Johan Hjort, Drammen hospital, Norway

Describe your role within your hospital.

I am Johan Hjort, a resident in Orthopedic surgery at Drammen Hospital. We are a public hospital that is a part of “The southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority.” My hospital is the local hospital for a population of 170.000.

What are your key challenges in accessing evidence-based information in your daily role?

In my daily role as an orthopedic surgeon, I meet with my patients in the operation room, the emergency room, or the outpatient clinic. Particularly in the outpatient clinic, I need to present up-to-date knowledge and statistics when planning elective surgery for many different conditions. When in the outpatient clinic, I see a new patient every 15-30 minutes and need instant access to searchable literature to plan further treatment and further advice for my patients.

From your perspective, what are the main benefits of using ClinicalKey?

One of the main benefits to having access to ClinicalKey is searchable e-books, such as Green’s Operative Hand Surgery, Mann’s Surgery of the Foot and Ankle, and Campbell’s Operative Orthopaedics, these are the “bibles” in my field of work.

Do you think ClinicalKey has enhanced your ability to improve clinical decision-making?

Absolutely, I now have access to the latest literature and can present accurate numbers to my patients regarding the success rate or risk factors for a particular surgical procedure. In that way, the patient and I can make the best-informed decisions together. When I see an uncommon condition that I don’t treat as often, I can quickly read up on the subject and present accurate knowledge to the patient.

Can you provide a specific example of how you typically use ClinicalKey in your day-to-day work?

When receiving a patient in the ER with a fracture that is not so common, I can go to the book in ClinicalKey that is commonly considered as the “gold standard”, in that specific field of orthopedic surgery. For instance, a pediatric femur shaft fracture in a pediatric patient. The same fracture should be treated in different ways depending on the patient's age, weight, and build. By using the literature in ClinicalKey, I can quickly read up on recommended treatment methods and plan my surgery. As I am a surgeon in training, this is especially helpful for me as it often highlights the most common pitfalls and clinical pearls that the more experienced authors have learned over many years of experience.