I received a request from a physician in Iran for current texts in my field. His plea was touching:
> I know that , as a junior physician, I have no right to bother a senior
> surgeon, but asking for your kind help was my last chance. I practice in a
> remote area of W.Azarbaijan , Iran , close to Iran - Iraq border zone . As
> the sole medical facility in region , we have to practice all branches of
> surgery here . A majority of our patients are oculofacial reconstructive and
> oculoplastics cases . Most of our patients are poor and unable to pay even
> our negligible visit fee .
>
> Also I am far from medical colleges , libraries and professors in Iran, my
> sole consultants are my books and journals . On the other hand , my low
> income and embargo on Iranian Banks as a result of nuclear dispute does not
> allow me to buy all my needed books.
I can send him some of the books he has asked for, but that does not solve the
underlying problem, which is duplicated all around the world. Although the
number of "open access" journals and books is increasing, they still are
inadequate for specialized needs such as this. All publishing throughout the
world is done digitally, and this knowledge is already in digital format. Can
anyone think of how we can get that information to people like this, and still
preserve the profit motive that is necessary for publishers to continue to
operate??
The problem is not one of hardware or internet access. It is not one of lack
of digitization of the information. The problem is how to devise a new
business plan that looks at information as the means, and not the end. Steven
Denning recounts his efforts at the World Bank to give away information as an
expendable. Information, at least in medicine, is still looked at as power.
In reality, the ability to "situate a network" is where the power is heading.
Publishing houses and journals need to turn a profit on some other item of
value, but how to make the network something of value when now it is not even
appreciated?
Russ Gonnering ("Russ #3)
Russell Gonnering, MD, MMM, FACS, CPHQ
[email protected]
www.emergenthealth.net
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