Miles to go before we sleep: education, technology, and the changing paradigms in health information

Miles to go before we sleep: education, technology, and the changing paradigms in health information

Cleveland AD Miles to go before we sleep: education, technology, and the changing paradigms in health information* J Med Libr Assoc. 2011 January; 99(1): 61–69 The author discusses the urgent need to upgrade health information based degrees where she stresses that while the important principles of library science need to be taught, the curriculum should now include concepts of healthcare as well as other information centred disciplines. In India, it is not about "upgrading", as we do not have a health information degree; we have Library & Information Sciences as a broad discipline. What we need for our medical colleges…
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Goodbye PubMed, hello raw data

Goodbye PubMed, hello raw data

Godlee F. Goodbye PubMed, hello raw data BMJ 2011; 342:d212 The editor of BMJ writes about the H1N1 influenza epidemic in the last year and discusses about the effectiveness of antivirals and the drug oseltamivir. She quotes another BMJ article (BMJ 2011; 342:c7258) where the authors Jefferson and Doshi, who were reviewers of a Cochrane review on the same topic, were unable to get the data from the trial that they covered they needed to validate their conclusion about the efficacy of the antiviral. She goes on to explain that these reviewers while compiling a list of trials located a…
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Strategies for coping with information overload

Strategies for coping with information overload

Smith R. Strategies for coping with information overload BMJ 2010; 341:c7126 Richard Smith, the former editor of BMJ discusses how doctors cope with "Information Overload". He discusses various approaches that doctors take. He highlights Cochrane Reviews, UpToDate, BMJ Point of Evidence and other sources - where experts summarize evidence and make them available. However as he rightly says - quoting Muir Gray - we have an information paradox - there is far too much, and yet we don't find answers! Our Founder has responded with some comments in the Indian context. Do read her note: Isn't it time to recognize…
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