Open Medicine Journal

April 18, 2007 9:22 AM

The inaugural edition of Open Medicine, a peer-reviewed, independent, open-access medical journal is now available online. The online medical journal launched in the aftermath of a rift last year between some editors and the publisher of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Among the first interesting articles? a review of studies which suggests that health outcomes may be superior in patients cared for in Canada versus the United States (but differences are not consistent), even though spending is higher south of the border.
posted by furtive (6 comments total)

This is a pretty big deal for several reasons:

Editorialy independant
No publication delay
Reprints are free
The journal uses a Creative Commons license
They refuse advertisements from the pharmaceutical and medical device industry.

P.S. I'm at work, did I beat BoingBoing?
posted by furtive at 9:29 AM on April 18, 2007

You beat BB, but Open Medicine didn't beat PLoS Medicine.
posted by rxrfrx at 9:38 AM on April 18, 2007

...in the United States, they're currently spending a little over $7,100 per individual on health care annually, whereas in Canada we're spending a little over $2,900 per individual annually...
posted by Flashman at 10:02 AM on April 18, 2007

I'm not really familiar with them, but there's also Hindawi Publishing's open access journal collection, which (I believe) are all peer-reviewed.
posted by Staggering Jack at 11:29 AM on April 18, 2007

of course they're better outcomes--we have almost 50 million who don't get any early detection or care at all for anything, let alone preventative care.

Businesses are now speaking up for universal care here, too--they know it's cheaper for them. We'll be seeing action soon, i bet.
posted by amberglow at 10:19 PM on April 18, 2007

I actually found it very useful because it's OPEN SOURCE and uses creative commons. This blew my mind when I found out about it a few weeks ago.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 10:22 AM on April 19, 2007