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The goal of the Arizona Health Information Network, Inc. (AZHIN) is to improve the quality of health sciences education and health care delivery in Arizona by increasing access for students, faculty and health professionals to information and education products available electronically. These products may be databases of health sciences journal articles, academic courses, training courses, full text and image libraries, research or demographic information databases, calendars, directories and online library catalogs. The products may be in the public domain, licensed for use or created by AZHIN. The owner or licensee may be AZHIN or a member of the corporation. AZHIN products are of interest to a broad range of health sciences professionals and students: those in medicine, nursing and pharmacy are the most obvious, but also available on the network are materials for professions allied to health care: social work, psychology, various therapies (cardiac, respiratory, occupational, physical), administration (finance, purchasing, facilities), chaplaincy, nutrition, laboratory technology (blood, x-ray, imaging, testing) and more. A central capability of AZHIN, apart from its products, is access to electronic mail through the Internet. Communication in this form is fast and cheap, as well as being independent of time and place. AZHIN can link institutions, their employees, individuals, students and faculty, and any subgroup or combination thereof. Members of the corporation, who pay dues and receive unlimited access to AZHIN for themselves, their employees and their practitioners, agree to participate in the life of the organization. Members support the corporation's goal by appointing representatives who serve as its directors and officers, train individuals and organizations to use the products AZHIN offers, publicize and demonstrate the advantages of the network, continuously search for additional useful products for the network to carry, share experience and expertise with other members. AZHIN committee members are not limited to directors or employees of AZHIN institutional members; anyone working in the health care or health sciences education fields may work on a committee. The physical network consists of licensed software (databases and programs for sophisticated searching of those databases), a computer and associated equipment to mount the software, additional software and hardware connections between institutional inhouse computer/communication systems and AZHIN, via the Internet--either by direct connection (hardwired) or by a telephone connection (modem). AZHIN's paid staff is small: one regular part time clerical/administrative person, and a consultant, an accountant and legal counsel as needed. The Arizona Health Sciences Library pays the salary and benefits of the Library's Systems Director who is responsible for the AZHIN systems, as well. The rest of the considerable work of the corporation is performed by volunteers. The Arizona Health Sciences Library (AHSL) has a statewide mandate and is partly supported by state funds appropriated by the Legislature to The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center and The University of Arizona College of Medicine. AHSL was one of the initial catalysts in developing AZHIN, as a means of meeting information needs for the state as a whole and for the academic health sciences community. Another catalyst was the UA College of Medicine's Office of Phoenix Programs. Many medical, nursing and pharmacy students are placed in Phoenix area teaching hospitals for part of their education and training; while in Phoenix, these students need access to the same information and education resources as they had in Tucson. The same need is present among the smaller number of students placed in rural hospitals and clinics. And if students need access, so too do their faculty in the classroom and in patient treatment settings. AZHIN's intent is to become universal and ubiquitous in Arizona. If a hospital, clinic, university, library, office of a health care professional wishes to use the network, AZHIN expects eventually to make that possible. If a hospital wishes to bring AZHIN not only to the library, nursing stations and physician offices, but to the bedside, the clinic office, the CEO and staff offices and to patients and their families, that will eventually be possible, too. Computer and communication technology today make possible the availability of enormous information resources at comparatively low cost, without the usual limits of time, space and place required by a physical library. AZHIN was formed to put that possibility into practice for health science students, educators and professionals as well as health care providers, patients and their families throughout Arizona. In so doing, access to information would approach equity for urban and rural areas, for rich and poor institutions, for large and small institutions, for solo practitioners and those affiliated with large practice groups, for practitioners in popular and lucrative specialties and those in less successful but still important areas, for researchers in widely separate disciplines and locations, and for health sciences students at any level in any part of the state. As health science information increases exponentially in amount, and very nearly as fast in cost, it is becoming less and less practical to collect it physically at a single point and duplicate that collection at each place it might be used. Electronic access obviates the need to duplicate materials available in electronic form, and more and more print and image materials are becoming available in that form--some only in that form. As technology improves, AZHIN will carry images of a quality high enough to permit reading x-rays, slides and other images, interactive telemedical consultation and teleconferences. AZHIN saves money for all institutions that join without a concomitant loss in information and education resources. Usually, the member gains access to more resources at a cost much less than individual purchase or license. AZHIN is a not-for-profit corporation; any funds not used to pay for network products and system support go to additional product purchase, development, etc. and member education. AZHIN offers these general advantages to its users/members:
Today, AZHIN is available to any member of the student body, staff and faculty of The University of Arizona in Tucson, Phoenix and Sierra Vista; in Tucson, to any citizen who uses the UA Main Library or the AHSL, as well as students, faculty, medical staff and employees of TMC and VA Tucson; in Phoenix, to students, faculty and employees of VA Phoenix, Good Samaritan, St. Joseph's, Maricopa Medical Center, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, the Scottsdale Memorial Hospitals; across the state, to students and health sciences professionals at the Arizona Health Education Centers in Tucson, Phoenix, Yuma, Bullhead City, Flagstaff, Miami, Sierra Vista and Nogales. Ultimately, if asked to do so, AZHIN could make the network available in all public libraries, university and college libraries, community college learning resource centers, hospitals, clinics, health science research institutions, physicians' and other health care provider offices and any institution studying a particular health problem, such as the Arthritis Foundation. To that end, AZHIN is developing policies and methods to provide access to users who are not formal members. These policies must safeguard access and system stability for the primary users: students, faculty, providers and practitioners. Policies must also result in the lowest cost for those who need and use the network most, for those who need it but have limited means to obtain it, and for those who have least access to the centers of information and education in the state. AZHIN's present membership rules require smaller dues payments from smaller institutions, as the result of negotiations with vendors and AZHIN corporate policy. Universal, ubiquitous access to AZHIN has the following potential advantages:
None of these advantages is limited to a certain group or class of individuals or institutions. AZHIN has a statewide focus and will ultimately have a statewide effect. It will benefit all Arizonans. 2/20/95 Contact AZHIN
coordinator for more information |
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http://mihs.redesign.azhin.org Health Sciences Library 2601 E Roosevelt St Phoenix AZ, 85008 Phone: 602-344-5197 Fax: 602-344-1944 Email: library@mihs.org |