Integrative health-related information needs and interests of MLA members

Objectives: As integrative healthcare education and research becomes more widespread across health sciences centers, including traditional medical schools, the Complementary and Integrative Health (CIH) caucus leaders were interested in learning more about the current CIH-related information needs of MLA members and identifying how to best support those needs. To that end, we conducted a survey of MLA members, including those not belonging to the CIH caucus. The purpose of this study was to better understand the integrative health-related information needs and interests of MLA members to inform future CIH caucus activities.

Methods: All MLA members were eligible to participate in this IRB-exempt study. Invitations to participate in the online, anonymous survey were posted to each MLA caucus forum on February 9, 2022, with a reminder invitation posted on February 25, 2022. The invitations contained informed consent language and the link to the survey, which was created using Qualtrics. Survey topics included: the types of CIH-related questions respondents receive (e.g., questions related to instruction, research, clinical practice, patient education), the frequency of these requests, whether their library resources were sufficient to answer questions received, their confidence in their ability to respond to these inquiries given the necessary resources, their level of satisfaction with access to training to further develop knowledge of these resources, content respondents would find helpful from the CIH caucus, and how they would like for this content to be delivered. In addition, we asked about the type and size of their institution, and whether it offers any educational programming or conducts research on integrative medicine or complementary/alternative therapies. Descriptive analysis of the resulting quantitative data was conducted and will be presented.

Results: Of ___ members belonging to at least one caucus, 218 responded to the survey (__% response rate). Only 18 respondents reported being CIH caucus members and less than 3% (n=5) worked at educational institutions based primarily on a complementary/alternative medical model. CIH content respondents would find helpful was as follows: CIH resource recommendations (n=157), CIH database instruction (n=135), instruction on CIH practices for self-care (n=79), and other (n=13). The top three delivery methods preferred by respondents were: via a free workshop/webinar (no MLA CEs) (n=145), in a LibGuide (n=120), and MLA CE workshop/webinar (n=94). [will be updated when info received]

Conclusions: This study suggests there is a broad interest in CIH-related information resources among MLA members, including those not belonging to the CIH caucus. Given that the vast majority of survey respondents were not CIH caucus members, any future programming by the CIH caucus would ideally be disseminated in a way accessible to non-caucus members. While the subject matter topics we covered in our survey were specific to CIH, the preferred methods of content delivery may be generalizable to other caucuses. Based on our findings, the CIH caucus will explore developing some free workshops on CIH content areas of interest to be delivered via Zoom and open to all MLA members.