COAHL Supports Ontario Hospital Association eHealth Library Initiative
In May 2003 COAHL sent an official letter of congratulations to the OHA eHealth Council regarding their establishment of the eHealth Library Working Group. The membership of the group consisted of representatives of COAHL, hospital librarians and hospital administrators.
Background
COAHL initiated discussions with the OHA eHealth Council in 2002 to promote the concept of a province-wide eHealth Library, as an important component of their overall eHealth agenda. COAHL representatives emphasized that the timing was right to implement an electronic information service for health professionals across the province, and the OHA eHealth Council was immediately receptive to the idea. The establishment of the eHealth Library Working Group followed shortly after these initial discussions, with a COAHL representative serving as Chair.
Why the eHealth Library is a priority for COAHL
COAHL has extensive experience in addressing the information needs of health sciences students, faculty and affiliated practitioners. Increasingly, health sciences education is community-based and COAHL sees the information gap experienced by those practitioners not affiliated with universities. COAHL libraries are receiving an ever increasing number of requests for access to their e-resources from community-based practitioners.
Evidence-based practice has highlighted the importance of quality information at point of need, 24 hours a day, and the eHealth Library is a very practical, cost effective response to this need. COAHL played a key consulting role in establishing a similar service, the Northern Ontario Virtual Library (NOVL) of the Northern Academic Health Sciences Network (NAHSN), which provides a suite of core e-resources, and related training and support, to health practitioners across northern Ontario. COAHL continues to have significant success in consortial negotiations with vendors of e-resources and is confident there will be cost benefits from leveraging already existing licenses for e-resources across the province. The information technology (IT) infrastructure is already in place in Ontario, and this initiative should be seen as a strategic investment in the province. COAHL suggests that this could be a flagship project of the Ontario eHealth environment.
What the eHealth Library could provide
The eHealth Library Working Group has explored other models in Canada and throughout the world. They have also used their considerable expertise to investigate the core e-health information resources that should be provided through this province-wide service to all health practitioners. The core suite of e-resources would include:
The Outcomes of an eHealth Library
In March 2003, the Working Group produced a document titled "Enabling eHealth Through Information Access: The Case for a Province-wide eHealth Library in Ontario". In April 2003 a companion PowerPoint presentation was also developed by the Working Group. Unfortunately, the SARS Health Alert at that time caused delays in the scheduling of presentations to the OHA eHealth Council. A number of key stakeholders across the province were contacted by the OHA eHealth Council at that time to solicit feedback on the eHealth Library concept, and the response was extremely positive. COAHL will support further work so that the vision of a province-wide Ontario eHealth Library is translated into reality.
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Background
COAHL initiated discussions with the OHA eHealth Council in 2002 to promote the concept of a province-wide eHealth Library, as an important component of their overall eHealth agenda. COAHL representatives emphasized that the timing was right to implement an electronic information service for health professionals across the province, and the OHA eHealth Council was immediately receptive to the idea. The establishment of the eHealth Library Working Group followed shortly after these initial discussions, with a COAHL representative serving as Chair.
Why the eHealth Library is a priority for COAHL
COAHL has extensive experience in addressing the information needs of health sciences students, faculty and affiliated practitioners. Increasingly, health sciences education is community-based and COAHL sees the information gap experienced by those practitioners not affiliated with universities. COAHL libraries are receiving an ever increasing number of requests for access to their e-resources from community-based practitioners.
Evidence-based practice has highlighted the importance of quality information at point of need, 24 hours a day, and the eHealth Library is a very practical, cost effective response to this need. COAHL played a key consulting role in establishing a similar service, the Northern Ontario Virtual Library (NOVL) of the Northern Academic Health Sciences Network (NAHSN), which provides a suite of core e-resources, and related training and support, to health practitioners across northern Ontario. COAHL continues to have significant success in consortial negotiations with vendors of e-resources and is confident there will be cost benefits from leveraging already existing licenses for e-resources across the province. The information technology (IT) infrastructure is already in place in Ontario, and this initiative should be seen as a strategic investment in the province. COAHL suggests that this could be a flagship project of the Ontario eHealth environment.
What the eHealth Library could provide
The eHealth Library Working Group has explored other models in Canada and throughout the world. They have also used their considerable expertise to investigate the core e-health information resources that should be provided through this province-wide service to all health practitioners. The core suite of e-resources would include:
- Health information databases
- Full-text electronic journals
- Full-text electronic books
- Clinical guidelines
- Training and support in the use of e-resources
The Outcomes of an eHealth Library
- All hospitals in Ontario, regardless of size, will have access to a core suite of quality health information resources
- Peer reviewed and evidence-based health information will be readily available
- Health professionals will have access to the information, via the Internet, from their offices, wards, nursing stations and from home
- Access will be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and not dependent on library hours
- A common set of information resources will promote and facilitate a team approach among the health professional groups
- Access to this suite of resources will facilitate meeting the requirements for continuing education
- Access to related training and support through the services of existing hospital and other health libraries
In March 2003, the Working Group produced a document titled "Enabling eHealth Through Information Access: The Case for a Province-wide eHealth Library in Ontario". In April 2003 a companion PowerPoint presentation was also developed by the Working Group. Unfortunately, the SARS Health Alert at that time caused delays in the scheduling of presentations to the OHA eHealth Council. A number of key stakeholders across the province were contacted by the OHA eHealth Council at that time to solicit feedback on the eHealth Library concept, and the response was extremely positive. COAHL will support further work so that the vision of a province-wide Ontario eHealth Library is translated into reality.
>> Back to COAHL Successes