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Background to the project
Scotland has a distinguished and distinctive record of medical activity over the period 1600-1994. This helps to explain why its contribution to medical science today is disproportional to its population base. The creation of the University of Edinburgh Medical Faculty in 1726 and the first Scottish hospital in the modern sense of the word (Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, 1729) were important milestones. They were followed by similar institutions in major centres of population which combined the care of patients and the teaching of practical medicine at the bedside.
The founding of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (1505), Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (1681) and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (1599) ensured a good supply of medical practitioners serving private as well as public practice. Both the importance and level of medical activity in Scotland 1600-1994 is reflected in the holdings of a variety of geographically dispersed, cross sectorised library and archive repositories.
The archive and manuscript collections of Scottish Universities and the Libraries of the Royal Colleges contain rich seams of material. They tend to be stronger in sources relating to teaching and research based clinical activities of professors and fellows rather than those of private practitioners. However, given the close supervision medical staff exercise over hospital-based clinical records, examples of the latter are also frequently represented.
The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) has important PHRs in its own gifted and deposited papers. During the late 1970s - early '80s the NAS was also instrumental in creating four locally-based Scottish health services archives covering the Edinburgh/Lothian, Greater Glasgow, Aberdeen/Grampian and Dumfries and Galloway catchment areas. Those in the Central Belt are directly managed by the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively, and the University of Dundee has responsibility for Tayside Health Board records. Of these, the Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA) and the Greater Glasgow Health Board Archives (GGHBA) are of national significance. However, the NHS-based Northern Health Services Archives (NHSA) is another important regional collection relating to Grampian and with oversight of material held in the Highland Health Board area. As a result, there is better overall provision for PHR rich NHS-related material than in England, where there are relatively few professional health services archivists outside Greater London.
Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP)
The Research Support Libraries Programme provided funding to bring together traditional and new forms of access to information in order to promote better support for research. RSLP funded a number of projects across the UK which were aimed at improving access to research material. The Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and the Department of Education for Northern Ireland funded this UK-wide initiative. Funding to higher education institutions started in academic year 1999-2000 and will finish at the end of academic year 2001-2002, with up to £30M being disbursed over a three year period. More information can be found on the RSLP website.
Project Team
The lead institution for the Project was Edinburgh University Library and Lothian Health Services Archive. The Project Partners were:
- University of Glasgow and Greater Glasgow NHS Board Archive
- University of Dundee and Tayside Health Board Archive
- National Archives of Scotland
- Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
The Project Team included representatives from each of the Partner Institutions. They provided help and advice and also give invaluable guidance during the Project Team meetings which took place at regular intervals throughout the project.
The core staff for the project were based in the Special Collections Division of Edinburgh University Library.
Mike Barfoot BA, MSc (Econ), PhD - Project Manager
Dr Barfoot is the Lothian Health Services Archivist and managed the project..David Steel MA - Project Archivist
As the archivist throughout the project, David was involved in all aspects of the survey work, description creation, dissemination and web delivery.Heather Sampson MA MSc - Project Officer
Heather joined the team for the last 7 months of the project and was involved in research, description creation and data entry
Aims
The Clinical Notes Project started in January
2000 and ended on 31 July 2002. The main aim of the project was to create
a web-based finding aid to improve intellectual access to personal health
records in Scotland. This research tool can now be accessed on the website
by going to 'Search Database'.
Methodology
Prior to the start of the project, the
Parther institutions had supplied information on their own holdings. The
process of gathering information on Scottish PHRs began with survey visits
to those organisations. Information was gathered which was later used
to create ISAD(G) descriptions. Specualtive postal enquiries were then
sent to a number of organisations in different institutional sectors across
Scotland. They were asked whether they held any records which might be
PHRs and to supply information on any relevant material. The information
supplied was used to conduct follow-up enquiries and to arrange survey
visits to those organisations that were known to hold PHRs. The data was
structured and is now available online.
Academic User Group
This group was consulted on two occasions
during the course of the project. It was made up of historians of medicine,
clinicians and archivists and their input was central to the creation
of the online database. The consultation process ensured that the project
would provide resources which serve the needs of researchers who use PHRs
as a primary source.
Update
The Clinical Notes website and database is adminstered by Lothian Health Services Archive. All enquiries about the content should be directed to LHSA. For details, see Contacts.
About the Project
Last updated: 18.02.2002
