SciLink Blog

There are a few really interesting groups discussions going on in SciLink right now that I wanted to share on the blog:

Open Access Publishing - Is this a trend that we should all adopt and embrace? What are the benefits to such a model? Finally, what do people believe will be the long term effects of current legislation in this area? You can join the discussion at the Open Access Group Discussion

Damian Gessler writes:

Some aspects of the scientific publishing model remind me of the business model turmoil in the music industry. The status quo in scientific publishing is for taxpayes–to a large but not exclusive degree–to pay for science via government funded grants. To publish the results, one invariably turns over copyright to the publisher, which then sells access. The publisher is providing a service–publishing the results–but the unintended (or intended) consequences of restricting access to government-funded research is the Achilles heal of this business model in the internet age.

From the publishers’ perspective, there is no advantage to restricting access per se; indeed, they should be trying to maximize access so as to drive their relevancy. But of course the *do* restrict access to protect the revenue stream. This is a troubled business plan because it relies on inherent contradictions that yield practices contrary to the wishes of the customer.

Public Library of Science (PLoS) is one threat that is weakening the old model. So is the pay-for-open-access option that some journals offer. Still others address the issue by restricting access for a limited period after publication–such as 6 months. After that access is open.

So how to build a new revenue stream? Deliver value through the most convenient channel to your customers. That means dissassociating revenue from the content–the scientific papers per se–and attach it to the access via indirect channels. Deliver free content from a web site that supports advertising, email, forums, job postings, value-added scientific search, etc. Associate revenue to a net business model built upon page views and click throughs, driving viewership by the free access to the quality scientific content delivered from the journal. This would be a hybrid model between PLoS and old-school publishers.

Pharmacovigilance Group

Robbert Manen started the Pharmacovigilance group to provide a:

Platform for scientists, physicians, regulators and others interested in making medicinal products and medical devices safer.

Finally,

Roop Kaw’s Perioperative Medicine Group is growing (10 members)! You can join him here
Join Roop Kaw’s Perioperative Medicine Group

In a previous post, I wrote about our vision for the SciLink system. One of our goals is to provide a high quality job board where hiring managers can post interesting opportunities to find the most highly qualified candidates. To that end, we have taken steps to make our job board more visible to search engines by posting our jobs on an external page. You may find the job board at:
SciLink Job Board

Over the next few weeks we will start augmenting the page found above with some great new tools to let you leverage the full power of your network.

Stay Tuned!

-Brian

In the United States today more patients are having elective surgical treatments than ever before, 32.7 million in year 2006. Surgical innovations have made not only the recovery process quicker but as many as 75% of the elective procedures done today are done as outpatient procedures. Comprehensive perioperative risk assessment and focused postoperative medical management are increasingly becoming an integral and indispensable part of quality surgical care today.

The average surgical patient today can be older and more obese. Preoperative medical complications are common in patients of advanced age and those with co-existing medical conditions like hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and obesity, just to name a few. These complications worsen surgical outcomes and increase the cost of care. As perioperative patient care protocols expand to include a wide variety of medical morbidities, some clinicians with traditional medical or anesthesiology training feel unprepared to serve as medical consultants for or co-manage surgical patients. At the same time awareness of newer risk factors for postoperative complications with increasing age and obesity is important.

Meet Roop K Kaw MD, an Assistant Professor with the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and Department of Hospital Medicine, Medicine Institute, at the Cleveland Clinic. He recieved his medical degree from the University of Kashmir, India in 1990. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and an associate of the American College of Physician Executives.

He is actively involved in research in the area Perioperative Medicine and Outcomes. His current research focuses on novel predictors of cardiopulmonary risk in patients undergoing major surgery. Dr Kaw is currently funded by the NINDS (NIH) for studying the incremental risk of Sleep Apnea in cardiac surgical patients and the role of Crystal-20 monitor in inpatient Sleep studies. Dr. Kaw is widely published and serves on the editorial board of several medical Journals. He has presented his research both nationally and internationally.

Dr. Kaw serves on several national committees and advisory boards. He is a member of the Research committee for the Society of Hospital Medicine and co-chaired the scientific abstract committee in the 3rd Annual Perioperative Summit at the Cleveland Clinic. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Gerson Lehermans Council of Health Care Advisors and Reuter’s Insight an independent international research consultancy

Who should contact Dr. Kaw?

Anyone interested in Perioperative Medicine should join him on SciLink and also join the new Perioperative medicine group. See you all there!

Update

The SciLink Perioperative Medicine Group is growing:

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