Need for content reengineering of the medical library and information science curriculum in Iran.
Gavgani, Vahideh Zarea ; Nanekaran, Farhad Shokrane ; Shiramin, Ali Roshani 等
Introduction
Over the past two decades, medicine and health care education and
practice have been undergoing a continuing revolution, in which the
explosion of information and the application of information technology
have played a fundamental role. Telehealth/ mHealth, evidence-based
medicine (EBM), information therapy (Ix), patient-centered healtcare,
consumer health information services and shared decision making,
doctor-patient communication, patients' right to information and
right to health, are instances of new approaches in medical education
and healthcare policies that influence medical library services
increasingly and change the expectations of medical libraries users.
The need for timely and quality filtered information at the moment
in care, overwhelming amount of information on different platforms, and
lack of time and expertise (Davidoff and Florance, 2000 ; Task force ,
2003) on the part of physicians to find, assess and apply information in
their daily decision making have created an environment for library and
information science professionals to play a vital role in storage,
retrieval, appraisal, management, summarizing and delivery of timely and
reliable health information at the point of care. "The health
sciences librarian believes that knowledge is the sine qua non of
informed decisions in healthcare and the health sciences librarian
serves society, clients, and the institution, by working to ensure that
informed decisions can be made" (Medical Library Association,
2007).
At the same time, a growing number of tools and applications of
information and communication technology (ICT) such as Web 2.0 along
with its various facets (e.g. Blogs, Wikis, FaceBook, Podcasts, etc.)
and mobile phone technology have created an opportunity for LIS
professionals to utilize them in their profession and practice to
improve patient care and present their longstanding information service
in new knowledge based and ICT based environment. This changing
environment exerts pressure on medical library and information science
education to develop new curricula, revise the syllabuses of existing
curricula and adopt new tools to practice
Review of Literature
The first medical librarianship course was developed in the year
1939 in the United States with an emphasis on medical bibliography, and
was offered at Columbia University by Thomas Fleming (Roper, 1979). In
1946, more emphasis began to be placed on medical library
administration, cataloging and classification, and acquisitions
procedures (Brodman, 1954). From 1939 to 1977, courses were introduced
into the curricula of forty-seven of the sixty-four library schools in
the United States (Roper, 1979). In 1977, thirty-four of the forty-seven
schools of library science in the U.S. included work with MEDLINE to
some degree (Berk & Davidson, 1978). At the same time, four LIS
schools in Canada also were offering Medical Librarianship courses. In
1977, the World Health Organization (WHO) undertook to support the
establishment of a medical library school in the Imperial Medical Centre
of Iran. Among its objectives was the training of qualified medical
librarians for Middle Eastern medical libraries. In the summer of 1977,
the University of Illinois undertook to create and manage a school of
health library and information science set up at the medical centre for
this purpose (Harvey, 1989). The two-year Master's curriculum was
similar to the curricula of other library schools in the mid-1970s
except for its medical librarianship and technology related subjects
(Hayati & Fattahi, 2005). in 1979, Iran University of Medical
Sciences (IUMS) (formerly The Imperial Medical centre) established the
School of Medical Library and Information Science (MLIS) and opened
admission to its Master of Medical Library and Information Science
program (Sanjesh Organization, 2005 & 2008). Maybe, the first
practical attempt for the specialization of practice of Medical
Librarianship occurred in the U.S. in the form of Clinical
Librarianship. "Lamb, and subsequently Algermissen, were
instrumental in obtaining support, in particular from the National
Library for Medicine, for several CL initiatives in the US in the
1970s." (Winning & Beverley, 2003). The initiative was
successfully accepted by other hospital librarians in the U.S., and
consequently created new challenges for librarians to learn, teach and
collaborate with health providers in team working environments, such as
the work reported by Dodson S (2001).
