EAHIL Council Meeting

Krakow, September 12^th, 2007 

In attendance: Eva Alopaeus (Sweden);  Suzanne Bakker (President);  Helena Bouzkova (Czech Republic); Minielle Brasey (Switzerland);  Karen Johanne Buset (Norway);  Vinciane de Bergeyck (Belgium); Silvia Ciubrei (Moldova);  Maurella Della Seta (Italy);  Elena Ganina (Russia);  Gussun Gunes (Turkey);  Ingrid Harnemo (Sweden); Meile Kretavicience (Lithuania);  Katri Larmo (Finland);  Jouni Leinonen (Finland);  Tony McSeán (Secretary); Bruce Madge (MLA);  Frans Mast (Netherlands - pro R Deurenberg); Margarida Meira (Portugal);  Barbara Niedzwiedzka (Poland);  Oliver Obst (Germany);  Anne O’Byrne (Ireland); Anne-Cathrine B Overskott (Norway); Paivi Pekkarinen (Finland);  Milena Podgorsek (Slovenia); Velta Poznaka (Latvia);  Pirjo Rajakiili (Finland); Ioana Robu (Romania); Friedhelm Rump (Germany); Severine Spronck (Belgium); Hilde Stromme (Norway); Jurate Stukiene (Lithuania);  Sue Thomas (UK); Ivana Truccolo (Italy);   Guillemette Utard‑Wlerick (France);  Enrica Veronesi (Italy);  Michelle Wake (UK);  Dana Zdenkova (Czech Republic); Larisa Zhmykhova (Russia) 

Apologies were received from Marshall Dozier (UK); Muriel Haire (Ireland);  Carol Lefebvre (UK); Matjaz Musek (Slovenia); Fanny Ribes Cot (Spain); Conni Skrubbeltrang (Denmark); Ronald van Dieën (Netherlands)

 

1.  Welcome

SB welcomed council, particularly the many councillors who were attending their first EAHIL council meeting. 

2.  Introduction

All those present introduced themselves briefly. 

3.  Minutes

The minutes of the 2006 EAHIL Council meeting were approved.

 

4.  Review of 2006 election process

AJ reported that the 2006 elections were the first to be carried out online.  The process ran without any significant problems, and a very high level of voting was recorded, even when the elections were uncontested.  In 2008 there will be elections for President and some board members during the spring, and in the autumn there will be elections for council.  The number of councillors per country will be determined by the number of members on September 30^th.  The nomination process will not be electronic, but will use forms which will be available on the web site and distributed with the printed copies of JEAHIL.

5.  Review of peer review system for new member approval

AJ emphasised the importance of peer review of applications for membership.  FR raised the incidence of serials librarians registering for EAHIL membership solely in order to acquire JEAHIL without charge, and AJ agreed that it was important to keep a careful eye on new applications in order to sustain the membership focus on health information and limited to active health information professionals; if in doubt councillors can send an email to the applicant asking for clarification of any details.  AJ reminded ALL councillors to chase up those in their country who had not renewed their membership for 2007, particularly those whose email had changed. 

6. Appointment of auditors for EAHIL accounts

SB reported on the move of the secretariat from NVB to the office of our accountant and auditor. With significant cost savings from reduced duplication of effort.  It was now necessary, in accordance with Dutch law, to appoint two independent auditors from within the membership to oversee the production of the accounts.  Oliver Obst and  Gusson Gunes volunteered to act as auditors. 

7.  Monopolies in the publishing industry

Norwegian councillors had circulated a paper expressing concern over the decision of Ebsco to withdraw their newly-acquired CINAHL database from alternative distributers and restrict access to EBSCO host.  Many councillors expressed a strong conviction that the change would significantly diminish the level of service they were able to offer their nursing users, and that there would also be a time-consuming and difficult retraining requirement.  Others gave their view that since the Ebsco purchase had rescued CINAHL from collapse and closure, it was reasonably within Ebsco’s commercial discretion to decide how and at what price they wished to make it available.  In response to the general feeling of council, SB undertook to contact Ebsco on behalf of EAHIL, to convey the disquiet that had been widely expressed, to investigate the possibility of changing Ebsco’s decision, and to report back to council via EAHIL-C.

 8.  Individual councillors’ news and reports

(a)  The meeting received a progress report on the organisation of the Dublin workshop in 2009.

(b) Austrian health information professionals now have their own SIG within the German association, 

9.  Breakout sessions

Bruce Madge introduced the breakout sessions and explained how they would be organised. The 2007 EAHIL Council meeting in Krakow introduced a new feature of Breakout Sessions, whereby Council members were put into 5 small groups to discuss career paths for health information professionals. The proposed outline of this Council meeting is part of the future strategic plan for EAHIL.

 

10.  Breakout sessions feedback

[The following reports are courtesy of the Krakow Echo production team, and the individual authors are credited although the originals have been edited slightly in accordance with the style of these minutes.] 

1.  Patient Education and Consumer Health

These were the first questions that were posed:  “Are these the right words? Should we talk about patients? Consumers? And Health? Instead of citizens, lay people, well-being and wellness. What do you think?” The outcome was:

·           EAHIL must be involved in the area of health information for the citizens of Europe;

·           We must work with others who are also prioritising this information, such as EU citizen portals and public libraries;

·           We need training so that we know which consumer databases to use, and how we can learn to best communicate this information to different customers.

Envisaging people in their health is a key theme from the World Health Organisation and central to public health. (Sue Thomas, Paivi Pekkarinen) 

2.  Health Informatics

The group discussed the area of health informatics and what EAHIL should do in relation to providing continuing professional development support. For ease we broke the subject down into the traditional 3 areas of: Data, Information and Knowledge. We then addressed what we felt was needed in each area. Overall, our group felt that the world was changing and this presented some overarching concerns which could be addressed in future meetings. Users wanted information delivered to the desktop and the new technologies made this easier to achieve; there was also discussion about the role of information professionals if information resources could be linked directly to the patient record and the need for keyword searching with the new technologies of data mining and the “Google” phenomenon. The group recommended that EAHIL continue to offer education courses on basic statistical methods and the new search engines, consider an introductory course on data mining possibly for Helsinki and that a Health Informatics special interest group be set up to monitor developments in this fast changing field. Finally a toolbox of useful definitions should be added to the EAHIL website for the use of all members.  (Bruce Madge) 

3. Bibliographic Management incl. institutional repositories open access publishing

The group reviewed the position of institutional repositories and open access in their own institutions and the challenges faced. From the discussion the following conclusions were reached:

·           Important role for EAHIL to education its members in this area

·           To inform members of decisions made by funders and at Government level and other organizations

·           Educate members on how to promote open access

·           To help members to argue their case with managers