Minervation are announcing the launch of their National Elf Service, designed to help busy health and social care professionals easily stay up to date with today’s huge volumes of significant research developments in their fields, improve their knowledge, and reduce error. For entry-level users, the service is free.

You can have a look at their site here http://www.thementalelf.net/

The National Elf Service is the brainchild of health information professionals André Tomlin and Douglas Badenoch, humorously branded with the idea of Elves who ‘dig and delve’. This service, where basic membership is free to users, is designed to benefit practitioners and patients alike by providing user-friendly updates on the most significant new evidence selected from today’s tidal wave of high quality research. Whilst various commercial services are available to meet this need, the National Elf service is the first to be created by professionals, for professionals, and to offer the basic service free to the market.

First to be launched in the National Elf Service series is the Mental Elf. Carefully piloted over the last eighteen months, the Mental Elf helps clinical and care practitioners navigate the welter of high quality published mental health research. Studies have shown each individual clinician would otherwise have to read around 250 research papers per day to keep up to speed with important developments. Even if the mental health sector is divided into specialist subsections, a professional would still bear the burden of reading and absorbing around 20 papers per day – an overwhelming task. This is a critical issue for professional standards and the quality of patient care. There is good evidence that the currency of clinicians’ knowledge declines over time, and that this can impact patient care. Fortunately, there is also strong evidence that giving clinicians access to evidence-based, user-friendly summaries improves knowledge and reduces error.

The Mental Elf service is made possible thanks to time and effort from the community of practising professionals. A selection of experienced practitioners has voluntarily undertaken to critically appraise the latest research, select significant developments, and then provide a short precis and clinical commentary on that research. The service then makes this work browseable by users on the Mental Elf website and across social media. The Mental Elf has over ninety expert contributors and around 40,000 regular users, all built up in its pilot phase. The service also boasts some 27,000 Twitter followers.

In response to user research, The Mental Elf is now also offering a number of additional services, which members can purchase through subscription, to enhance their experience of the core free service. These comprise:-

Tailored email alerts to keep users up to date with the latest reliable research
The ability to automatically track Continuous Professional Development and print certificates that summarise a user’s learning
Online journal clubs where members can interact to refine their critical appraisal skills
Reflective practice notes where subscribers can keep track of their learning
A networking function to help users connect with experts and colleagues in their field of interest

André Tomlin comments, “It is evidently impossible for health and social care professionals in most fields to keep up to date with the torrent of high quality evidence now being published. The sheer volume of quality research is, of course, something very much to be celebrated, but if practitioners cannot absorb all of the important new knowledge, then patients do not benefit. Nor is it reasonable to demand that practitioners demonstrate continuous professional development without some way of navigating this sheer volume of research.

“The clear need for a viable method of absorbing key research, and applying it to the benefit of patients, is evident from the massive interest that the Mental Elf’s pilot has attracted. It also now looks like the pilots we are running in other specialisms are showing the same enthusiastic response – most importantly from people volunteering to be contributors. To have initiated a successful professionals community venture like this is really exciting – because it is effectively clinical and care professionals putting their hands up and saying, ‘This is a really good idea – let’s all work together to make it happen.’