Fontes de informação especializada em saúde: análise de características e proposta de critérios para avaliação

Abstract

Since many years ago, the manipulation of information has challenged professionals working as users within the healthcare field. Even though the information technology has been collaborating with the new possibilities to store and to access information, their resources are not yet employed in a systematic wider way, insofar as much of that content do not reach its potential of using because of the lack of training to retrieve it, the lack of mechanisms to process and to assure its availability in a proper format and in a proper moment with quality. Thus, we consider that is essential and relevant to carry out studies with the aim to improve the understanding of the structure and the possibility of using information sources in healthcare. This situation, we believe, is a real challenge for the professionals, researchers and students working on the healthcare field, mainly for the users, which are going to use those sources for the first time. Within such context, we believe that it is crucial to analyze and to describe resources offered by the information sources in the healthcare field, in order to make possible the clarification of the functional characteristics of those sources, to approach issues related to search theses sources, as well as the several biases referring to the process of evaluation of information quality within the healthcare field. Within this context, the proposal of this work was to identify features, structure and inter-relations of information sources, which are classified as terminological systems and databases in the healthcare field, as well as the aspects regarding the quality of information available at those sources. We choose to assay such kind of specialized information source because of its relevance for information users working in the healthcare field. The research made possible to check the main characteristics of each source, its purposes, structures and coverings, providing the users a comprehensive view of the main goals of each source. As one of the research results, a comparative framework of the information sources was proposed. In such framework the main characteristics of the sources were emphasized, in addition to the establishment of procedures to evaluate the quality of those sources. Such procedures encompassed criteria for rating and ranking sources, an evaluative framework according to quality aspects, and a classifying table of the sources involved in the research. All analysis performed aimed to contribute to reduce the complexity involved in the informational process, collaborating to the effective use of information sources, as well as detaching aspects of quality established as classification criteria in the research. Based on this study, we hope to make available to information users of the healthcare field an institutional material that allows them the efficient use of information sources, then contributing to the proper use and application of information made available. We also hope that this work can favor the procedures in the healthcare field, both for practitioners and scientists, in an effective and efficient way that, eventually, will contribute to the quality of life and health in Brazilian society.