المكتبات و المعلومات الطبية : الالتقاء و الاختلاف

Abstract EN

The concept of medical libraries emerged in the 19th century when the Medical Library Association of the United States was founded to develop this type of libraries and look after the interests of the staff of these libraries.

The Association has continued to this day, and is becoming stronger and more influential due to the reliance of health care workers on knowledge, information and evidence in their work and decisions.

The concept of medical or health informatics emerged in the second half of the 20th century after the invention of computers and the development of software that serves health and medical services and research.

The importance of medical informatics has increased with the increasing reliance on computing, communications, data and statistics in providing healthcare services and information to workers in this field as well as to the public at large.

This study discusses the definition of both medical libraries and the science that develops theories and best practices in them, as well as health biomedical informatics and other terms associated with this specialty such as eHealth, digital health, health-onthe- Internet and big data and the link to library and information science.

The study reviews models of the integration of medical libraries and health informatics, especially with regard to the use of electronic health records, as well as access to information on the Internet, the quality of electronic information and the role of medical librarians in all of this.

The study concludes that medical records and medical libraries had those in charge of these have developed systems to maintain and use them in order to improve the health of patients and their surroundings.

This objective still exists despite the existence of two different professions to serve these two specialties.

The study also includes a number of recommendations, especially those related to the multidisciplinary nature of the topic, research areas, integration of services and cooperation between those who are responsible for them.