What Your Patient Reads: Creating a Value-Added Tool for Physicians

Abstract

Through a number of media sources, today's consumers have unprecedented access to health information of varying reliability and authority. Empowered by this information, patients are more involved in their health care decisions and more willing to question physicians' advice. This poses a challenge for physicians who must now find time to read mass media health reports in addition to medical research. In order to help physicians with this task, librarians at the University of Manitoba Health Sciences Libraries created What Your Patient Reads – one-page summaries of health-related media reports supplemented with references to evidence-based medical literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer health
• health librarianship
• information service
• media
• patient-physician relationship

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christine Shaw-Daigle

Christine Shaw-Daigle, MLS ([email protected]) Hospital Librarian, Carolyn Sifton – Helene Fuld Library, St. Boniface Hospital, 409 Tache Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R2H 2A6.

Lori Giles-Smith

Lori Giles-Smith, MLIS ([email protected]) Hospital Librarian, Bill Larson Library, Grace Hospital, 300 Booth Drive, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R3J 3M7.

Melissa Raynard

Melissa Raynard, MLIS ([email protected]) Hospital Librarian, Concordia Hospital Library, 1095 Concordia Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R2K 3S8.