I co-chair a task force that is working to build a Canadian Virtual Health Library.
There was an interesting article in the Globe and Mail on February 23, 2011 Canada lacks oversight on online medical information, study finds:
“At a time when Internet searches are common for any type of medical problem – and when the medical credentials of Dr. Wikipedia are dubious at best – the lack of federal government oversight on drug searches raises concerns about the accuracy of information Canadians are receiving.”
This is not surprising news to any one working in the health library world. Health curricula are increasingly demanding that students graduate with better literature search and assessment skills, as part of a professional commitment to lifelong learning. Students are generally trained in evidence based health care and decision making, which involves, again, finding and assimilating the best possible literature to inform their patient care. While earning their degrees, students can make use of the staggering journal and book collections the university subscribes to support their health care decisions. Upon graduation, unless the new clinician winds up working at a university or one of its partner hospitals, the umbilical to the university library collections is cut.
What’s interesting is the article opens up a discussion that is rarely heard beyond the ears of library folks. Canada is compared to the US. In the US, a whole network is in place with the National Library of Medicine at the core and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine shoring up regional access for practitioners, the US model, publicly funded access and support, sounds like something Canada would have thought up.
No such luck. In Canada we have no National Library of Medicine. Sure NRC CISTI is deemed the national science, technology and medicine library per the revisions to the NRC Act of 1966. But in 2009 CISTI, had its budget cut effectively by 70% and its national role has accordingly shrunk. The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) noted in a press release dated June 2, 2009:
“For Canadians, cuts to the CISTI -budget will mean less access to scientific journals and the research that Canadians have paid for. CISTI’s role as the national science library cannot be diminished if we are to realize the full benefit of Canadian health research and healthcare innovations by implementing the best possible information.”
http://www.afmc.ca/news-press-releases-details-e.php?pid=51
Thus far, the best solutions to providing health practitioners with good reliable health information are built around professional organizations (eg DrsNS), provincial consortia such as the Alberta Health Knowledge Network, or the RUIS project in Quebec, etc. But the problem remains, many practitioners do not have access to the best and most current information resources.
There is hope.
The Canadian Virtual Health Library / Bibliothèque virtuelle canadienne de la santé (CVHL / BVCS) is currently funded by the Canada Institutes for Health Research to enlist regional and provincial partners, build the web portal, develop the collections, a sustainable business plan and a governance model
The CVHL/BVCS will build the services and collections that have already been developed for jurisdictions across the country. The model is ground up out of necessity, since most online medical information is delivered at a local or provincial level in Canada (eg, University, Health Authority, local consortium).
The goal of pulling our individual local efforts together is to increase our purchasing capacity and leverage savings and ultimately provide online access to health care clinicians who currently do not have access to the best online medical information.
The CVHL/BCVS project is also participating with the Canadian Cochrane Centre on a Pan-Canadian Cochrane Library Task Force to deploy the Cochrane Library database nationally. The Cochrane Library database provides best evidence patient care information for both the consumer and the clinician and speaks to the heart of your article, which is assuring that Canadians have the best information available online to answer their healthcare questions. Last year, we ran a national trial, making the Cochrane Library freely available to all Canadians, for a few months there Canada was neck and neck with countries such as Kazakhstan.
Perhaps we as a nation could do better.
More info: http://chla-absc.ca/nnlh/cvhl/index.htm]
Patrick Ellis
Health Sciences Librarian
Dalhousie University Libraries