Improving access to knowledge-based health sciences information: early results from a statewide collaborative effort

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Medical Librarianship
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Access to current biomedical literature can reduce patient length of stay and hospital costs.
• High resource requirements (staff, hardware, software, training) limit access for many institutions.
• The Arizona Health Information Network (AZHIN) was established to address these access barriers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the progress and impact of the AZHIN initiative in its first two years.
• To demonstrate a model for resource sharing to improve access to health information.
• To highlight the benefits of collaboration between librarians, IT specialists, and healthcare professionals.

Main Methods:

• AZHIN facilitates resource and expertise sharing among hospitals statewide.
• Collaboration involves librarians, information systems specialists, and healthcare professionals.
• Focus on reducing the cost and improving the availability of health-related information.

Main Results:

• AZHIN has successfully reduced the cost of accessing biomedical literature.
• Increased availability of health-related information across Arizona hospitals.
• Demonstrated progress in resource sharing and collaborative efforts over two years.

Conclusions:

• Collaborative resource sharing models, like AZHIN, are effective in overcoming access barriers to biomedical information.
• Reducing information access costs can lead to improved patient care outcomes and hospital operational efficiencies.
• The AZHIN model provides a scalable solution for enhancing health information accessibility in diverse healthcare settings.