In the late 1980s, the first subject specialization in library
science and documentation, and its integration with biomedical chemistry
as well as electronic engineering was developed in Germany (Seeger,
1987). This program was accepted and implemented by other polytechnics
and universities in their curriculum development in Germany (Hariri,
1995). In 1990, the need for specialist librarians in various fields was
highlighted and approved by the High Council of Educational Programs in
Iran, and consequently the accredited medical universities were
authorized by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MHME) to
establish the Bachelor of Medical Librarianship/MedLIS (Hariri, 1995).
The Biomedical and Pharmacy Library and Information Science program have
been established at the City University of London (Hariri, 1995). The
College of Librarianship Wales, U.K., also have included a health
librarianship program in its Master's degree curriculum (Hariri,
1995). In 1996, Liu Xiao Chun and Fang Ping, describing the historical
background of China's medical librarianship education, suggested a
Master of Medical Library and Information Science education program for
China. In 2000, Davidoff and Flofrance in an editorial of the Annals of
Internal Medicine opened a new horizon for medical librarianship with
the concept of "informationist". Consequently, the MLA Board
of Directors proposed a name change for the new health professional to
reflect a more universal health sciences practice context. The new name
for the profession was "Information Specialist in Context
(ISIC)" (Shipman, 2007) to reflect practice environments in
nonclinical as well as clinical settings. Detlefsen (2004) presented an
introduction to the distance education program at the University of
Pittsburgh's library and information science school and described a
model program linking the biomedical library at Vanderbilt University
with the School of Information Sciences at Pittsburgh. The U.S. National
Library of Medicine began to support medical informatics through a
fellowship program at the Johns Hopkins University providing
opportunities for librarians to utilize the rich environments of the
Welch Medical Library and the Division of Health Sciences Informatics in
support of life-long learning (Campbell & Roderer, 2005). Bridges,
Miller and Kipnis (2006) discussed the content and applicability of a
biomedical informatics course sponsored by the National Library of
Medicine for librarians, clinicians, educators and administrators. The
University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences, through its
Library and Information Science program, offers the Medical
Librarianship/Medical Informatics Specialization as part of its 12
courses and 36-credit Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS)
degree. Health Consumer Resources and Services (Credit Code: LIS 2885),
and Application in Medical Informatics (Credit Code:LIS 2887) are listed
among the courses presented by University of Pittsburgh (2009). The
authors earlier studies on the librarians special services for EBM in
Iran revealed that librarians in Iran face problems in offering new
services (97.7%) for the lack of trained staff (88.3%) and they need to
be trained in offering special services like EBM (95.3%) (Gavgani,
2009). Presently, among the 40 medical universities (under MHME) in
Iran, 10 universities offer medical library and information science
(MedLIS) at the bachelor's level and six universities offer Master
of MedLIS. However, no university has a PhD program in MedLIS in Iran
(see Appendix 1). This study examines the curricula of medical library
and information science education (MedLIS) departments in the
universities of Iran to find out: 1) Whether evidence-based medicine,
patient education, information therapy (Ix) skills and their required
background subjects are incorporated in LIS curricula. 2) Whether the
utilization of Web2.0 applications and mobile phone technology in health
library services are included in the LIS education. 3) Whether the
content of the LIS academic courses offered by Iranian Medical LIS
schools meet the clinical/medical librarians' professional needs.
The study will provide some ideas to curriculum planners in the LIS
schools in developing countries in general and Iran in particular
regarding the courses that are essential to include in MedLIS programs
in general and Health Information Technology (HIT) in Iran.
Methodology
The study utilized content analysis to identify concepts related to
emerging trends and approaches in medical librarianship among the
syllabuses of medical library and information science programs in
Iranian universities. The list of Iranian universities offering MedLIS
programs are given in Appendix 1, and the list of BSc and MSc courses in
the programs are given in Appendix 2. A literature review was also
carried out to extract the new approaches in healthcare and medical
education and practice as well as use of new Web-based platforms that
influence medical LIS practice and education worldwide. The concepts of
EBM, information therapy (Ix), Web2.0, medicine 2.0, library 2.0 and the
roles that a medical/clinical librarian can play/is playing in
healthcare content were extracted from relevant literature and a
checklist was developed. The concepts were categorized in six groups
(Table 1).The syllabuses were examined against the checklist to find out
whether the emerging approaches and professional need for medical/health
librarians have been included in MedLIS education in Iran.
