From: "Gillis, Catherine (ELS-PHI)" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:06:37 +0000
Dear List Serv:
Below is an overview of the Elsevier Medical Library Panel which I run
here within the Health Sciences Journals Group:
- Elsevier’s Medical Librarian Panel was formed in December
2009 and is hosted by the Director of Customer and Market Research in
the company’s Health Sciences Journals group (Ms. Catherine Gillis)
o The Medical Librarian panel is one of the most important
initiatives of Elsevier’s “Voice of the Customer” program; our VoC
efforts also include traditional outreach efforts such as our Library
Connect newsletter and sponsoring of major events / conferences at
SLA, ALA, MLA as well as large programs organized by our Academic and
Government Customer Relations team
- The Medical Librarian Panel meets 3x per year at our
Philadelphia offices
- Panel members were selected based upon a variety of
criteria – of which liking Elsevier was NOT a consideration; the panel
is not designed to be a giant “kumbaya” sing-a-long, but rather a
real, open forum, where customers can tell us their pain points, what
their unmet needs are, what their own institutional challenges are and
how we might help them
- My panel consists of ~15 members, drawn from within a 100
mile radius of our Philadelphia office and is a very diverse group;
o Panelists are drawn from a variety of hospital / institutional
“types” including: specialty hospitals, hospitals affiliated with a
large medical school, hospitals which are part of an integrated health
network, suburban community type hospitals, and independent,
stand-alone hospitals
o Among the institutions represented are: Thomas Jefferson
University, Drexel University, Jersey Shore Medical University, Fox
Chase Cancer Center, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Virtua Health,
Pennsylvania Hospital, Lancaster General Hospital, St. Michaels
Medical Center (Newark, NJ) and several others
o We reimburse members for their travel expenses and always give
each attending panelist an honoraria; the meetings typically begin at
10 a.m. and run through 2 p.m., with lunch served
- Our panel has tackled a number of key issues such as:
o Growth of smartphones and other electronic devices and the impact
on the library and what services libraries need
o Access and Entitlement policies that seem contradictory and or
customer-unfriendly
o E-Book collections and how to make them much more flexible and affordable
o The importance of grading evidence and how / if an accepted
industry standard could be implemented, which would do for journal
users what Impact Factors and citation reports have done for editors
and authors
o How Elsevier is addressing point of care solutions and Clinical
Decision Support systems and EHRs.
- Additionally, our panel has also been a vital source of
feedback for new products we are developing; several panelists have
been part of a 6-month “alpha” testing program for a new clinical
reference solution we are working on; their input and feedback to our
product development has been crucial and incredibly valuable in the
development of these news solutions. Rather than the old way of
building something and saying, “here it is, hey it’s from Elsevier so
of course it’s great” we have taken a different approach: “what do you
need in a clinical reference solution that you are getting from us
now, or from other publishers (including UpToDate)” and let that drive
our product development efforts.
- Finally, one of the biggest benefits is to the panelists
themselves; after every meeting I hear the refrain: “Catherine I love
these meetings because I always learn so much from what my peers are
doing, and how they approach similar problems…”
In an era when content consumers have so much choice and where often
the speed of the answer may trump the level of evidence, we have
become determined to truly listen to our customer’s voices. With so
much choice and competition we can no longer have an attitude of ‘if
we build it they will come.’ And as noted above, for our panelists,
the opportunity to spend time together as professionals and learn from
one another has been one of the best selling points for our panel., In
fact, I think I think it is a prime reason why panel members keep
coming back. Eventually, we would like to broaden the geographic base
of the panels to include hospitals across the company, but for the
time being, it will have this regional make-up.
Do we get everything right? No. Are “VoC” efforts enough to
demonstrate our sincerity in making sure our customers’ voices are
heard throughout the company? Probably not. But we are really
committed to keeping our panel going as we find it so valuable.
Thank you.
Catherine
Catherine M. Gillis
Director, Customer and Market Research
Global Medical Research
Elsevier Health Sciences
1600 JFK Boulevard, Suite 1800
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215.239.3780 (office)
484.343.1322 (mobile)
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www.journals.elsevierhealth.com
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