Abstract
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Objectives: Access to the most current scientific literature is considered essential to nuclear medicine physician life long learning. Often when faced with a diagnostic challenge, physicians will turn to the scientific literature for guidance. While these materials are widely accessible to the medical community, traditionally the patient community has not been granted easy access. Current literature access infrastructure has been designed to facilitate easy access within the scientific and medical community, but traditionally not considered access needs of the patient community. This review elucidates current state of patient access to these scientific materials in both digital and print forms.
Methods: Through systematic review of both primary scientific and review manuscripts in the major high impact nuclear medicine journals, accessibility by the typical patient is detailed. Both digital and hard copy resource availability will be explored. Access to traditional scientific textbooks, and other print materials will also be assessed. Finally more nontraditional resources such as blog posts, podcasts and webinars are also be assessed for patient accessibility. Potential implications related to limited access to the scientific literature are explored with regard to the patient experience, and patient understanding of their diagnosis and available treatment options. Results: Patient accessibility to both review and primary scientific materials in digital and print mediums is quite limited. While not every patient may wish to explore the technical details of their disease process and potential treatment options, the ability to do so if desired is critical. Conclusions: This educational review enables the viewer to understand the challenges faced by patient’s pursuing access to scientific literature relevant to their healthcare. Through understanding of challenges related to literature access, the viewer not only builds empathetic understanding of the patient experience, but also becomes empowered to participate in creative problem solving to enable improved appropriate access to scientific literature.