Medical Librarians' Professional Needs in the Present
Environment
The syllabuses and curriculum of medical library and information
science programs in Iran were analyzed to find out whether the concepts
related to emerging professional needs of medical librarians were
covered by the academic education of LIS. The concepts extracted from
the relevant literature were grouped into six categories (see Table 1)
including 'research methodology', 'evidence-based
approach', 'health consumer Information', 'Web
2.0', and 'm-Health/m-Libraries' and Medical Informatics.
The frequency of appearance of one of the concepts coded under each
category was counted as existence of the category in the syllabuses of
MedLIS. Therefore, the existence of a category (i.e. topic evidence
based approach) does not necessarily mean that each and every concept
under the category was observed in the syllabuses of MedLIS in Iranian
universities.
Result and Discussion
Among the 6 categories examined in this study (Table 1) only one,
i.e., 'research methodology', existed in 100% of the
syllabuses of MedLIS departments in Iran (Figure 1).
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
The evidence-based approach as one of the major categories
including EBM, EBLIP and related concepts stood in the second rank,
appearing in 60% of the syllabuses. The concepts coded under the
categories 'consumer health information', 'Web 2.0',
m-Health/m-Libraries' and 'medical informatics did not exist
in the syllabuses of MedLIS in Iranian universities.
However, in the category of 'research methodology' (see
Figure 2), the concepts of 'randomized control trials',
'cohort studies', 'meta analysis' and 'decision
analysis' which are features of rigorous research methods have not
been included in the examined syllabuses. Only 46% of the examined
concepts were observed in the syllabuses of MedLIS in Iran, including
experimental research (14.2%), qualitative research (14.2%) and
systematic reviews (14.2%).
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
Since 1995, Medical Library Association (MLA) has given more
importance to research and encouraging librarians to do research and
develop high level evidence for librarianship (Medical Library
Association, 1995; 2007; McKnight, Michelynn, Rain Hagy, Carolyn, 2009).
This study showed that rigorous research methods in health science and
health librarianship have not been considered adequate in MedLIS
syllabuses. It needs to be an area of focus to enable librarians not
only to conduct rigorous research but also to assess the validity,
reliability and applicability of the evidence/information they retrieve
and present for their users.
Evidence-Based Approach (EBA)
According to the checklist, the concepts evidence-based medicine
(EBM), five steps of EBA evaluation, Critical Appraisal, PICO, EBLIP and
SPICE were examined against the MedLIS syllabuses to examine their
inclusion in the education of MedLIS in Iran. Each of the EBM, PICO,
Critical Appraisal, Five steps of EBM, appeared 16.6% in the syllabuses.
The concepts evidence-based library and information practice (EBLIP) and
SPICE did not appear in MedLIS syllabuses in Iran (see Figure 3).
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
For the concepts in the category of the evidence-based approach
(EBA), 64.6% were found in the syllabuses of 60% of the MedLIS
departments (see Figure 3). Evidence-based medicine (EBM) has been
included in the syllabuses of Iranian Medical LIS education. But
evidence-based library and information science practice (EBLIP) has not
been included in the syllabuses of Iranian MedLIS although it is
presently taught in most medical schools and medical librarianship
programs as a separate credit course as well as online courses
(EBLIP-Gloss, 2007). While medical librarians in Iran
"theoretically mix reference service, information literacy as well
as traditional evaluation of reference materials with evidence-based
information and level of evidence"(Gavagni, 2009).
Consumer Health Resources and Services
Tracing the concepts of information therapy and consumer health
information (CHI) service showed that these concepts have not been
included in Iranian MedLIS curricula and syllabuses (see Figure 1). With
the advances in IT, medicine and healthcare have shifted crucially from
a doctor-centered approach to a patient--centered one, in which the
patient is a bonafide member of the healthcare system with equivalent
right to information, decision making and health. One of the very
important services of Clinical/Medical Libraries is consumer health
information services, specifically information therapy and patient
information service. Information therapy can be defined as offering
personalized specific health/medical information to patients to help
them to make right medical decisions or change their behavior, a recent
approach in medicine that requires library-based information services.
