Journal Article

Evolution of biomedical communication as reflected by the National Library of Medicine

Crawford, Susan Y.

2016

Overview

This commentary examines the evolution of the biomedical communications system in the Western world. The examination touches on many aspects, including the application of new technology, the interoperative relationship between publications and data, changes in the information infrastructure, the convergence of specialties, and consequences for research and health care. As an overview of communication in the biomedical sciences, this commentary draws upon studies of how science is practiced and how information is produced. For this examination, the author selected as a focus the biomedical information programs of the National Library of Medicine (NLM). This public-service organization within the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is representative of Western biomedical information management and has produced widely used communication tools. To address the hypothesis of paradigm change, data were collected through site visits over a three month period with NLM staff. Socioeconomic issues were probed for insights into the support of science and the role of public and private sectors

• Publisher: Medical Library Association,University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
• Subject: Access to Information / Automation / Biomedical Research - organization & administration / Biomedicine / Communication / Communications systems / Consumer health information / Convergence / Digital archives / Experiments / Health care / Health sciences / Health services / History, 19th Century / History, 20th Century / History, 21st Century / Humans / Hypotheses / Hypothesis testing / Information Dissemination / Information management / Information technology / Infrastructure / Innovations / Institutes / Interinstitutional Relations / Interoperability / Laboratories / Libraries / Library collections / Management / Medical communication / Medical libraries / Medical technology / Medicine / MEDLARS - organization & administration / Molecular biology / National libraries / National Library of Medicine (U.S.) - history / National Library of Medicine (U.S.) - organization & administration / National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, PubMed, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, Human Genome Project / New technology / R&D / Research & development / Site visits / Studies / Technology application / Telecommunications / United States