Low-income countries get free access to medical text

The Oxford Textbook of Medicine is now available online.
Image: Flickr/BobTheCorkDwarf 

A new Wellcome Trust sponsorship is helping doctors and healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries gain free access to one of the world’s leading medical texts, writes Mun-Keat Looi on the Wellcome Trust blog.

The Oxford Textbook of Medicine has provided practical guidance on clinical management and the prevention of disease for over 35 years.

It contains the best in international medicine from 750 of the world’s best clinicians and medical scientists, covering basic science and clinical practice, infectious diseases, and unique sections on the foundations, achievements and limitations of modern medicine, and global patterns of disease.

Earlier this month, the textbook went online for first time. This will allow the content to be updated regularly, based on the latest clinical evidence.

It also offers an opportunity for those in low- and middle-income countries to access the reference source, without worrying about how to buy and ship copies of an expensive three-volume, 6000 word book.

The Trust is working with the World Health Organization’s HINARI scheme to provide access to the Oxford Textbook. This will enable users at more than 3500 institutions to access it for free or at a greatly reduced cost.

“The Oxford Textbook of Medicine plays a considerable part in consolidating the practice of evidence-based medicine around the world,” said Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Trust.

“The Wellcome Trust is pleased to be a part of the initiative to ensure that high-quality research is widely disseminated. This will support these countries in building research capacity and promoting evidence-based medicine, ensuring that research knowledge is translated into practice.”

A growing number of UK learned societies also offer journal access to scientists in developing countries.  Read more on the UKCDS Learned Societies capacity building pages.