1. Global Health The definitive international public health database Chris Ison Sales and Training Manager

2. The Definitive Public Health Database What is Public Health? “the science and art of protecting and improving the health of communities through education, promotion of healthy lifestyles, and research for disease and injury prevention.” -APHA

3. Global Health History ● A key Public Health DB established in 2003 ● First published as the Public Health and Tropical Medicine Database ● There is no other dedicated public health database ● Medline covers only 52% of core public health serials (University of Massachusetts Medical School) ● Other health databases ignore developing country literature which is dangerous in this age of globalization ● Public health is multidisciplinary and much relevant content, such as the sociological aspects, is not covered by existing databases

4. Global Health Key Statistics ● currently contains 1.2 million records since 1973 ● a further 800,000 records available through Global Health Archive (1910 to 1972) ● a total of 5702 indexed serials ● open serials policy ● 75,000 records added annually ● indexes 3500+ titles ● includes non-serial content, books, chapters, theses, reports ● serials from 125 countries in over 50 languages ● 95% of records have abstracts

5. Global Health Coverage ● Human nutrition ● Infectious diseases ● Parasitic diseases ● Toxicology and poisoning ● Non-communicable diseases ● Sociology and economics ● Community and public health issues ● Medicinal and poisonous plants

6. GH - Types of literature Journals: 80% Conferences: 9% Grey literature: 7% Books: 2% Others: 2%

7. GH - Serials indexed from 158 countries

8. GH - Non-English languages covered

9. GH - Comparisons Obesity in USA (an area of strength of Medline) Search: obesity and (USA or United States) 1995-2006 Total records = 5165; GH unique = 1547; Medline unique = 2989; Overlap = 629 Mosquito control Search: (Culicidae and control or pest control) or mosquito control (2001-2006) Total records = 4643; GH unique = 2522; Medline unique = 1164; Overlap = 957 Nutritional epidemiology Search: nutrition surveys or diet studies (1996-2006) Total 5151 Total records = 5151; GH unique = 2960; Medline unique = 1880; Overlap = 311

10. Testimonial "We have whittled it down to what we believe are the essentials - Global Health and Medline” Jean Shaw (Partnerships in Health Information, registered charity no. 1031674)