Doctors Without Internet Get Into A Big Blue Trunk
It’s crazy how much infomation doctors have to wade through just to stay up-to-date with current medical treatments, techniques, and trends. Dr. Racergrrl gets weekly medical journals, lectures and presentations at the hospital, and has a library of texts. The Internet and any number of online repositories of research and publications have definitely been a critical tool for her during medical school, though. Hell, if it weren’t for the web, I never would have seen her over the past few years because she’d be living at the library.
Plenty of places around the world are still without reliable dial-ups, much less broadband. Getting current information is a constant battle for Doctors in these areas. Some medical staffers in Guinea proposed the idea of a portable library of medical texts to the WHO in the late 1990s. The Blue Trunk Libraries are now in huge demand. An article in the Public Library of Medicine says that the WHO has distributed 1488 of the libraries around the globe so far. Apparently, they cost $2000 (including training users) plus $600-$700 in shipping. A damn good idea.
[tags]medicine, Blue Trunk Libraries[/tags]
about mister jason™
A post-hardcore rock-n-roller, graphic designer, amateur chef, typography nerd, coffee connoisseur, radio guy, motorcyclist, skateboard commuter, and a reluctant adult. He lives in Portland Ore. USA with the lovely Dr. Adrienne and Otto T. Dog.