Exploring digital health care: eHealth,mHealth, and librarian opportunities

Technology advances in eHealth and mHealth are changing the way that health care consumers and providers communicate, receive and deliver care, and access health information. As electronic health records and smartphones have become ubiquitous in the United States, opportunities and applications for the integration of eHealth and mHealth have increased. In addition to technology advances, the changing health care model is simultaneously adapting to and driving initiatives in digital health care. With these digital initiatives have come challenges, including data overload, security and privacy concerns, deficits in technological and health literacy skills, and sorting through the vast number of choices of digital applications. Navigating this changing landscape can be overwhelming and time consuming for both health care providers and consumers. Librarians are uniquely positioned to assist providers and consumers to break down barriers within the digital health care landscape through data management initiatives, technology and health literacy instruction, and finding and evaluating health information and digital health technologies.     

The research process: a beginner’s guide

The introduction of evidence-based health care and the importance of library services in supporting this trend mean that librarians should at the very least understand the research process. The research process is often misunderstood and feared. This paper explains the research process step by step, giving examples. The major research designs, experimental, quasi-experimental, survey and action research are described. This paper is deliberately practical rather than academically focused. Its structure could be used to structure a small-scale research project, with the help of the literature in the annotated bibliography.