Welch Informationist Collaboration With The Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Radiology

With the announcement of the NLM Administrative Supplement Grant, the informationists at the Welch Medical Library found an interested and enthusiastic Principal Investigator (PI) in the Department of Radiology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Although the PI had not used the services of a Welch informationist before, he was eager to collaborate with an informationist on the grant “Dose-Response in Radionuclide Therapy,” (Parent Grant Number: 5R01CA116477-07) and had self-identified the need for “a literature review by experts” to fulfill his funded work.

Targeted radionuclide therapy is an emerging modality for cancer therapy that involves the delivery of radioactive atoms using carriers that preferentially bind to tumor cells. Such treatment is best implemented with patient-specific dosimetry calculations. This mutually beneficial partnership brings the specialized skill set, knowledge base and expertise of an informationist to the biomedical research team to assist in accomplishing the broader work of improving RPT delivery in metastatic cancer patients.

The informationist will carry out multiple tasks to produce an effective and efficient workflow that facilitates the dissemination of the information to a globally dispersed research team. This collaboration will be evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively, and the important role of the informationist in the success of this project will demonstrate the value of including an informationist in the research team. This demonstrated value will assist Welch Library in continuing to promote the embedded informationist program to other interested researchers throughout the institution.