Can we establish best practice for publishing raw clinical trial data?

An interesting post on the BioMed Central blog regarding what happens to the results of clinical trials.

So many new e-books!

We're please to be able to make available a new set of e-books from Springer - on trial till 31st August 2009.To browse the whole list, go to http://www.springerlink.com/books/ (31,010 titles!) but if you'd like to see a more focused selection here are all the ones about medicine and here's a bit more structure to the list:

• Medicine (1,642 titles)


• Medicine & Public Health (1,606 titles)


• Biomedical and Life Sciences (252 titles)


• Oncology (246 titles)


• Imaging / Radiology (221 titles)


• Internal Medicine (175 titles)


• Cardiology (139 titles)


• Neurology (115 titles)


• Surgery (84 titles)


• Pathology (63 titles)
  
  Access is available on-campus and off-campus with a Raven password.

Our other e-books can be found via a normal search of Newton, the library catalouge, but you can also search just the e-book collection at http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/ebooks.php

new perspective on critical appraisal

There's more than one way to skin a cat... or so the saying goes.

The same applies to CATs or critically appraised topics.

There's a new approach presented for critical appraisal by Young and Solomon in Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology & Hepatology which offers a variety of questions to pose to different types of research. (NB you may need to use your RAVEN password to gain access to the full text).

This builds on existing work by (amongst others) CASP (Critical Skills Appraisal Programme) and Trisha Greenhalgh's classic work "How To Read A Paper" available online at the BMJ and in the library (several copies of several editions!).

(no animals were harmed in the writing of this blog!)

Cambridge confirmed as global leader in health science

The strength of Cambridge as a globally-competitive centre for biomedical research, clinical education and healthcare innovation was confirmed today by the UK’s Department of Health.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson announced that Cambridge University Health Partners was amongst the five winners of the race to be designated an Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC). These centres, chosen from amongst the leading university medical centres in the country, have been identified as the groups most likely to be able to compete with equivalent organisations in America, Europe and the rest of the world in areas of biomedical excellence.

for more details go to:

• University of Cambridge announcement
• Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundations Trust / Addenbrooke's :
• Department of Health: NHS patients to benefit as top flight Academic Health Science Centres named

Guide to biostatistics

Thanks to TRIP creator Jon Brassey's Twitter feed, I discovered the following Guide to Biostatistics that explains "important epidemiologic concepts and common biostatistical terms to help clinicians translate medical research into everyday practice".

Produced by MedPage Today, I hope you find it useful.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Medpage-Guide-to-Biostatistics.pdf

Using information on the move

Survey: Using information on the move

A chance to win an Flip video camera, £30 in book vouchers or membership to the Arts Picturehouse worth £27.

I would like to invite you to take part in a survey intended to establish how the majority of Cambridge University students and staff access, or would like to access, information away from your desk or laptop. The survey questions are primarily about how you use your mobile phone, smartphone or PDA to look up, use or interact with information.

As mobile phone use has become increasingly common, more and more ways of using them to access or interact with information have developed. Newer models of mobile phones are more powerful than personal computers were a few years ago and often include much of the functionality of a pocket PC, such as a calendar, a camera, a notes function, and an internet browser.

All answers will be completely anonymous. If you choose to provide your email address to enter the prize draw, or if you wish to contribute further to the project, we will not associate it with your responses or retain it after the end of the project. The aggregated survey results, however, will be made publicly available and may be used to inform development of services for students and staff.

This research is being undertaken jointly at Cambridge University and The Open University as part of the Arcadia project. Staff and students at The Open University will be receiving the same survey. For more information about the project, please click on the link provided at the end of the survey.

To take the survey go to http://cli.gs/caminfosurvey.
It should take 10 to 15 minutes to complete it. The cut-off date for submissions is 19 March 2009.

Many thanks,
Keren Mills
Arcadia Project: Using information on the move
Email: km512@cam.ac.uk
Tel. 01223 768875