Whether the weather be snowy, or whether the weather be not..

We’ll try to keep the library open for business regardless of the weather, but unfortunately se we have had to close the library suddenly in previous years.

We’ll do our best to keep you informed – unless you hear otherwise we’re open for business as usual: 

Monday – Friday 8:00am – 9:50pm

Saturday 9:00am – 4.50pm

Stay warm!

Got a new iPad for Christmas?

... then you'll need to fill it up with the best medical apps around. Here's just a selection

Try the Cochrane Library app - available for iPad

The Cochrane Library iPad Edition presents the latest up-to-date evidence from The Cochrane Library in a convenient, easy-to-navigate format. Monthly issues feature Cochrane Systematic Reviews selected by the Editor in Chief and specially abridged to provide the best possible iPad reading experience. The reviews are enriched with the addition of multimedia content, including podcasts, videos, and slide decks.

 available from iTunes (free)

Having the BNF at your finger tips is always going to be useful - so get the BNF app (we've suggested it in the past. We also talked about the NICE guidelines app and the SIGN app - they're well worth downloading too!) - it's free, but you will need an NHS ATHENS login to gain access.

Available from iTunes  (it's good for your iPhone too)

Having an app to help you get access to, add to, and manage your references all the time is a great advantage - so whether you use Mendeley or Zotero there's an app to help.

ZotPad (available from iTunes) is designed to work with Zotero,  and Mendeley Lite is (unsurprisingly) compatible with Mendeley (available from iTunes )
Both are also compatible with iPhone

You might be interested in this list of the most innovated medical apps of 2012, courtesy of iMedicalApps Forum and also the 20 best iPad productivity apps, as suggested by the TabTimes - so there's no excuse now!

Clinical Trials Toolkit

The National Institute for Health Research have produced a toolkit containing "practical advice to researchers in designing and conducting publicly funded clinical trials in the UK. 

Through the use of an interactive routemap, this site provides information on best practice and outlines the current legal and practical requirements for conducting clinical trials."

"Based on the design of a tube map, the CT Toolkit uses an interactive colour-coded routemap to differentiate between legal and good practice requirements. This provides essential information at the ‘stations’ along the route and gives the users an idea of the critical path for trial set-up and delivery."

http://www.ct-toolkit.ac.uk/

Although primarily aimed at those involved in publicly funded Clinical Trials of Investigational Medicinal Products (CTIMPs), the CT Toolkit will also benefit researchers and R&D staff working on trials in other areas, who will find useful information and guidance of relevance to the wider trials environment.

Professor Dame Sally C. Davies, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health said: “Clinical trials are essential for testing treatments and ensuring we have the best possible evidence so that NHS patients receive high quality care. It remains as important as ever to ensure trials are well designed and feasible: the CT Toolkit will help researchers to ensure that trial set-up and management processes are as efficient as possible.”

Merry Christmas - and see you in 2013

The Medical Library will close at 5:50pm Friday 21st December 2012. 

We re-open at 8:00am Wednesday 2nd January 2013. 

 Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year!

Dr Foster 2012 Hospital Guide

Read all about how Cambridge University Hospitals Trust rates in the 2012 Hospital Guide produced by Dr Foster:

"Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is our trust of the year for providing care that has great outcomes while also being efficient in its use of resources."

"lower than expected mortality rates at Hospital Standa rdised Mortality Ratio (HSMR) and Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI)"

Read the whole report; or just the My Hospital Guide Efficiency & Mortality 2012

And read Addenbrooke's response.

Early New Years Resolution?

Why PhD Students Should Blog 

There's lots of reasons why researchers and research students should blog about their work, and read other blogs: 

• to learn about other people working in similar fields 
• to gain a habit of reflection
• to get used to writing about your work
• to gain a public profile
• to promote and disseminate your work

For more insights read the prize winning post by Suzi Gage on SciLogs: sifting the evidence.

To help you along the way to your first blog, or to maintaining your blogging habits, maybe the following will help:

• tips for academic blogging
• the virtues of blogging as an academic activity
• I’m an academic and desperately need an online presence, where do I start?
• Is blogging and tweeting about research papers worth it?
   

You might also find these slides useful:

Blogging for researchers from Graduate School Networked Researcher

New Evidence Updates

Lung Cancer and Peritoneal Dialysis are the latest topics to have receive an Evidence Update from NICE.
"Evidence Updates highlight new evidence relating to published accredited guidance. They are based on the scope of the particular guidance they relate to and provide a commentary on a selection of new articles published since the guidance was issued. In particular, Evidence Updates highlight key points from the new evidence and provide a commentary describing its strengths and weaknesses. They also indicate whether the new evidence may have a potential impact on current guidance. Evidence Updates aim to reduce the need for individuals, managers and commissioners to search for new evidence. Evidence Updates do not replace current guidance and do not provide formal practice recommendations. "

See the other topics, arranged by speciality, that have been covered by the Evidence Updates recently here.