The information specialist in the clinical team: Building expertise in evidence-based healthcare

The Clinician Development Program (CDP) is an initiative of Queensland Health’s Quality Improvement and Enhancement Program. At the Royal Brisbane & Royal Women's Hospital Health Service Districts, evidence-base practice (EBP) is an important CDP area in which several projects were carried out in 2002. This paper describes one such project. A medical librarian was invited to accompany the clinical team on morning rounds in the Medical Assessment & Planning Unit (MAPU). The librarian conducted information skills training in the ward and helped clinicians to answer questions directly related to patient care. Questions not answered during the round were followed-up, usually within 48 hours, and responses emailed to the consultant who led the rounds. At the project’s conclusion the librarian was invited to continue as a member of the MAPU clinical team, thus acknowledging the valuable role an information specialist can play in incorporating research evidence into patient care. Clinical librarianship (CL) creates a space, albeit a contentious one, for the health librarian at the bedside. This paper describes an Australian CL project and attempts to demystify the role of an information specialist in EBP. It also highlights some of the challenges facing librarians and clinicians attempting to embed EBP in clinical settings.

Use of advance information in patients with schizophrenia

To document possible motor disturbance in schizophrenia, we examined the ability to use advance information (or cues) to plan movements in a sequential button pressing task in 12 Clozapine medicated patients. Programming of movements under various cues revealed that patients with schizophrenia, relative to controls, initiated movements slower to the right than left, providing possible evidence for right hemineglect (left hemisphere dysfunction). Additionally, patients with schizophrenia had difficulty in the initiation of movements in the absence of a cue, suggesting internal cue generation difficulty for movement related to some form of fronto-striatal disturbance. Motor abnormalities were predominantly observed at the level of movement initiation, but not execution, contrary to basal ganglia disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's disease.

Crocodile farms and management of saltwater crocodiles in Northern Territory: Results of a survey of NT crocodile farmers plus analysis of secondary information

After outlining some relevant background information about the NT crocodile farming industry and explaining the purpose of our survey of NT crocodile farmers conducted in the first half of 2005, this paper reports the results of the survey. The information received from the survey is supplemented by secondary data and by information from secondary sources. This report covers the location of respondents; the size of crocodile farms; farmers’ stated knowledge of and attitudes towards the NT Crocodile Management Plan; the involvement of farms in the harvesting of crocodile eggs and the costs involved; views of crocodile farmers about whether the NT Crocodile Management Plan encourages landholders to conserve crocodiles and their perceptions of the benefits to landholders; predicted production trends and trends in the number of farms operating in NT; economic characteristics of crocodile farms producing in NT including the economic advantages and disadvantages of crocodile farming in NT. Concluding comments provide, amongst other things, an overview of the structure of the crocodile farming industry in the NT gleaned from a consideration of data available from the NT Government’s Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development.