In this connection consumer health resources and services is offered in
medical librarianship curriculum. Pittsburgh University is one example
(http://www.ischool.pitt.edu/lis/degrees/services/health.php). We
analyzed MedLIS syllabuses to find out whether "consumer health
resources and services"(Table 2) and its relevant concepts of
'information therapy', 'patient education'
'patients guideline' and related services such as 'making
information readable', 'summarizing',
'translating' information for patients', have been
included in the syllabuses. The results show that the above-mentioned
concepts are not included in MedLIS curriculum.
m-Health/m-Libraries
The concepts of "m-Health/m-Libraries" and
"application of mobile phone in healthcare information services and
education" also have no frequency in the Iranian MedLIS curricula
and syllabuses (see Figure 1). Application of mobile phone and mobile
computers in the delivery of health and information is widely accepted
by the health care industry. The growing capabilities of mobile phone
along with its powerful wireless network has made it the first choice
for accessing and delivering information in different formats and
different sizes including text/hypertext, voice, image, movie and
hypermedia. Health and medical information are commercially translated
to mobile compatible software. Libraries in advanced countries like
Canada have started to deliver their services to mobile phones. For
instance, the Athabasca University (AU) library has taken an active role
in advocating mobile learning within the institution and has been
developing mobile friendly resources and services to diverse learners
since 2004 (Yang Cao, Tony Tin, Rory McGreal, Mohamed Ally, Sherry
Coffey, 2008). It is expected that the syllabuses of MedLIS in
developing countries in general and Iran in particular should address
these skills and knowledge as well.
Web2.0 and Open Archive Repositories
None of the concepts included in the category of "Web 2.0,
medicine/health 2.0, library 2.0, open software and open access
repositories" appeared in the syllabuses of MedLIS in Iran (see
Figure 1). Web 2.0 and its reflection in specific fields like Library,
health and medicine have given birth to medicine 2.0, health 2.0 and
library 2.0 as catchphrases in the literature. Practically all of the
before mentioned concepts refer to the application of second generation
Web, including ease of use, interactive and freely available open
software on the Internet such as blogs, wikis, social networking and
folksonomies. Also open archiving and open access are important
developments in information science, management, and delivery that most
of the libraries in advanced countries utilize in making their archives
and information available world-wide. The Harvard College Thesis
Repository (www.hcs.harvard.edu/thesis/repo/) and University of
Melbourne ePrint repository (UMER)
(http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/eprints/) are instances of such movements
in advanced countries. However this study revealed that none of these
technologies and approaches has been included in MedLIS syllabuses in
Iran.
Do the content of the LIS academic courses offered by Iranian
Medical LIS schools meet the clinical/medical librarians'
professional need?
The result of the study indicates that only longstanding library
and information tasks like classification, cataloging, acquisition,
reference works and use of computer appear widely in MedLIS syllabuses
in Iran. But new trends and technologies are not included or only
slightly included in MedLIS syllabuses in Iran (Figure 1). The content
of courses offered by Iranian Medical LIS schools do not meet the
clinical/medical librarians' professional needs. It is now a must
for libraries to keep in tune with fast-growing advances of technology
to provide ubiquitous and high quality services for their users directly
and indirectly. It is not absolutely required to deliver services to
users directly from the library space, but it is essential to make the
right information easily available to the public and specific groups of
information users.
Conclusion
Education is a basic element for the best practice in any field and
profession. A knowledge based environment and knowledge based
information service require both evidence based education and training,
to be inline with technological changes of information environment and
to meet the changing need and preference of the information patrons.
