Jamie Saragossi, MLS
Head of the Health Sciences Library
Stony Brook University  

Content 

MedOne Neurosurgery is a collection of content tailored to neurosurgeons and neurosurgical training programs available on a platform with additional resources and customizable functionality. The MedOne Neurosurgery platform provided by Thieme Medical Publishers includes ebooks, e-journals, neurosurgical procedures, clinical cases, multimedia content, and some question-and-answer style review. Individual log-in is required to access the review functionality as it will link back to relevant sections of the available texts when further reading is required. Thieme is well known for the illustrations in their atlases, which is of the utmost importance in the highly specialized field of neurosurgery. The editorial board for MedOne Neurosurgery is comprised of practicing neurosurgeons and teaching faculty from around the world.     

Core texts for the neurosurgical specialty are included in this package such as Handbook of Neurosurgery, 9^th edition, Greenberg (Thieme Medical Publishers, 2020) and Color Atlas of Neurology, 2^nd edition, Rohkamm (Thieme Medical Publishers, 2014). New titles and new editions of existing titles are added to the package as they become available. The e-journal collection offers access to nine Thieme published e-journals focused specifically on neurology such as Journal of Neurological Surgery Reports and Neurology International Open. The e-journal content begins with access in 1999 and continues through the most recent issue of the journal. The additional resources outside of the ebook and e-journal content are considered part of the “Training Center.” The “Training Center” includes the procedures, clinical cases, Q&A, and multimedia content. The procedures section contains step-by-step guided instruction for over 400 surgical procedures. The cases provide an overview of the diagnosis and treatment recommendations while linking to primary references for additional information. The question-and-answer review is specifically geared toward the American Board of Neurological Surgery licensing exam and contains over 1,500 review questions. There are over 100,000 images and 1,500 videos available across the different content areas on the MedOne Neurosurgery platform. 

This resource is intended for the training of neurosurgery residents and medical students, and the content can be customized by faculty and attendings to create a customized curriculum. The atlases can also be used by currently practicing clinicians for anatomical reference.   

Features/Functionality 

When first accessing the MedOne Neurosurgery platform from the library’s institutional website, there is a customizable landing page that features items that have been tagged as favorites. Any users within the institutional profile have the ability to tag these titles as favorites for all other users to see (this is something that should be monitored by the librarians as it can often deter users from diving further into the content areas). When using the search box at the top of the landing page, the results are displayed by resource type: ebook, chapter in Greenberg’s, video, etc., which can help the user easily navigate to the result most relevant to their query and highlights the various formats available in MedOne Neurosurgery. In addition to searching, the full list of included ebooks is browsable by title, which can be a useful feature.  Records for individual titles are available for integration into the library’s discovery tool to help facilitate access outside of the MedOne platform. Although a library may subscribe to other MedOne specialty platforms through Thieme, only the content for the currently accessed specialty will appear on the interface display in the search results.   

Users can create “playlists” or curated lists of excerpts and video or images from across the resource to share with a group of students or colleagues within the institution. Publicly accessible playlists are also an option if you would like to share with all MedOne Neurosurgery users from other institutions. Similarly, users can access any playlists that have been made public, allowing researchers to build on one another’s content and curated course materials. The playlists and added customizable functionality allow this resource to be used for more than just individual ebook access, which sets this platform apart from other ebook collections for this specialty. The ability to print or save PDFs of individual chapters is a feature that users appreciate as it allows them to access the content offline. Once logged into an individual account, users may also highlight or annotate sections of customized text within their profiles. While the platform itself could use an update, the content and functionality make up for the aesthetics of their display.  

Business Model 

Thieme offers several MedOne collections, of which Neurosurgery is one specialty. The collections are all individually licensed and available on the MedOne platform on a subscription basis. Thieme does allow for consortial purchasing. Thieme Connect is an option that provides access across all the available platforms and electronic resources. Users can access via the institution’s website link and create an individual My MedOne account to access from outside of the institution’s IP range and save their customized content. Institutional pricing is confidential and based on various characteristics. It is a 12-month subscription-based model and Thieme can be contacted directly for more information regarding pricing. Individuals with no institutional affiliations may also purchase subscriptions for $1,000 per MedOne platform for a 12-month period. Librarians managing a MedOne subscription may request access to the administrative portal to retrieve COUNTER compliant usage statistics, proxy settings, MARC records, and other bibliographic tools.   

The content available on MedOne Neurosurgery is best suited for institutions with practicing neurosurgeons, medical schools, or training hospitals that include graduate medical education residency and fellowship programs.   

Breakthrough 

Libraries should consider this resource as it is one of few curated content lists focused on the highly specialized field of neurosurgery and neuroanatomy. The resources included on this platform are well respected in the field and the anatomical images from Thieme are highly regarded. The functionality allowing for users to annotate texts, share excerpts, and create playlists across multiple format types allows this resource to be integrated into the curriculum and used as a teaching tool for residents, fellows, and practicing clinicians.