1 Comment on Considering an Online Video Journal of Surgery 1025
Evans Whitaker, MD, MLIS
Education and Information Consultant for Medicine
UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management
An online video journal of surgery was recently launched with the ambitious aim of presenting comprehensive views of surgical procedures from all the surgical specialties to students, residents, and faculty. This is in contrast to current sources that tend to focus on a single surgical specialty or present procedures at a level appropriate only for surgical specialists. JoMI (https://jomi.com/) comes from a distinguished lineage — Nikita Bernstein, CEO of JoMI, is a cofounder of JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments).
Even though JoMI consists of only six articles at this time, that handful demonstrates the potential of this online venture. Each article is a thorough introduction to one surgical procedure, beginning with a simplified animation providing a clear outline of the procedure and a discussion of pertinent journal literature, followed by a detailed surgical video and commentary.
JoMI plans to add two articles per month initially, increasing to10 per month when at full production, according to Mr. Bernstein. The cost to produce each article is $20,000 to $30,000, and it shows. Orthopedic and general surgery procedures comprise most of what is currently available, although many general surgery procedure articles are in production, with plans to expand coverage to all areas of surgery.
The audience for this unique journal obviously includes those in surgical training or practice. In addition, medical students, operating room personnel, residents, fellows, and faculty will find things to learn from JoMI articles. For example, faculty might learn more about procedures they wish to add to their repertoire. These videos also are an uncommon opportunity for senior surgeons to learn by watching one another operate. I could imagine surgical group practices or hospital departments of surgery using JoMI as a means to continue development of their knowledge base and skills. As a family practice doctor who assisted in surgery throughout my career, I appreciate the quality and clarity of the videos and the relatively jargon-free and acronym-free narration.
The list price for an institution is roughly $4,800 per year, with the stated intention to increase the institutional subscription cost to roughly $10,000 annually as the article collection grows. However, the JoMI team is offering introductory pricing to early institutional subscribers. It is also considering novel business strategies, like reimbursing institutions for videos not viewed and adding continuing medical education credits to its offerings. Individual subscriptions with CME are not available.
This online video journal of surgery has great potential and the production quality and the clarity of presentation of the initial articles are excellent. It remains to be seen whether JoMI will be able to maintain these high standards and whether the journal will achieve long-term financial viability.
1 Comment
[…] Doody’s Collection Development Monthly, the renowned reviewer of healthcare information, has published a great review of JoMI in their August newsletter. […]