When patients google

When patients google

I often read social media posts where doctors express concern about patients googling and coming to them. Very understandable. There is so much of misinformation on the net that patients could be picking up. Asking questions based on these could be a major waste of time for a doctor. It is a strain on them considering that in India the doctor patient ratio is terrible. It is another matter that patients could be guided to the right websites to read up more, in order to save a doctor's time. If you are a doctor reading this, you would have probably…
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Medical libraries and their usage – faculty and librarians need to work together!

Medical libraries and their usage – faculty and librarians need to work together!

In institutions with libraries, the librarians are expected to provide statistics of usage. Budgets are often pruned if there is a decreased trend in use and alarmingly some libraries are closed down. What is "library usage" today? Not any more should one measure this only by footfalls (number of people visiting a library) or by number of items borrowed. Libraries are centres in an institution, and it is through these centres that access to online resources is purchased and enabled. It is by overall usage of a number of resources. Again not only by downloads but by what happens with…
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“You are creating your competition”

“You are creating your competition”

Years ago, when I had just started freelancing after three library jobs, one of my activities was training doctors (any health professional) in using the Internet for professional activities. PubMed had not yet become public and free, so I used to teach one of the Medline services called "PaperChase" which was affordable then. I also used to do literature searches for those who needed literature and were not confident of doing it for themselves. At that time a doctor asked me "You are teaching people to do their searches and you are also doing it for them. Are you not…
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