The Electronic Library of Medicine — Jordan (ELM) is an online medical library that provides healthcare professionals and medical students in Jordan with free electronic evidence-based medical resources to improve patient care across the entire country. The ELM portal features a wide range of paid and open access e-Journals, clinical decision support tools and links to top evidence-based medical resources, which require high yearly subscriptions that are available at no cost to portal users.

We chose to introduce Primal on a national level because we believe everybody needs a solid anatomy platform.

ELM also works with other organizations within the healthcare system in Jordan, including the Jordan Medical Council and the Nursing Council, to provide continuous medical education and ongoing professional development.

As Education and Knowledge Manager for ELM, Ghaith Salemeh has many responsibilities. “Our main focus at ELM is on providing clinicians and practitioners at country’s hospitals with clinical-decision support tools, because it is essential that those institutions can make informed, timely decisions at the point of care.”

Many of Salemeh’s other responsibilities focus on increasing both the usage and usability of the library’s many medical databases, resources and tools, and not all users are clinicians. “We also work with other organizations within the healthcare system in Jordan. We make sure that all users understand portal features and how to locate the information they need, we provide specific training for those institutions, and I confer with key opinion leaders and decision makers to determine strategy for the library, each with its own set of priorities.”

Maximizing Budget

As a non-profit organization, maximizing the budget is always a concern. Salemeh does fundraising because, although ELM has a budget from the Government, it is a private, not-for-profit company. “Because of our budget issues we wanted to focus on a resource related to clinicians but at the same time, would cover the entire healthcare sector, including academics, researchers, and the private sector. Our strategy was to provide students at the university with an anatomy platform that would acquaint them with the ELM, that they would continue to use throughout their studies and then through training, at the resident, fellow, and practitioner levels.”

“We had heard about the Primal Pictures anatomy database and were excited to learn more. Other platforms we use focus primarily on serving clinicians. This is the first database or platform we have introduced to that covers the basic sciences, that will help students in their early years of study and will acquaint them with the ELM, since they will continue to use the online library throughout their careers.”

University Faculty Puts Primal to the Test

First, the ELM committee, which consists of different parties and institutions, meets to discuss whether the platform meets a particular need, and to see whether the tool should be introduced to the library. If there’s initial interest, they take a trial to see what the user experience is like. If there is still interest after that, they move ahead and ask for a quotation, which does to their procurement department for approvals and negotiation, as well as to company Board members, and to government representatives.

“When we saw the anatomy tool, everything just clicked. It has a reasonable pricing model that’s within our budget and caters to our need. We worked with some faculty members in anatomy at the University of Jordan to evaluate Primal to determine whether it would serve the students in their early years. Through the trial period, we usually make sure to organize with the publisher or the company or whoever is providing the service, to do trainings, either online or on site, in order to make sure that the message is delivered.”

ELM saw the distinct advantages that Primal Pictures offered that others did not. “First of all, our Primal rep was extremely responsive to our questions and our needs. Not only were we given a better price for Primal than for the competitive tool we were also trialing, our Primal rep offered flexible pricing options, taking into consideration our economic situation and budgetary issues. And, the platform has all the features that anybody needs.”

Primal Makes Online Learning Easier When Classes are Full

“We know that many academics and anatomy faculty members are now looking for online eLearning platforms to work with. When we introduced Primal Pictures to them they were really enthusiastic. Some of Jordan’s universities teach anatomy courses that are full, so educational institutions wanted an online tool that could help the students to use and navigate the platform without physically attending class, or they split students so that half of them attend the physical class while the other half attend online, then they switch. This worked smoothly using 3D Anatomy, so that was another thing that led us to make the decision to go with Primal.”

Feedback was gathered and the trial deemed a success, and ELM has introduced Primal Anatomy at the national level, utilizing a single license to optimize funds. “We chose to introduce Primal on a national level because we believe everybody needs a solid anatomy platform. If you introduce a platform for just one institution, it’s going to be a waste of resources and time. In Jordan, we have six medical universities, and our physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other colleges can use the same Primal license as well, without each institution having to budget for it separately.”

Thus far, Primal has helped ELM to achieve their goals to engage students online, maximize budget and reduce classroom size. “The main thing is we’ve laid the foundation and are evaluating feedback as to how exactly Primal is going to be used and exactly how it fits in with the overall objectives that are part of ELM’s long-term plans. Our next objective is to promote awareness to make sure that everybody knows that we have an anatomy platform within ELM.”