This project would demonstrate a means to provide rural Alaska health professionals timely access to biomedical information resources at a reasonable cost. Such access is particularly important in remote areas of the state to support patient care and continuing education programs iand to help reduce professional isolation. Alaska Health Sciences Library (AHSL), which provides state-wide health science library service to the Alaska medical community, proposes a demonstration project to establish an electronic link to five or more rural hospitals using existing data networks. The project would serve to re-introduce AHSL services to rural Alaskans as well as enabling each project site to request and receive literature searches and/or documents electronically. Personal contact with a professional medical librarian, the Director of AHSL, would form the basis for establishing this electronic information link. The project would have three components each including a site visit: (1) introduction to services and needs assessment, (2) demonstration project and provision of services and (3) evaluation. The first component would be demonstration of the AHSL capabilities of the project (including GRATEFUL MED and electronic linkage), a site equipment inventory and local information needs assessment. The second component would include another visit to those sites selected to participate in the project to train personnel. The third component would evaluate the results of the project in terms of fulfilling user needs and provide additional training possibilities. In addition to evaluating user response, AHSL would evaluate three methods of rapid document delivery: standard telefacsimile service; personal computer fax technology; and expedited mail. It is anticipated that the evaluation of this project would provide a basis for designing and planning a statewide medical information network.
