Searching and using scientific and clinical literature at the point of care: Here’s the app for that!

Balas and Boren (2000) estimated that it takes 15.6 years from the time a landmark study is published to reach a rate of 50% usage of the treatment in clinical practice. The consequences of this practice-research gap are poor patient outcomes, public mistrust of clinicians, and professional burn-out. One of the ways to reduce this practice-research gap is to access scientific and clinical literature at the point of care. The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad apps for accessing, managing, and using journal articles in clinical practice. The workshop will include discussions of the six attributes of a fully-integrated information app and how to identify good apps; demonstrations of the pros and cons of each of the top ten information apps; and an innovation exercise soliciting user input for designing 4G information apps. Instructional strategies will emphasize audience participation and peer-to-peer tutorials on how to use mobile devices to search databases, download articles, manage a personal library of articles, share articles with others, and cite while you write.