Medical education and faculty development: a new role for the health sciences librarian

This paper describes the roles and responsibilities of the associate director for medical education at the Primary Care Resource Center (PCRC), School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo (UB). The PCRC was established to increase the number of UB medical school graduates who selected graduate medical education in the generalist disciplines. The associate director, who is a health sciences librarian, has established collaborative working relationships with primary care physicians in the clinical departments of family medicine, pediatrics, and internal medicine with the goal of improving the teaching effectiveness of faculty and residents. Another goal is to incorporate the use of computerized information technologies into clinical practice by training physicians and residents, at specially equipped ambulatory training sites, in how to access and manage information for the purpose of providing quality medical care. This has been accomplished in part through the provision of highly personalized instruction to participants. In addition to describing these activities, this paper examines how the duties of the associate director reflect the potential for long-term change in the roles and responsibilities of health sciences librarians, whether they work in a traditional or nontraditional setting.