title: [The added value of information summaries supporting clinical decisions at the point-of-care.]
abstract: Evidence-based healthcare requires the integration of the best research evidence with clinical expertise and patients' values. International publishers are developing evidence-based information services and resources designed to overcome the difficulties in retrieving, assessing and updating medical information as well as to facilitate a rapid access to valid clinical knowledge. Point-of-care information summaries are defined as web-based medical compendia that are specifically designed to deliver pre-digested, rapidly accessible, comprehensive, and periodically updated information to health care providers. Their validity must be assessed against marketing claims that they are evidence-based. We periodically evaluate the content development processes of several international point-of-care information summaries. The number of these products has increased along with their quality. The last analysis done in 2014 identified 26 products and found that three of them (Best Practice, Dynamed e Uptodate) scored the highest across all evaluated dimensions (volume, quality of the editorial process and evidence-based methodology). Point-of-care information summaries as stand-alone products or integrated with other systems, are gaining ground to support clinical decisions. The choice of one product over another depends both on the properties of the service and the preference of users. However, even the most innovative information system must rely on transparent and valid contents. Individuals and institutions should regularly assess the value of point-of-care summaries as their quality changes rapidly over time.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Politiche Regolatorie del Farmaco, IRCCS Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milano.
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Banzi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università di Milano - Unità di Epidemiologia Clinica, IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Milano.
authors.forename: Marien
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: González-Lorenzo
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università di Milano.
authors.forename: Koren Hyogene
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kwag
authors.affiliation: Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Milano.
authors.forename: Stefanos
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonovas
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università di Milano - Unità di Epidemiologia Clinica, IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Galeazzi, Milano.
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Moja
mesh_terms: D006282:Health Personnel; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems