Problem-based learning in a health sciences librarianship course.

Problem-based learning (PBL) has been adopted by many medical schools in North America. Because problem solving, information seeking, and lifelong learning skills are central to the PBL curriculum, health sciences librarians have been actively involved in the PBL process at these medical schools. The introduction of PBL in a library and information science curriculum may be appropriate to consider at this time. PBL techniques have been incorporated into a health sciences librarianship course at the School of Library and Information Science (LIS) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to explore the use of this method in an advanced Library and Information Science course. After completion of the course, the use of PBL has been evaluated by the students and the instructor. The modified PBL course design is presented and the perceptions of the students and the instructor are discussed.

Content analysis of research in undergraduate medical education.

The authors describe research in undergraduate medical education as reported in journal articles. A sample of 773 articles was randomly selected from 3,689 articles published from 1975 through 1994. Content analysis was used to quantitatively assess subject interests and methods over the past 20 years. The most frequent topics related to curriculum, teaching, and student assessment. Over 45% (353) of the sample articles were reports of research activity (i.e., they used specific methods to ascertain new facts, concepts, or ideas). The research reported was overwhelmingly conducted in a naturalistic environment; was evaluative or comparative in design; used observation, testing, or questionnaires to collect data; and included inferential statistical analyses. The research described by the authors confirms the close relationship between medical education and clinical or laboratory environments. The literature on undergraduate medical education reflects a lack of theory-based research and little evidence of work built on prior research, which may be partially due to the scattered nature of the literature. The increased numbers of authors per article over the study period may be indicative of increased interdisciplinary collaboration. The lack of reported external funding may be a problem of underreporting or it may be related to the large number of single-institution-based studies.

Educational services in health sciences libraries: a content analysis of the literature, 1987-1994.

The recent literature (1987-1994) describing educational services of health sciences librarians was analyzed for content. Variables examined included publication journal, country, type of article (description, review, or advocacy), target audience of education services, and subject of article. Articles that reported research results also were identified. Of 123 articles studied, 82.1% were descriptive, 14.6% advocacy, and 3.3% reviews. Library users were the primary target audience (85.1%), an increase over the percentage reported in an earlier study of the 1975-1986 literature. Librarians were the target audience in 12.8% of the articles, a decrease from the previous study's findings. There was an increase in educational offerings by academic libraries, which sponsored 83.2% of programs, while hospital libraries' sponsorship decreased to 5% of programs reported in the literature. The analysis identified a major need for research related to educational activities in health sciences libraries.

Medical informatics conference papers: a content analysis of research in a new discipline.

One of the hallmarks of a mature discipline is a varied and robust body of literature describing the research activities of the discipline. Medical informatics has rapidly become an accepted scientific discipline, having emerged from two long established disciplines (medical and computer science). This study looks at one form of scientific communication as a descriptive indicator of the maturity of medical informatics as a discipline. Conference proceedings were selected because they represent one of the first means of communication within a discipline in a semiformal format. Findings confirm that conference papers report research, development, and application projects across a wide range of topics; identify a possible trend toward increased funding; and show widespread use of empirical and quantitative research and analytical techniques. Deficiencies in the conference papers are also discussed.

Research in health sciences library and information science: a quantitative analysis.

A content analysis of research articles published between 1966 and 1990 in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association was undertaken. Four specific questions were addressed: What subjects are of interest to health sciences librarians? Who is conducting this research? How do health sciences librarians conduct their research? Do health sciences librarians obtain funding for their research activities? Bibliometric characteristics of the research articles are described and compared to characteristics of research in library and information science as a whole in terms of subject and methodology. General findings were that most research in health sciences librarianship is conducted by librarians affiliated with academic health sciences libraries (51.8%); most deals with an applied (45.7%) or a theoretical (29.2%) topic; survey (41.0%) or observational (20.7%) research methodologies are used; descriptive quantitative analytical techniques are used (83.5%); and over 25% of research is funded. The average number of authors was 1.85, average article length was 7.25 pages, and average number of citations per article was 9.23. These findings are consistent with those reported in the general library and information science literature for the most part, although specific differences do exist in methodological and analytical areas.

Three years experience with denaturated venous homografts as an arterial substitute: a clinical, pathological and immunological study.

Over a three-year-period 105 peripheral arterial reconstructions were performed using a denaturated venous homograft in a group of patients with no suitable autologous vein. A retrospective analysis has been carried out to investigate the patency rate of this graft. After three years 64% of all grafts are functioning well (according to the Life Table Method, Kaplan & Meyer). No significant differences in patency rates were found between reversed autologous veins and the material tested in this study but analysis of grafts removed after failure showed obstruction due to thrombosis or aneurysmal dilatation. No evidence of an immune response to the grafts was seen.