Virtua Health Enhances Clinical Research and Care with TDNet Discover and DataSphere

Virtua Health is the largest health care system in SouthJersey. Its fully digital library serves a community of over 14,000 users including nurses, physicians, residents, and support staff. As Informationist Helen-Ann-Epsteinputs it, “Everybody uses the library; the library supports everybody.” The library needed a powerful, user-friendly platform that would both streamline discovery of healthcare information resources and showcase the institution’s growing body of research.

With a small team and broad responsibilities, Virtua’s library sought a portal and repository solution that would streamline operations and be easy to administer and customize. They wanted a discovery service that delivers targeted results and highlights publications from its five-hospital system. Specifically, they looked for solutions that would:

• Provide focused and more relevant search results—in contrast to the overwhelming volume of unfocused results typical of other discovery tools
• Support a range of healthcare professionals with diverse information needs
• Integrate multiple databases and institutional resources in a single space
• Showcase Virtua’s authored research in a centralized, accessible repository
• Make it easy to reach full-text articles or inter-library loan requests

With the right solutions, Virtua’s library was confident that it could free up staff time for important activities like participating in hospital-wide committees and councils that bring library information where it’s needed most.

TDNet Discover & DataSphere

Virtua Health Library first implemented TDNet Discover, and later TDNet DataSphere, to enhance access to evidence-based resources while better showcasing institutional research.

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With TDNet Discover, the library created a highly customized and unified digital portal with an AI-enhanced search engine and direct links to resources. With TDNet DataSphere, it has expanded this portal with a fully hosted repository to preserve and showcase the institution’s digital research assets.

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By implementing these two integrated solutions, Virtua Health has enhanced research, clinical care, and library workflows.

• Highly Customized Portal: With TDNet Discover’s drag-and-drop interface, content editor, and rich widget gallery, the library created an engaging, user-friendly digital portal that brings all library resources and services together in one place. This has made it easy for patrons to find what they need.
• Improved Search Precision: With TDNet Discover’s streamlined discovery interface and AI-enhanced retrieval accuracy, users receive more relevant results in response to their search queries. This reduces frustration and information overload, and enhances overall research efficiency.
• Evidence-Based Resources: Virtua’s TDNet Discover provides an all-in-one research experience, delivering focused results from across its library's subscribed resources, trusted Open Access databases, and integrated clinical decision support tools.
• AI-Enhanced Research Workflows: TDNet’s AI Assistant allows Virtua’s user community to streamline their research, easily synthesize insights, and accelerate resource analysis. They can generate a summary of top search results, summarize a specific set of publications, view key publication details and study-level metrics side by side, and delve deeper into specific concepts that are extracted from selected results.
• Institutional Repository Integration: Virtua’s TDNet DataSphere repository—housing an increasing number of publications by institutional authors, including research articles, PDF posters, and more—is embedded within the library portal. This allows library staff to efficiently manage and showcase the system’s own research outputs, while users can easily access them alongside external resources.
• Search Flexibility: Users can access repository content either by searching within a dedicated repository bar or by running a unified search from the discovery box.
• Seamless Access: TDNet Discover provides direct links to full-text articles and interlibrary loan requests, simplifying research and clinical workflows for busy healthcare professionals.
• Strong Customer Service: Virtua has appreciated TDNet’s frictionless customer service and ongoing customization support. According to Helen-Ann-Epstein, with TDNet’s solutions, “You can make it what you want it to be – it happens, and it happens quickly.”

TDNet Discover and DataSphere have transformed the Virtua Health Library into a dynamic, user-centered resource hub that meets the complex needs of a large, modern healthcare system. By improving discovery of and access to evidence-based resources and institutional research, the library has enhanced its capacity to support research and clinical care while showcasing Virtua’s scholarly contributions.

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Partnering with TDNet has provided the library with powerful flexibility, ease of use, and dedicated support so that it can effectively serve its diverse community of users. Virtua Health looks forward to expanding its repository – highlighting its partnerships and collaborations along with adding patient education materials. It plans to implement TDNet’s ongoing service enhancements to further the healthcare system’s mission of advancing medical knowledge and delivering exceptional patient care.