Although the basic science researchers expressed a positive attitude toward the library, they did not view its resources or services as integral to their work. To maximize their use by researchers, library resources must be accessible via departmental websites. Use of library services may be increased by cultivating relationships with key departmental administrative personnel. Despite their self-sufficiency, subjects expressed a desire for centralized information about ongoing research on campus and shared resources, suggesting a role for the library in creating and managing an institutional repository.

Sustainable integration of Information Rx in a primary care clinic requires not only promotion and education, but also attention to clinic organization and procedures.

No abstract

In response to frequent use of mobile devices among medical students, Dana Medical Library at the University of Vermont provided mobile resource support to medical students preparing for clerkships. The librarians offered group instruction, individual assistance, and an online subject guide. These activities were assessed through evaluations, web statistics, and a survey. Survey questions gathered data on access to mobile devices, use of library-licensed mobile resources, and benefits and barriers to use in the clinical setting. The majority of survey respondents believed access to mobile resources improved their clerkship experience and contributed to comparable educational experiences across clerkship sites. Researchers found that library support affected student perception of the value of mobile resources in the clerkship experience.

Increased transparency in study design and analysis is one proposed solution to the perceived reproducibility crisis facing science. Systematic review and meta-analysis-through which individual studies on a specific association are ascertained, assessed for quality and quantitatively combined-is a critical process for building consensus in medical research. However, the conventional publication model creates static evidence summaries that force the quality assessment criteria and analytical choices of a small number of authors onto all stakeholders, some of whom will have different views on the quality assessment and key features of the analysis. This leads to discordant inferences from metaanalysis results and delayed arrival at consensus. We propose a shift to interactive meta-analysis, through which stakeholders can take control of the evidence synthesis using their own quality criteria and preferred analytic approach-including the option to incorporate prior information on the association in question-to reveal how their summary estimate differs from that reported by the original analysts. We demonstrate this concept using a web-based meta-analysis of the association between genetic variation in a key tamoxifen-metabolising enzyme and breast cancer recurrence in tamoxifen-treated women. We argue that interactive meta-analyses would speed consensus-building to the degree that they reveal invariance of inferences to different study selection and analysis criteria. On the other hand, when inferences are found to differ substantially as a function of these choices, the disparities highlight where future research resources should be invested to resolve lingering sources of disagreement.on July 8, 2020 by guest. Protected by copyright.