McMaster pilots personal library for northern physicians

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/clement2.JPG” caption=”McMaster Plus”]McMaster University has received $1 million from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to create and test an information service, McMaster Plus, for physicians in isolated areas.

“McMaster Plus: Harnessing Digital Libraries for Better Health Care” will find out what medical information northern Ontario doctors need, provide them online with the best evidence-based health literature available and then test to see if and how doctors are using the service.

“Rapid changes in medical knowledge have made it very difficult for physicians to keep up with breakthroughs in health care,” says John Kelton, dean and vice-president of McMaster's Faculty of Health Sciences. “We see McMaster Plus as the first step in gathering new medical knowledge and making it available in an easily digestible form to doctors and, in the future, to patients as well.”

“It used to be that northern Ontario physicians struggled most with getting up-to-date information when they were so far away from a big medical library,” says Brian Haynes, chair of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster's Faculty of Health Sciences. “The development of digital libraries has in some ways solved this problem, but created a new challenge in sorting through the overwhelming array of information available to find what's most relevant and most reliable.

“A doctor might do a literature search on arthritis and get 1,000 articles. Only a tiny fraction of this literature is high quality and relevant to clinical practice,” Haynes says. “Our role at McMaster will be to help doctors find that therapeutic needle in the information haystack. We predict our new service will be an enormous time-saver and lead to better practice.”

“McMaster pioneered the concept of evidence-based medicine,” Kelton said. “As a result, we are well-equipped to take on this project. We are very grateful to the government of Ontario for supporting this very significant innovation.”

A research team at McMaster's Faculty of Health Sciences, working under Haynes, already conduct detailed reviews of medical journals, classifying the studies based on best practice' criteria. The results of their reviews are published bi-monthly in four international journals.

“We have developed a highly refined system to put a seal of approval on good studies and weed out the bad,” Haynes said. “Now we'll take it several steps further by customizing the information we provide based on what physicians ask for, and supplying it to them online.”

Funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will be used to gather information from northern physicians about their areas of interest and to build the software that will allow McMaster experts to quickly sort through online information.

McMaster Plus is an enhancement to a digital health sciences library already in use in selected northern Ontario communities. The digital library is operated by the Northern Academic Health Sciences Network (NASHN), a provincial government-supported umbrella organization created to support health practitioners and practitioners-in-training in northern Ontario.

“As a very busy northern family physician, it's crucial for me to have efficient access to best evidence to ensure that I am delivering the highest quality care. I congratulate McMaster University for taking this much-needed state-of-the-art initiative. I look forward to working collaboratively with McMaster to tailor this service to the needs of local health practitioners,” says Barbara Russell, a family physician in Sioux Lookout, Ontario.

“As a community internist who is interested in bringing research, education and evidence-based medicine to the north, I am thrilled to be involved in such an innovative exciting project. It will undoubtedly enhance not only our daily clinical practice but might even help to attract much-needed physicians to under serviced areas. This program will be an excellent adjunct to the northern community specialty training residencies and the upcoming Northern Medical School,” says Hui Lee, a general internist, and chair of Sault Area Hospital education department.

Photo caption: Brian Haynes, chair of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster's Faculty of Health Sciences, pictured left, demonstrates McMaster Plus to Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Tony Clement.