MEDICAL INFORMATION SPECIALISTS IN THE NETHERLANDS Heleen Dyserinck, Faridi van Etten, Hans Ket Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam VU University, Amsterdam York, June 2007

THE NETHERLANDS  8 University Medical Centres Centres  19 Top Clinical Hospitals  109 Regional Hospitals

MEDICAL LIBRARIES

ON BEHALF OF COLLEAGUES  Faridi van Etten, Clinical librarian AMC, Amsterdam  Hans Ket, Medical Information Specialist, VU Medical Centre, Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM  University of Amsterdam  VU University

AMC  Academic Medical Centre  University of Amsterdam  1002 beds  Advanced specialist functions including traumatology, pediatric and neonatal intensive care, neurosurgery  General care  Medical education

VUmc  VU University Medical Center Amsterdam  733 beds  VU University  Scientific reseach  Intensive cooperation with the AMC

PURPOSE  Survey of the profession of medical information specialists.  Questionnaire  Meeting

QUESTIONNAIRE  80 medical librarians were consulted by -lists of professional societies  25 questions  41 librarians responded to the questionnaire

Themes of the questionnaire  Organizations  Training, background and experience  Customers  Courses  Quality care  Search filters  Products  Communication and public relations

Examples of questions  What is your profession called?  What is your background, training, knowledge and experience?  Who are your customers and who are not?  What kind of courses do you give?  Do you use a reference interview?  Do you develop search filters?  Do you develop educational materials, websites or tutorials?  How do you communicate with your customers?

Results of the questionnaire  Different hospitals  Different training  Different functions  Different tasks It is very hard to draw conclusions!!! Diversity in the Netherlands

HIGHLIGHTS  But we present some highlights

What’s in a name?  Medical information specialists (16)  Librarians (13)  Clinical librarians (12)  Medical librarians  Literature researchers  Head Medical Library

TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE  Basic education in librarianship (college level) (33)  University education (mostly biomedical) (20)  Medical terminology by experience (25)  Courses: (presentation skills, primary medical knowledge, database skills) (41)

CLIENTS  Students  Doctors  Nurses  Researchers  Paramedical personnel  No patients

CLINICAL LIBRARIANSHIP IN THE NETHERLANDS  No clinical questions and answer services  1991 CL project in the AMC 1992 publication in the Dutch Medical Journal  In UMC’s and topclinical hospitals medical information specialists offer special services for the clinics

COMMUNICATION  Presentations for clients (24)  Instructions to departments (17)  Present at meetings (12)  Column in hospital magazines (16)

COURSES COURSES  Pubmed  Cochrane Library  Evidence based sources  OVID databases: EMBASE, CINAHL  Reference Manager, Endnote

LITERATURE SEARCHES  Reference interview – often PICO!  Search protocol (20%)  Reporting of search strategies

MEDICAL LIBRARY AMC  9 divisions  Each division has its own CL  AMC first evidence based hospital in the Netherlands  Medical Library joins in Evidence Based Medicine courses together with DCC

AMC DCC AMSTERDAM

Different departments different needs  Students, hospital and research departments

NURSING  Courses  Help with individual searches  Training Course Evidence Based Nursing  Introduction Medical Library

PEDIATRICS  Searches  Cochrane Childhood Cancer Group  Patient information centre  Course EBM KEK  Emmakrant newspaper

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH  Searches for the Government  Newsletter and helpdesk for Dutch Centre Occupational Diseases helpdesk for Dutch Centre Occupational Diseases  EBM Courses for all occupational health doctors in the Netherlands

OBSTETRICS/GYNAECOLOGY  Presentation of CAT’s at morning report  Courses ‘Evidence Based Searching for a CAT’  Participation in EBM course for the NVOG  Searches

Clinical librarians in EBM  PICO’s and CAT’s  Use of evidence based resources  Use of proper search terms  Speciality based training & courses  Evidence based searching courses

April 3rd 2007  Meeting of medical information specialists in the AMC, Amsterdam  Reporting on the state of affairs of clinical librarianship/medical information specialists  Planning co-operation for the future

CONSULTATION / COURSE  Consultation OR course  Consultation AND course  Course NOT consultation

CRITICAL APPRAISAL  Critical appraisal of search results is not conducted by medical information specialists  Only quick selection of evidence

USE OF SEARCHFILTERS  Searchfilters (e.g.clinical queries Pubmed) are used a lot  Some libraries develop search filters

NATIONAL COOPERATION  Developing search filters  Pubmed course  Pubmed guide/book  Search protocol  WIKI

MEETINGS AND COOPERATION  WEB&Z (working committee electronic sources and searching)  MAILINGLIST Clinical librarians

 Bulletin of the department of biomedical information of the NVB

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

CLINICAL LIBRARIANS/MEDICAL INFORMATION SPECIALISTS  Optimal quality search strategies are required for guidelines, systematic reviews, research and fundraising for research  Training courses in the curriculum  Digital libraries per discipline

MEDICAL CURRICULUM  Clinical Librarian gives evidence based search training for students  Search skills for PICO’s and CAT’s  Lifelong learning

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION  Exchange of new ideas  Best practices of digital libraries  Best practices in teaching information skills  ?