What will the “Tobyo-ki Collection” bring to patients and medical professionals?

Abstract

Author Abstract: The Healthcare Information Bookshelf Project (HIBOP) is a private study group, which aims to provide health / medical information to patients in a comprehensible form. The project is focusing on " Tobyo-ki " , books in which patient narratives are described by patients themselves and/or their caregivers, and found the fact that patients did not utilized the genre sufficiently because the books has not been classified systematically. Therefore, we collected available books about 1,800 titles, and classified it into disease categories. The outcome of project results bibliographic list, database on new Website " Tobyo-ki Library " , and ten model-case collections in various types of libraries including public library, patient or medical libraries. " Tobyo-ki Collection " is now effectively used by patients and their families when they need to refer the books written by others who suffer from same disease. Through these activities, the project proposes a possible embodiment of patient-centered medical care to the society.