Abstract
The trauma pandemic disproportionately kills and maims citizens of low-income countries although the immediate cause of the trauma is often an industrial export of a high income country, such as a motor vehicle. Addressing the trauma pandemic in low-income countries requires access to relevant research information regarding prevention and treatment of injuries. Such information is also generally produced in high income countries. We explored various means of making scientific information available to low-income country surgeons using the internet. If orthopaedic surgeons want to maximize their global impact, they should focus on writing about trauma questions relevant to their colleagues in low-income countries and ensuring these same colleagues have access to the literature.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beveridge M, Howard A. The burden of orthopaedic disease in developing countries. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2004;86:1819–1822.
Beveridge M, Howard A, Burton K, Holder W. The Ptolemy project: a scalable model for delivering health information in Africa. BMJ. 2003;327:790–793.
BioMed Central Web site. Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/. Accessed May 21, 2008.
Burton KR, Howard A, Beveridge M. Relevance of electronic health information to doctors in the developing world: results of the Ptolemy Project’s Internet-based Health Information Study (IBHIS). World J Surg. 2005;29:1194–1198.
Derbew M, Beveridge M, Howard A, Byrne N. Building surgical research capacity in Africa: the Ptolemy Project. PLoS Med. 2006;3:e305.
HINARI—Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative Web site. Available at: http://www.who.int/hinari/en/. Accessed May 21, 2008.
Internet Usage Statistics for Africa. Internet World Stats Web site. Available at: http://internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm. Accessed May 21, 2008.
Krug EG, Sharma GK, Lozano R. The global burden of injuries. Am J Public Health. 2000;90:523–526.
Mathers CD, Loncar D. Projections of global mortality and burden of disease from 2002 to 2030. PLoS Med. 2006;3:e442.
National Institutes of Health Public Access Web site. Available at: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/index.htm. Accessed May 21, 2008.
PLoS: Public Library of Science Web site. Available at: http://www.plos.org/. Accessed May 21, 2008.
PubMed Central: A Free Archive of Life Sciences Journals. NIH Web site. Available at: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/. Accessed May 21, 2008.
Smith H, Bukirwa H, Mukasa O, Snell P, Adeh-Nsoh S, Mbuyita S, Honorati M, Orji B, Garner P. Access to electronic health knowledge in five countries in Africa: a descriptive study. BMC Health Serv Res. 2007;7:72.
Summary of Funding Agency Policies on Open Access. BioMed Central Web site. Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/authors/funderpolicies. Accessed May 21, 2008.
Villafuerte-Galvez J, Curioso WH, Gayoso O. Biomedical journals and global poverty: is HINARI a step backwards? PLoS Med. 2007;4:e220.
World Health Organization. World Health Statistics 2008. Paris, France: WHO; 2008.
Acknowledgments
We thank the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons Carl Brighton Fellowship for stimulating discussion contributing to the completion of this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. Dr. Howard runs the Ptolemy project described herein.
About this article
Cite this article
Noordin, S., Wright, J.G. & Howard, A.W. Global Access to Literature on Trauma. Clin Orthop Relat Res 466, 2418–2421 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-008-0375-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-008-0375-4