This page features resources and information to help new health sciences librarians orient themselves and learn more about some foundational concepts in health sciences librarianship, including:
PubMed is composed of three parts:
Point of Care (POC) tools are resources designed for clinicians to quickly look up information while they are with a patient. They provide summaries of evidence-based information and/or peer-reviewed sources curated and updated by health professionals. Many also contain drug information resources.
There are many POC tools available. Here are a few examples that you may have access to:
Florida State University provides a nice comparison of a few of these POC tools.
Like point of care tools, drug information tools are designed to provide quick information for clinicians to use when working with patients. They provide information about drugs including dosage, interactions, possible adverse reactions.
There are many drug information tools available. Some are included with point of care tools (i.e.: UpToDate uses the same drug information as LexiComp). Here are a few examples that you may have access to:
These databases focus on guidelines and reviews to provide research-based evidence for clinical practice
An academic health sciences librarian is one that works in an academic setting and (almost) exclusively with health science programs. Oftentimes, they may be situated in a health sciences or medical library specifically.
Academic Librarian w/ Health Sciences Liaison Duties
An academic librarian with health sciences liaison duties is one that works in an academic setting, but may not work exclusively with health sciences patrons. They may be situated in a generalist library.
Embedded Librarian
An embedded librarian is one that works directly within a department or college, rather than being situated with a library. They may be embedded into academic departments or colleges, clinical units within a hospital setting, or specific courses.
Hospital Librarian
Hospital librarians work within a hospital setting and provide information and resources to clinical users.
Consumer Health Librarian
A consumer health librarian focuses their work on providing health information and resources for the public, including consumers, patients, and their families. They may be situated directly within a hospital setting or in a more general library setting.
Corporate Health Sciences Librarian
A corporate health sciences librarian may work in a setting such as pharmaceutical company, insurance company, or a medical professional association and provide support to their constituents.
Government Health Sciences Librarian
A government health sciences librarian may work within a funding agency, such as the NIH, a government organization, such as the NLM or the NNLM, or another government body.
The Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP) is the peer-reviewed, accomplishment/portfolio-based certification and career development program for health information professionals.
A drug monograph describes the properties, claims, indications, and conditions of use of the drug and contains any other information that may be required for optimal, safe and effective use of the drug (Health Canada).
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) or Evidence-based practice (EBP) "uses the scientific method to organize and apply current data to improve healthcare decisions. Thus, the best available science is combined with the healthcare professional's clinical experience and the patient's values to arrive at the best medical decision for the patient" (StatPearls).
An electronic health record (EHR) is "an electronic version of a patients medical history, that is maintained by the provider over time, and may include all of the key administrative clinical data relevant to that persons care under a particular provider, including demographics, progress notes, problems, medications, vital signs, past medical history, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports" (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services).
Evidence synthesis involves combining information from multiple studies investigating the same topic to comprehensively understand their findings (Cochrane). The most common types of evidence synthesis are:
"Health informatics is the interprofessional field that studies and pursues the effective uses of biomedical data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem-solving, decision making, motivated by efforts to improve human health" (StatPearls).
"The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is a controlled and hierarchically-organized vocabulary produced by the National Library of Medicine. It is used for indexing, cataloging, and searching of biomedical and health-related information. MeSH includes the subject headings appearing in MEDLINE/PubMed, the NLM Catalog, and other NLM databases" (NLM).
PICO is a mnemonic for the important parts of a well-built clinical question. It stands for patient/problem, intervention, comparison, and outcome (Duke University).
Plain language in healthcare means communicating health information clearly and concisely, using everyday language, to ensure patients and the public understand and can use the information effectively.
Point of care refers to the location where healthcare services are provided, such as a doctor's office, clinic, hospital, etc.
