Great insights from Paul Bergl MD, a chief resident and contributor to a NEJM Journal Watch blog. He briefly touches on something I think is critical to achieving his overarching goal of dealing with information overload—research and data evaluation skills. We simply do not provide enough training in med school and residency to empower young physicians to critically evaluate the literature. Without confidence in these skills and little time in the first place to critically read publications, it becomes an impossible task to deal with all of the information.

He also writes:

Our experts in evidence-based medicine need to guide us toward the most relevant and pressing needs, guidelines about guidelines, so to speak. We need our educational and policy leaders to help reign in the proliferation of practice guidelines rather than continuing to disseminate them.

This needs to happen on a local level. Academic medical centers can be the drivers of curating this information for their city, region, or state. Of course, this type of work is not reimbursed, but it should be part of the academic medical center’s mission and their sense of responsibility to the community.