It was the need to back up clinical decisions with sound medical knowledge that induced the Vancouver Medical Association to form a Library in 1906, beginning the service that would eventually become the College library. What was crucial to clinical decision making 100 years ago is unchanged today: physicians want information that is authoritative, relevant, and rapid, and they want it where the need arises—the point of care.

The College Library has an excellent collection of point-of-care resources bundled into an electronic database entitled Stat!Ref. One simple search phrase entered into the Stat!Ref textbox gives you access to the full text of the latest edition of 18 top-quality medical texts, including Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, as well as the American College of Physicians’ PIER. PIER is an evidence-based decision-support tool that gives, in modular form, screening, diagnosis, and treatment for some 350 diseases. Each recommendation is accompanied by a graded level of evidence, with links to appropriate resources. Stat!Ref also includes an electronic version of Stedman’s Medical Dictionary and an interactive anatomy tool. College members may access Stat!Ref by logging onto the College’s web site at www.cpsbc.ca [13], clicking on Library, then selecting the link Electronic Journals and Books on the Library’s main page. Give it a try!

Perhaps the Library’s founding fathers would feel it remiss of us not to mention the original, portable, easy-to-use point of care tool: a ready-reference handbook slipped into the pocket. We also have those.

—Linda Clendenning
—Karen MacDonell
—Judy Neill
Librarians/Co-Managers