Introduction

During the months of February and March 2010 trials to three Point of Care clinical tools were made available on the honni website.  This was as a result of feedback from HSC personnel that this type of resource would be beneficial.  The resources trialled were BMJ Best Practice, Dynamed and FirstConsult.  The trial was publicised on the honni website, in all library branches and by direct contact with individuals.  An online feedback form was designed to enable direct feedback on the three resources allowing individuals to indicate their preference.

Feedback

Only four feedback forms were received, with BMJ proving the preferred option with average ratings of good to excellent.  FirstConsult was second getting average ratings of fair to very good.   Dynamed was the least favoured with average ratings of fair to good.

Comments from feedback:-

• “BMJ evidence is pitched perfectly at the level of the clinically practising doctor and is a mine of information.  It is also reassuringly up to date.”
• “Difficulty: initially with dynamed”
• “BMJ evidence was the best but not as easy to navigate as First Consult.  Dynamed was useful but I liked it least of all three.”

Statistics

Despite BMJ proving to be the preferred option according to the feedback, it was not the most used resource.  During the trial both Dynamed and FirstConsult were used more often.

Conclusion

It is difficult to establish a way forward based on the comments of four individuals particularly since the statistics and feedback do not necessarily support each other.  The library currently has insufficient funds to take a subscription to any of these resources.  Furthermore due to the limited feedback and usage it would be difficult to bid for additional funding.  BMJ for instance has an annual subscription cost of over £100,000 but the results of the trial do not indicate a great enough demand to warrant the expense of such a subscription.  At present the library will not be pursuing a subscription to a point of care tool but will keep this under review.

There are currently free resources of a similar nature available through honni e-lib and at present the library would recommend these to our users as a useful alternative.

• Clinical Knowledge Summaries
• Best BETs – best evidence topics
• BMJ Evidence Updates

Although an evolving resource, TRIP Answers is a collection of clinical questions and answers drawn from a wide number of sources around the world.  It continues to build on TRIP’s experience of answering clinical questions and users are alerted to the fact if the evidence they are accessing is over two years old.  Links are further provided to PubMed and TRIP to allow users to conduct other related relevant searches.

Users can access TRIP Answers by using the Cross Search facility within Honni e-lib and referring to Medicine, and selecting Guidelines & EBP.

There is a new area within MDConsult which pulls together resources from the MDConsult database of relevance to over 25 medical specialties.  These recommended resources provide the most current, relevant and clinically useful content.  Specialties are further broken down into relevant topics and help to provide good sources for answers to clinical medical queries.

MDConsult is a resource for physicians to answer clinical queries and keep up to date with recent developments.  Resources covered include electronic books, journals, Clinics of North America, guidelines and images.  Access to this resource is available through Honni e-lib, and the Find Database option or the Cross Search facility under Medicine and by selecting Databases.

Pharm-line is a bibliographic database on medicines management, prescribing, pharmacy practice and the clinical use of drugs.  From April 1^st 2010, Pharm-line will no longer be a separate database but instead a new open-access medicines management area has been added to the National Electronic Library for Medicines (NeLM).  New records are being added to this area and relevant Pharm-line records have been transferred.

The previous Pharm-line database is no longer being updated and will eventually be closed.  Users can access the National Electronic Library for Medicines site by using the following URL:

http://www.nelm.nhs.uk/en/NeLM-Area/Evidence/Medicines-Management/References

or by accessing the NeLM through the Pharmacy web resources category within the Cross-Search facility on Honni e-lib.

We are pleased to report that this problem has now been resolved. So it should again be possible to request articles from a PC on any operating system.
(30/11/2010)

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It seems that the article requesting service via honni does not work properly with the Windows 7 operating system.  The article details are not transmitted to library staff who are therefore unable to process the request.

Until the problem has been resolved article requests should be submitted by one of the following methods:

• On a PC with an operating system other than Windows 7
• Via the ‘Place Request’ facility on the Library Catalogue
• By filling in and submitting a printed form available from any Medical & Healthcare Library site.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.  The fault has been reported to the software suppliers and we hope there will be a speedy resolution.

If you wish to change the password issued to you by the library for accessing honni resources it is now possible to do this by filling in an online form.

To access the form select the change/forgotten password? link from either the honni login page or the ‘My Account’ login page on the honni catalogue. Input your library card number, name, address, email, and the password you have chosen.  Then click Submit to send the details to us.

When your account has been verified and the request processed you will receive confirmation by email.  At most this will take 2 working days, but it will often be sooner.

The same form should be used to get your password reset if you have forgotten it.  In this situation you will also need to select a new password.

This problem has been resolved. To see the honniConnect button in Pubmed please make sure to select the abstract view of results. (18/3/2010).

Normally you should see a honniConnect button in Pubmed for resources which are available via honni.  Unfortunately this does not appear to be working at the moment, and we have contacted the National Library for Medicine to see if we can resolve the problem.

As soon as a resolution has been found, this information will be updated to let you know, so please check back here in a few days time.

GPnotebook is an online encyclopaedia of medicine, designed to provide a concise synopsis of the entire field of clinical medicine with material organised systematically to ensure rapid retrieval of information.  It is updated continually and is browsable by discipline or searchable by keyword.

Users can browse the site for free but will need to register with the site in order to access iGPnotebook.  Registration should be free to UK medics.  iGPnotebook allows you to use a range of personal development tools on site including Tracker (record of reading for Professional Development), GEMS (GPnotebook educational modules), Annotations (personalise the website with your own information).
To access GPnotebook

• Login to honni
• Click on G under Find Database
• Locate GPnotebook in the list and click on it

Links can also be found within honni e-Lib under the CrossSearch tab and restricted to the Medicine subject area.  A link can be found under Subject Gateways.

The BMJ Group and McMaster University’s Health Information Research Unit have collaborated to provide you with access to the current best evidence from research.  This free service offers a searchable database of the best evidence from the medical literature (over 120 premier clinical journals), an email alerting system and links to selected evidence-based resources.  In detail, the current features include:

• a systematic review of over 120 journals, including the quarterly updates of the Cochrane Library
• ratings of each eligible article for clinical relevance and newsworthiness
• email alerts about new evidence tailored to the user’s interests
• links to summaries and full text articles where available

To access this resource and to register for the service:

• Login to honni
• Click on B under Find Database
• Locate BMJ Evidence Updates in the list and click on it
• Register with the site by either clicking on the Register tab or by clicking on Free Registration in the top right-hand corner.

Links can also be found within honni e-Lib under the CrossSearch tab and restricted to the Medicine subject area.  Categories to look at include Guidelines and EBP, and Current Awareness.

In response to feedback, a range of subject-based Step-by-Step Guides to basic searching on honni e-Lib has now been added to the Resource Guides section of honni. These are aimed at helping those who are unsure of how to use the system and should help them get started on carrying out useful searches in their subject area.

We are also working on production of a detailed manual which will provide step-by-step guidance to all aspects of honni e-Lib.  It should be useful as a learning/training tool or simply for quick reference to parts of the system which may be unfamiliar.  We expect the manual to be available within the next couple of months, at which time it will be added to the Step-by-Step Guides page and highlighted in honni News.

We are interested to know how useful you find these documents, or if there are other types of information not included which would also be useful.  Please leave your comments below.