Health Informatics may be the new “basic science” course that will be a prerequisite for an M.D....[Andrew] Grove Ph.D. (former head of Intel) in a recent “Commentary” in the JAMA makes note of several things about medicine and digital tools. “There are signs that individual consumers may be taking matters into their own hands. The proliferation of companies providing personal health record services is an indication of such a movement. This phenomenon has all the makings of becoming a disruptive technology.”...Amongst these “disruptive technologies” are the movements toward “Open Access” publishing [and] the demand for immediate publishing of negative results from clinical trials....Undoubtedly this will decrease the “signal to noise ratio” and perhaps the evolution will be much like the “yellow pages” of our telephone book, where you no longer can find what you are looking for. Search engine algorithms will become critical in cataloging and organizing relevant materials....On the other hand interconnectivity and open access to many old and new journals enhances the synergism between science disciplines as well as basic and applied science. It will speed the translation of scientific discovery into relevant clinical applications, and perhaps quicken the selection of the “fittest” tools for cure disease and optimize health and treatment.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/15/2005 03:03:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
