Author: Vivienne Winterman
Senior Knowledge and Information Management Consultant
The theme of the conference ‘keeping information centre stage amid changing scenery’ was an apt title in the current climate. Pauline Blagdon, Chair of HLG, stressed in her opening remarks that ‘information is essential’ and the conference and individual presentations illustrated a variety of ways how information professionals were contributing to the work of front line-staff to show this. Dr Gillian Leng, Deputy Chief Exec. from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) opened the conference by talking about the aims of NICE to develop quality standards and guidance on specific topic areas, using NICE Pathways to map all of this, and the vision for NICE Evidence to be a single portal for health information to integrate both the ‘evidence’ data and the information-rich electronic resources (e-journals, bibliographic databases) previously available from the National Library of Health (NLH). The value from NICE would be measured in terms of the outcomes for patients by providing this knowledge and information to staff, patients and the public in a meaningful way.
The conference programme consisted of several parallel sessions with papers and case studies showing:
- Development of LIS at a strategic level.
- How Library and Information Services (LIS) were working to raise and keep a high profile, develop the right skills, using the drivers for change as opportunities for LIS and not threats.
- Introduction of web 2.0 into the daily work of NHS staff and the use of IT.
- Development of e-learning platforms, coaching sessions to introduce information literacy, with an example of where clinical IT trainers had been brought into the LIS group.
- Examples of collaboration in delivering public health information by bringing together: surveillance data and the literature, - analysts and LIS.
- Successful toolkits that had been developed, including those for: measuring the impact of LIS; strategies for LIS professionals.
- How change could be managed.
Overall the impression is that there are so many examples of good practice where information professionals are demonstrating their value to, and working with, clinicians and other front line staff. This learning and good practice needs to be proactively shared across Trusts, SHAs, public health and social care organisations so that our specialist knowledge and value is unquestionable and the impact on patient treatment evident and measurable.
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