Creating and curating a pediatric radiology digital library to make the internet a useful reference tool for the radiologist

Abstract

Background: To practice pediatric radiology optimally, radiologists need convenient access to organized and authoritative pediatric radiology information. The Internet has the potential for offering such convenient access, but the majority of information on it is poorly organized and of questionable authority.

Objective: The goal of this project was to create and curate a pediatric radiology digital library that will make the Internet a useful reference tool for the radiologist at the point-of-care.

Materials and methods: A pediatric radiology digital library containing organized and authoritative pediatric radiology information from the Internet was created and has three components : (1) PediatricRadiology.com (http://pediatricradiology.com)--a catalog of pediatric radiology Web sites; (2) The MetaTextbook of Pediatric Radiology (http://www. vh.org/Providers/TeachingFiles/MetatextbookPedRad/MetaTBP edRad.html)--a catalog of pediatric radiology teaching file cases on the Internet; and (3) Paediapedia (http://www.vh. org/Providers/TeachingFiles/PAP/PAPHome.html)--an imaging encyclopedia of pediatric disease. The pediatric radiology digital library is curated regularly.

Results: Over 7 months, 223,689 pages of information were read and 26,972 images were viewed in the pediatric radiology digital library by 69,866 individual users, with 20% of the users from outside the United States.

Conclusion: Creating a pediatric radiology digital library that identifies and organizes authoritative pediatric radiology information and makes it conveniently available can allow radiologists to use the Internet productively as a reference tool.