Ahead of the Curve. Future Shifts in Higher Education

It used to be that physicians stayed "ahead of the curve" with new research in their secialties by reading medical journal articles. Yet medical literature databases today house more than 10 million abstracts and are adding 7,000 to 8,000 more each week. Staying ahead of the curve is thus...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language testing 2005-01, Vol.39 (1), p.10
Main Author: Jackson, Shirley Ann
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Periodicals
Physicians
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:It used to be that physicians stayed "ahead of the curve" with new research in their secialties by reading medical journal articles. Yet medical literature databases today house more than 10 million abstracts and are adding 7,000 to 8,000 more each week. Staying ahead of the curve is thus impossible for any single individual to manage. Further, synthesizing that volume of literature--which could yield new research paths and new medical breakthroughs--is simply beyond the capability of human beings, who read an average of sixty pages per hour. Such synthesis is even beyond the capability of a team of individuals. Enter text-mining--software that will "read" 250,000 pages an hour, scanning reams of documents, categorizing information, and making links and visual maps that can lead researchers in directions they might not have considered without the use of the software.
ISSN:0265-5322