Suzanne Bakker, EAHIL President: Users we could be proud of are the nurses, they take up very quickly the idea of evidence based medicine. In contrary we almost loose the doctors and scientists as active users of the library. We're proud to be medical librarians.
Sari Sakomaa, Minster of Education and Science: Libraries are at the very heart of education and research. In order to stay at the cutting edge, we need library services. Cooperation between libraries is needed to reduce materials, to offer services like the National Electronic Library. Open Access is needed that everyone can access scientific research without barriers. University of Helsinki and the National Library of Health Sciences just introduced an Open Access repository which require researchers to deposit their articles from 2010 onwards.
What about the future? Towards an new information space - a neverending journey to new challenges. But we need also to provide something old which proved to be good.
Leena Peltonen-Palotie, Prof. Human Genetics:
I will talk about explosion of information and the increasing demand for access to information. To use the full potential of data such as the human genome, we're in need of an advanced infrastructure for data storage, analysis and release. we ned help for that (maybe help from librarians? Yes, your expertise in informatics is really in high demand!).
Genetics was a male-driven science over the years. But the structure of the DNA was obviously (happily?) discovered by a woman - Rosemary Franklin. Our personal genome is 3*109 letters and differs to 0,1% from other humans. One sequencing effort produces terabites of primary data. It eates up so much data space! The laboratories has to consult informatics to get rid of these huge levels of information.
Profiling the human genetic variances, we are in high demands in pipelines and logistics, because we collect information on 500.000 to 1 Mio. genetic markers from 100 to 10.000 individuals. At the moment, the cost of genotyping per persons is in the range of some 200 Euros. The ability of this rather cheap genotyping has caused a huge flow of information on genes responsible or not for certain diseases. But the're still rules and guidelines for submission and access needed. Currently, from the 350.000 gen profiles accessible (or stored) on the web, only some 200 were not from an european origin!
One didn't not longer have to propose hypothesis in advance, because the genetic studies reveal amazing relationships between different diseases such as Chron's disease and Psoriasis which were never thought on before.
In fact these studies are the very basis of somewhat increasingly called as personalized medicine. In that new medicine, genetic risk factors and life style risk factors represents a complex interplay. But where to store this kind of individual information? Nobody obviously will want anybody else (especially health insurance companies) to have access to his genetic record.
Europe need an top level biobanking effort and an respective information infrastructure to harvest all the benefits of these genetic outcomes (to be on the cutting edge...).
Maybe we need new specialists in health care who are capable of interpreting the (huge and unstructured amount) personal genetic information.
Currently five commercial companies (23andme, decodeme, navigenics) provide for somewhat 1.000 USD genetic testing for cancer, cardiovascular and other health risks, only by offered a drop of your blood.
