Catherine Delvenne

Organising access to evidence-based medicine resources on the web

The continuing education is a challenge for health care professionals, considering the growing amount and variable quality of information in this field. In this context, we developed a method allowing clinicians to have a centralised access to the best current medical evidence supporting medical decision-making. Relevant data has been gathered according to the rules stated for Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and organised in a free-of-charge Web site, created by using common software applications. The general aim of our study was to encourage individual practice of EBM by providing tutorials as well as a selection of free access tools for searching medical information on the Web. In addition to the education part, we provided clinicians, through a Web interface, with up-to-date, accurate and quality data obtained from heterogeneous sources and presented in a full text format when available. The developed methodology has been applied to human prostate cancer. URL address: http://www.ebm.lib.ulg.ac.be/prostate/index.htm.

Des Principes De La Méta-Analyse Non Statistique Pour UNE Revue Critique De La Recherche Biomédicale

In most circumstances, considerable time lags before results from biomedical research are integrated in general medical practice are inevitable. Several economic, technical factors and educational orientation are responsible for this gap. Effective information management at the institutional level could provide clinicians the means to adopt new perspectives. At present, the link between basic research and clinical application relies upon the motivation of individuals to develop new skills in literature retrieval and analysis and yet their occupational responsabilities inhibit this endeavour. Academic librarians, educated and trained in information and biomedical sciences, have a role in providing physicians with current and readily applicable knowledge from the critical analysis of the literature.