Virtual Health Library - Prospects in Jamaica

Background

The MEDCARIB Network, a sub-network within BIREME's network, was established with the participation of 16 English-speaking Caribbean countries and Surinam between 1991-1995. The University of the West Indies, Medical Library (UWIML) in Jamaica is the Regional Coordinating Center of the MEDCARIB Network and Coordinating Center for Jamaican Health Information Network. During the Fourth Pan American Congress on Health Information held in San Jose, Costa Rica in 1998, the participants of Latin American and Caribbean System approved the San Jose Declaration towards the Virtual Health Library (VHL) and SciELO (electronic publication) project. The UWIML is in the process of organizing and implementing VHL and SciELO projects in Jamaica.

The UWIML has a separate Computer Laboratory on its 2^nd Floor, equipped with three Network Servers, 40 Pentium computers, Digital Camera (for production of teaching material) and video equipment for the student to retrieve information from various virtual resources from the library and Internet for evidence-based and Problem-based Learning. The Ground floor has 22 data outlets and the First floor has 23. Out of these 45 outlets, 20 are left for users to hook up their laptops and 25 will have computers. The Library is using the Virginia Tech Library System (VTLS) for automation and some of the workstations will be used for On-Line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). The fibre optic cables and local area network wiring has been completed but unfortunately UWIML has to wait for Internet connectivity until the University's Wide Area Network is completed. The Faculty of Medical Sciences office, all departments and the University Hospital will also come in the system so the information can be retrieved from any of these location. Meantime the preparation is going on towards VHL in Jamaica.

Plan of Action

In September 1999, Jamaica and Cuba's joint project proposal for a Jamaican Health Information Network was approved by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) under their Technical Cooperation between Two Countries (TCC) Grant. In October 1999, two Consultants from Cuba came to assess the Jamaican situation and prepared the Plan of Action for Virtual Health Library and Health Information Locators (HIL) Methodology Training. At the same time, a Network Administrator also came for two months to assist in properly organizing the Jamaican Health Information Network. The Network Administrator is presently examining the network infrastructure and Local Area Network connections in the UWI. He made visits to other centers of the network to examine the systems used and what more is needed for establishment of the infrastructure for the realization of the VHL. He will assess the number of servers and other hardware required, construction of network architecture and administration and maintenance of these server.

The Network Administrator will install the software and configure different aspect of VHL, i.e. web server, mail server, database server, etc. at the UWIML. When this is successfully completed, the system will be tested for external connectivity, i.e. access to the UWIML by other Centers in Jamaica through Internet. When the central node is established successfully, the same procedure will be repeated at all participating units.

Meantime the UWIML has established linkage with some organizations/institutions and selected few Internet Health Web Sites, which are being placed in UWIML Web Page for users to click directly to the sources to retrieve their required information. The Cuban Network Administrator is also assisting in preparing Web Pages for UWIML and the MEDCARIB Network.

VHL Preparation

The UWIML, while awaiting the Internet connectivity, is directing its users to retrieve information through Internet either from the Main or Science Library of the UWI or from their personal computers at home. Most of the academic staff and postgraduate students, in absence of facility at the Medical Library, are searching the information from Internet from their home or offices. The following web sites are going to be in UWIML web page where users can click at the site and retrieve information:

National Library of Medicine (NLM) is the gateway to virtual health resources. Their web page www.nlm.nih.gov/ leads to various health information and databases. Already the users who have access to Internet are using PubMed (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubMed/) since it gives free access on Internet to Medline database.

BIREME (www.bireme.br) and InfoMed (www.InfoMed.sld.cu) sites are going to be used extensively.

The Library made contacts with several networks that permitted to use their virtual resources. One is the University of California at Los Angeles's Louis Darling Biomedical Library, which is the regional Library of the Pacific Southwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. Their Biosites: a Virtual Catalog of Internet Resources in the Biomedical Sciences(http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/cdd) is a current listing of important Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians within the Pacific Southwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.

Clinical Digital Libraries Project (CDLP)http://www.slis.ua.edu/cdlp/outreach/uwimona/

CDLP was established in 1995 and is a joint effort of the School of Library and Information Studies and 5 other libraries from University of Alabama and University of North Texas. UWIML became participant in June 1999 and passed on the web address to its users. Since CDLP is a research project, there is no cost to participate. All resources in the digital library are high quality web resources that are freely available. CDLP has built an effective interface for using clinical digital library collection that is empirically grounded and tested with a range of endusers. They also build an effective interface for managing clinical digital library collections so that the selection of resources can be made by local library and information professionals who know best what is required for their constituencies.

The UWI and the University of Puerto Rico has signed an agreement for technical cooperation for five Year (1998-2003) period. The University of Puerto Rico has been given a grant from NLM on the project "Health Information Gateway for the Caribbean" which will extend its electronic information services to other health institutions in the Caribbean.

The user community needs information on various residency programs, name and addresses of the hospitals in U.S.A. and Canada. The Web Page will include:

American Medical Association (AMA) - WWW.ama.assn.org - AMA has web-based and prints compendiums of practical information. Also continuing physician professional development programs and recognition mechanisms.

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) – WWW.aamc.org - This web site offers information in the areas of medical education, applicant information, transcript request forms, student and applicant relations, medical schools, a downloadable version of the AMCAS-E electronic application software.

FREIDA Online (Fellowship and Residency Electronic Database Access) - www.ama.assn.org/freida provides information on all ACGME-accredited and combined specialty GME programs.

The UWIML is presently subscribing to MDConsult(www.MdConsult.com) and advising the users to use it from home. Since this service is available free of charge for 10 days without obligation, provides users an opportunity to test the usefulness of the service before placing a personal subscription. The database offers several useful access points to narrow down a subject area, reducing retrieval time and increasing relevancy. The output provides references in order of availability of full text online and the user can click on the item to download or print the article. The journal collection can be searched simultaneously with Medline, which helps the user to see what is available full text.

The access points include 36 textbooks with full text on clinical practice, 47 journals with full text, 600 peer-reviewed practice guidelines provided by medical societies and government agencies, and drug information on over 30,000 medications from leading independent drug reference sources with alternative medications, cost of therapy etc.

Today in medicine is a current awareness service that reports latest developments in medicine with links to relevant reference. The current awareness services provided by MDConsult offers new trends in the field of medical sciences, drugs and what patients are learning from the media and alert the practitioner with information they need at their fingertips to prepare them to advise patients. In This Week's Journals section, articles from key weekly journals are brought on the same day the issue is out of press. Another useful feature is the section on Drug Information, which provides independent evaluations of drug with relevant references.

The MDConsult web site is easy to search, print or download.

HealthWeb (http://www.healthweb.org) provides links to specific, evaluated information resources on World Wide Web selected by librarians and information professionals at leading academic medical centers in the Midwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.

Medscape(http://www.medscape.com) is a comprehensive list of free peer-reviewed information for healthcare providers.

Electronic Journals

Already several electronic journals are available full-text with free access on Internet. The EBSCO Subscription Service offered free access on Internet to many journals with full text which UWIML subscribes. On UWIML web page listing of all these journals will provide easy access to our users.

The UWIML is waiting to receive the SciELO methodology and training to start on electronic publication. Work is in progress to seek permission from the publishers to include their publications on full-text database.