Students Strive to Narrow Gap in Access to Clinical Literature

The quick and easy access to medical literature in the U.S. — in the form of comprehensive clinical databases, and a wealth of textbooks and journals — isn’t common to all countries, particularly those in the Third World. A newly formed group of undergraduate students from the Health Sciences Scholars Program (featured in the summer 2003 issue of Medicine at Michigan), spearheaded by sophomores Konrad Sawicki and Mario Romero, aims to do something about that.

The mission of the Medical Journal Outreach Initiative (MJOI) is to disseminate clinical literature, in the form of medical journals, to medical schools and health systems around the world. The MJOI seeks donated medical journals (maximum of two years old) from physicians and researchers to distribute to health systems where lack of clinical literature is an obstacle to improved health care — including sites in Kenya and Ethiopia.

The MJOI seeks a diverse collection of well-known journals from both general medicine and various specialties (e.g., New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine). To donate journals, send them to:

Medical Journal Outreach Initiative
c/o Family Medicine
L2003 Women’s, SPC 0239
1500 E. Medical Center Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0239

Contact Sawicki at ksawicki@umich.edu with questions or to request mailing labels. The group’s first shipments of medical literature will begin later this winter and will continue on a regular basis throughout the academic year.