviews, guidelines, and clinical summaries. Comprehensive presentation of new findings from research against the background of what is already available is essential to meet doctors’ needs for evidence during clinical consultations: which interventions work, which don’t work, which are additional or alternative, which need more investigation, and which might be harmful. For internet based information in particular, doctors and health professionals expect to rapidly find the latest knowledge to answer their information needs. http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d5856.full

Report: The Complexities of National Health Care Workforce Planning

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Health Professional Workforce Initiative has a report, "The Complexities of National Health Care Workforce Planning." The study examined the future of health professional workforce issues, and included 12 health care service delivery professions in their study. The project co-leaders were former Senators Tom Daschle and Bill Frist, MD.http://lists.aamc.org/t/146352/795361/14242/0/

Open Access Week

Join us October 24-30 in celebrating International Open Access Week!

What's open access? So glad you asked! Here's A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access, courtesy of openaccessweek.org:

"Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What makes it possible is the internet and the consent of the author or copyright-holder.

"OA is entirely compatible with peer review, and all the major OA initiatives for
scientific and scholarly literature insist on its importance. Just as authors of journal articles donate their labor, so do most journal editors and referees participating in peer review.

"OA literature is not free to produce, even if it is less expensive to produce than
conventionally published literature. The question is not whether scholarly literature can be made costless, but whether there are better ways to pay the bills than by charging readers and creating access barriers. Business models for paying the bills depend on how OA is delivered."

Have further questions? Contact us and we'll be sure to get you the information you need!