Medical Librarians in The Role of Research Facilitators: A Case Report (Immune Deficiency Clinic of Mashhad Akbar Children's Hospital)

Document Type : case report

Authors

1 Department of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

2 Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

4 Department of Information Science and Knowledge, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

5 Clinical Research Development Unit of Akbar Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: Clinical librarians or information specialists working in hospitals and medical schools are typically graduates of medical or general librarianship programs. Through the knowledge and expertise they acquire during their academic training and internships, they serve as valuable resources in meeting the information and research needs of physicians and clinical staff across healthcare systems. In this report, we examined the impact of the clinical librarian's presence in the hospital's immunodeficiency clinic registry project and addressed the challenges involved in registering immunocompromised patients and establishing the registry system.
Objective: The impact of the clinical librarian’s presence as a research facilitator in the immunodeficiency patient registry project.
Case Presentation: The immunodeficiency clinic at Akbar Children's Hospital, serving 250 patients, is among the most active of its kind in the country. While some patients attend regularly and receive their medications, others—previously hospitalized and diagnosed with immunodeficiency—discontinue follow-up due to factors such as long travel distances, high costs of medication and treatment, and other barriers. This report outlines, step by step, the process of activating the patient registry within Rabbit (the health research information management infrastructure), highlighting the clinical librarian’s facilitating role in implementing this system.
Conclusion: The presence of clinical librarians or general librarians (on the condition of passing familiarization units with medical terms, etc.) in research projects as research facilitators, research assistants, or research experts, due to familiarity with the specializations and skills required for research, can have a significant contribution to the progress of the project.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Pediatric Perspectives
Volume 13, Issue 8
August 2025
Pages 19641-19645

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