eMicrobes is a three-year digital library project funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine under their Applied Informatics grant program. The intended audience of the eMicrobes digital library is practicing health care professionals and trainees in the United States and in international sites, including under-served and resource-scarce settings.
The primary aims of the project are to:
- Create an extensive and easily searchable digital library of case information and images that strengthens and facilitates the teaching of infectious diseases and microbiology to health care providers
- Enhance the value and effectiveness of this digital library by integrating with NLM electronic databases and applications
- Expand the reach of the digital library by enabling offline and mobile access.
I co-wrote the NIH grant proposal and am Co-Investigator on this project, working with a small team of physicians, a biomedical librarian, a medical education specialist, and a programmer, all based at Harvard Medical School and/or Massachusetts General Hospital. My role on the project has been to guide the technical development of the digital library, including leading the conceptual design, feature specification, information architecture, database design, and infrastructure for project collaboration. I also worked on the user needs assessment and interaction and visual design phases of the project. I am currently doing initial planning for a mobile version of the digital library.
