Information and the doctor

Clincians spend much of their time manipulating information. Their diagnoses are made through a comparison between their knowledge of the body's behaviour in health and disease and fresh data from each patient they see. But the knowledge base in medicine is expanding at an overwhelming rate, while doctors' capacity to acquire, evaluate, store, and recall new knowledge is inevitably limited. Present information technology allows rapid reference to the world's medical literature — through established library services or, more recently, through direct user access to major international bibliographies. But further developments, in intelligent user interfaces, in portable reference sources for selected data, and in systems for ready access to comprehensive reviews could improve the doctor's lot. Accumulated medical experience held on a user‐accessible electronic index may also enhance the data on which the doctor is able to draw to optimise patient management. The value of any medical information, however, will still depend finally on the quality of scientific observation and on the competence of the medical reviewer. The medical librarian, too, will continue to play a key role, as a source of expertise in accessing specialist information, and as an adviser to users who wish to play a more active part themselves in electronic information technology.