Nowadays medical libraries services around the world have been affected
by the fast growing changes in Information Communication Technology
(ICT) and medical education. Evidence-Based Approach, Problem Solving
education, Patient-Centric Healthcare, m-Health and Healthcare IT in
Medicine and healthcare and Web 2.0 applications, mobile computer
technologies in the other hand require a knowledge based information
service. Librarian's traditional skills and background knowledge
are not sufficient to meet the changing needs of their customers.
Librarians need to be empowered by new skills and information before
going to empower their patrons. This means there must not be a gap
between librarian's professional/technological knowledge and their
society's informational needs that to be answered by librarians.
There are two types of education needs for any professionals and
librarians as well, including basic academic education (background
information) and training (on the job training). In view of this the
syllabuses of medical library and information science (MedLIS) education
in Iran have a crucial need for revision to include the new professional
skills, approaches and trends in medical information science and
healthcare policies regarding dissemination of health information to
publics, patients as well as health providers. The result of a poor
educational background will make librarians face difficulty offering
appropriate services and it will lead to a lack of confidence in
librarians and their library service. Therefore, it is strongly
suggested to create change in the syllabuses of academic medical library
and information science education in developing countries in general and
Iran in Particular to empower and prepare them to play their significant
role dissemination of right information to right person at right time,
to support patient safety and improvement in healthcare outcomes.
Appendix 1.--Universities and Colleges which includes MedLIS in Iran
Level of Year of
University Faculty/ School education Establishment
Iran School of Management and B.Sc. & M.Sc. 1989 /1974
Information Science
Kerman School of Management and B.Sc. 1991
Information Science
Isfahan School of Management and B.Sc. 1992
Information Science
Tabriz Faculty of Paramedicine B.Sc. & M.Sc 1994/ 2005
Shahid Faculty of Paramedicine B.Sc. 1997
Beheshti
Jondi Faculty of Paramedicine B.Sc. 2000
Shapoor
Zahedan Faculty of Paramedicine B.Sc. 2000
Hamadan Faculty of Paramedicine B.Sc. 2005
Booshehr Faculty of Paramedicine B.Sc. 2006
Tehran Faculty of Paramedicine M.Sc. 2006
Appendix 2. Courses offered by Iranian Medical Library and
Information Science Departments/Schools
Level of
Course Credit Syllabuses Edu.
Organization of Theories, systems, and practices of B.Sc.
information cataloging and classification;
AACR2 rev., MeSH, NLM
Classification, LCSH, LC
classification, etc.
Reference and Information resources and their use B.Sc.
information in libraries and information
services (General) Services; reference theories,
principles and practices; general
reference work; information sources
in science, social science and
humanity, and etc.
Reference and Medical Information Resources, B.Sc. &
information Print, Online, on CDs M. Sc.
services (medical)
Management of Management and administrative B.Sc.
libraries principles and practices; problem-
solving, public relations and
program development. Theories and
practices in information
organizations planning, organizing,
staffing, directing, and control;
group team management;
organizational leadership; conflict
and agreement
Collection Principles and practices in B.Sc.
management, selecting, evaluating, and managing
development and collections in all types of
acquisitions libraries and information formats;
identification of reliable print
resource, databases; Information
resource development; building and
maintaining Collections
Children and youth Children and young adults and B.Sc.
services and reading; evaluation of both print
Literature and non-print materials for
children and young adults, from
birth to age twelve including
multicultural materials; reader's
advisory; storytelling: art and
techniques
Medical Data Structure, arrays of data banks, B.Sc.
Banks, Familiarity Internet, Web, CD-ROM
Introduction Familiarity with Computer, B.Sc.
to Computer and Interfaces, Operators, Devices,
Programming Input/Output, famous programming
languages (e.g. C++, Pascal,)
Data Banks/data Library software, application of M.Sc.
bases and services Information Technology in library
in Library services, familiarity with
Information Systems, concepts of
Information Society and Information
Systems, designing maintaining
Information Systems, (T)
Research Report Writing, Citation Styles, B.Sc. &
Methodology Research Types in General, M.Sc.
Some most used /typical research
Methods in Library science like
Survey, Experimental, Historical,
care study, descriptive, etcetera.
