News: UK - National Electronic Library for Health goes live...

[Murray Charters <Murray_Charters@xxxxxxxxx>]

BMJ 2000;321:1309 ( 25 November )
News roundup
National electronic Library for Health goes live
Roger Dobson Abergavenny
The NHS National electronic Library for Health goes on line next week.
A pilot version of the library will be launched to coincide with the first
conference of the NHS Information Authority.

The library, whose declared aim is to become one of the great libraries
of the world, has been designed primarily to provide health professionals
with easy and fast access to best current knowledge. It will also provide
data direct to the public, however.

The library?s goal in its first phase it is to provide clinicians with access
to information within 15 seconds, with a longer term goal of reducing the
wait to one second.

One of the main features of the library will be its ability to act as a quality
filter so that the data accessed through the site, for both clinicians and the
public, will not only be the best current knowledge, but will also be free of
bias and conflict of interest.

It is designed to help patients and the public navigate their way through the
huge amount of health data now available on the internet, much of it of poor
quality.  It will also assist with information overload on the internet. A 
report
on the library by the NHS Information Authority stated: "The World Wide Web
is not an unmitigated boon. People who hitherto had inadequate access to
paper-based information, are now in danger of being overwhelmed by electronic
information, but it is impossible to run quality control on the web as a whole.

"The vast proliferation of healthcare websites, most of which give no indication
about the quality of information that they include, make the web a bewildering
place which can be misleading, sometimes dangerously so."

The library will offer NHS staff access to high quality information resources,
including a database of clinical guidelines, clinical evidence, and the
Cochrane Library.

There will also be virtual branch libraries devoted to specific subject areas,
such as diabetes, mental health, and cancer. In many cases, individual
academic or clinical institutions will undertake to run these centres.

"Our aim is to provide easy access to best current knowledge to improve
health and healthcare, patient choice, and clinical practice. Over the next
year we will learn more about user needs, and, as opportunities arise, further
resources and features will be added," said Dr Muir Gray, the library?s
programme director.

The library?s website, which should be available from next Monday, is

 
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