I read the article from J Am Board Fam Pract featured in Medscape news this
past week (link below) in light of the comments on the librarian's role. I
agree with those who suggest that librarians can do the search and select
quality resources for the clinician to read. In the article, some of the
questions to ask when reading a research article can be asked when the
librarian reviews the search results, especially things like the quality of
the journal (peer-review status).
What do others on the list think of the 6 questions clinicians shoud ask, as
suggested by this article? Would it be helpful when trying to get
clinicians to accept evidence based decision making?
Likewise, if time is a major issue as the article also suggests, I think
that the use of librarians as searchers providing a selection of quality
filtered would be a cost-effective practice. When I first worked as a
hospital librarian, I participated in a study (Gertrude Foreman, Margaret
Allen, & Donna Johnson, "A user study of manual and MEDLINE literature
searches in the hospital library," Bulletin of the Medical Library
Association, 62 (Oct 1974) 385-7) where clinicians were asked to compare the
results of a MEDLINE search by the university librarian withthe Index
Medicus searches by hospital librarians. Clinicians tended to prefer those
by the hospital librarian because of timeliness (this was back when only a
selected few could do online searching) and the fact that we provided actual
article photocopies - not citations - saving the clinician the trouble of
selecting articles and waiting for copies. Sometimes I wonder if the "ease"
of online literature searching has de-valued the role of an experienced
medical librarian willing to "send a few good articles" relevant to a
patient care need?
This was back in the days when U.S. hospitals competed for physicians to
join their medical staff, and I remember that we had one group practice
join - at least in part -because of the quality library service.
In our current library outreach work with rural health providers, we just
don't see the level of interest in MEDLINE searching, let alone critical
appraisal, that I'd like to see as part of their practices. Perhaps we
should emphasize our availability as search experts and not try to teach the
finer points of MEDLINE searching?
Just musing - Peg
----- Original Message -----
From: Medscape's Medpulse <[log in to unmask]>
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Sent: Friday, November 05, 1999 4:23 PM
Subject: Week in Review-Today on Medscape MedPulse 05-Nov-99 --Free
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>>> Week in Review-Today on Medscape MedPulse(R) <<<
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This week's MedPulse is sponsored by AllHeart.com
>snip
Internal Medicine
CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THE LITERATURE
Review the critical reading skills needed to make sense out of the 6
million medical articles published annually.
J Am Board Fam Pract 12(4):315-333, 1999
http://www.medscape.com/13478.rhtml
<a href="http://www.medscape.com/13478.rhtml">Read it Here</a>
Margaret (Peg) Allen, MLS-AHIP mailto:[log in to unmask]
Library/Information Consultant
Resource Librarian Consultant for Cinahl Information Systems, Inc.
http://www.cinahl.com/
Library Consultant, Northern Wisconsin Area Health Education Center, Inc.
http://home.dwave.net/~nahec/
PO Box 2, 308 Kann, Stratford, WI 54484-0002
(715)687-4976 Fax:(715)687-4976
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