.. Sampling, data collection
Methods,
Research Trends in LIS, Critical Thinking, M.Sc.
Seminar preparing and presenting a small
Presentation research paper in the interested
subject by the student
Medical Medical and Health Related Terms B.Sc.
Terminology (basic and terminology, familiarity with
and Clinical) medical Language
Indexing and Indexing and abstracting, M.Sc.
Abstracting vocabulary control, thesauri
Web Designing Concepts of HTML, XML, creating web M.Sc.
page using FrontPage
Principles and History and evolution of libraries M.Sc.
fundamentals of and Library Science in western,
Library Science Arabic, Islamic, Eastern countries.
famous libraries, national
libraries. Role of libraries in
Information dissemination
Internship Preparing students to work in the BSc./MSc.
medical/clinical libraries through
working in the libraries
Thesis Doing research on the selected / MSc.
interested subject
Library Buildings Designing Library Building BSc.
and Equipments providing furniture and equipments
of libraries according to the
environment and the situation and
goals of the parent organization
Information Expert systems and computer MSc
Technology and components, knowledge base,
Information artificial intelligence, computer
Systems hardware and software, Visual Basic
Periodicals Acquisition and collection MSc
development and assessment of
medical periodicals.
Data Processing Introduction to Hardware and MSC
software, binary, octal, decimal
and hexadecimal systems, algorithm
and flowchart, Programming (Using
C++ via Microsoft Visual Studio 6
C++).
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Vahideh Zarea Gavgani (PhD)
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Department of Library & Information Science
Farhad Shokrane Nanekaran
Iran University of Medical Science (Iran)
Department of Medical Library and Information Science
Ali Roshani Shiramin
Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (Iran)
Table 1. Categorization of the concepts related to trends and new
approaches in medical librarianship
Group Category Concepts
1 Research Methodology Randomized Control Trials, Cohort
Studies, Meta analysis, Systematic
review, Decision analysis,
Qualitative research (focus groups,
ethnographic observations, historic,
etc.) (Eldrege, 2002) .
2 Evidence-Based EBM, EBLIP (Booth, A. 2002, Eldrege,
Approach 1997, 2002, Crumley, E. and
Koufogiannakis, D, 2002), PICO
(Sackett et al, 1998), SPICE,
CristalCecklist, (Booth, Brice, 2003;
UNC,2006), systematic Reviews, EBA 5
steps answering Cycle, Critical
Apprasial. (Rosenberg, Donald,
Richardson, Wilson, Nishikawa and
HaywardS, 1998; Cook, Jaeschke, and
Guyatt, 1992; Epling, Smueny, Patil
and Tudiver, 2002, Eldredge, 2000)
3 Consumer Health Information Therapy. Patient
Information (CHI) Education, Information Prescription,
Resources and Personalizing Information for
Services patients: summarizing, making
readable, translating to vernacular
language, transferring to appropriate
format, team working with physicians,
attending ward round, reading EMR or
patients chart, (Ix Center for
Information Theraoy, 2008; Kemper and
Mettler, 2002a; 2002b; hlwiki, 2008a,
2008b, University of Pittsbourgh,
2009)
4 Web 2.0, Blog, Wiki, Facebook, podcast,
Medicine/Health 2.0, slideshare, videoshare, pjotoshare,
Library 2.0, Open flicker (Zarea Gavgani, V., Vishwa
Access Repositories Mohan, V. 2008). Open Access, open
software and Open Archive
Repositories,
5 eHealth, E-Health, HER, HL7. Use of mobile
mHealth/mLibraries devices such as mobile phone, PDAs
(personal digital assistants) in
collecting aggregate and patient
level health data, providing
healthcare information to
practitioners, researchers, and
patients, delivering library service
to users via mobile phone. (Ulla-
Maija Maunu, 2006; Mohamed
Ally, et. al., 2007a;2007b; Yang
Cao, et.al, 2008)
6 Medical Informatics Decision support/decision analysis,
knowledge representation, and
artificial intelligence (Bishop, S.,
MacDonald, 2004)
