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The Health Outcomes Core Library Module Project consists of compilations of selected books, journals, Web sites, and bibliographic databases related to health outcomes. Produced by AcademyHealth at the request of the National Library of Medicine’s National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR), the project focused on developing the core and desired sets of resources for health libraries.

AcademyHealth staff worked with panels of librarians and academic experts to capture the full range of health outcomes resources. Expanding on the 2003 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality definition of health outcomes, AcademyHealth staff worked with its panelists to develop the following working definition:

Outcomes research seeks to understand the end results of particular health care practices and interventions. It relies on measures and instruments to measure the results experienced by people who receive particular health care practices and interventions. Results include effects that people experience and care about, such as change in the ability to function and in feelings of well-being. In particular, for individuals with chronic conditions—where cure is not always possible—results include health-related quality of life as well as mortality. By linking the care people get to the outcomes they experience, outcomes research has become the key to developing better ways to monitor and improve the quality of care.

—Health Outcomes Core Library Module Librarian Expert Discussion Meeting, December 3, 2003

Using the working definition as a guide, staff tallied resource recommendations from panelists, culled through course syllabi, library collections, and the Internet, and developed and ranked lists of the following resources:

• Core health outcomes books and journals (includes classics);
• Desired health outcomes books and journals and a listing of alert services;
• Core and desired health outcomes bibliographic databases; and
• Health outcomes Web sites.

The full report submitted to NLM is available online. Please contact Virginia Van Horne at virginia.vanhorne@academyhealth.org for more information.

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