Re: Access

[Richard Feinman <RFeinman@downstate.edu>]

I agree with all of these points.

Richard D. Feinman
Department of Biochemistry
SUNY Downstate Medical Center

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"Peter Banks" <pbanks@diabetes.org>
Sent by: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
08/02/05 07:54 PM
Please respond to liblicense-l
 
I share Dr. Feinman's frustration that not all the links we have are to
full open access articles. When we set up the patientINFORM site, it was
with the understanding that the American Medical Association was a
participant. We therefore created links to articles in JAMA and Archives
journals. AMA subsquently declined to participate, but we elected to leave
the links to abstracts up.  Notably, the major forprofit publishers
(Elsesvier, Wiley,and many others) have made full text freely available
through patientINFORM, as have leading nonprofits (most notably, Annals of
Internal Medicine, which has been a leader in patient access.)
PatientINFORM links now being added will be mainly to full text articles.

As for the attack on ADA's nutritional standards in no. 4, I disagree that
ADA has withheld information about nutrition research. ADA's Standards of
Care is free access, and anyone can read the evidence-based rationale for
ADA's nutritional recommendation. (see
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/28/suppl_1/s4). As I
stated before, the full text of Diabetes Care is available three months
after publication, so patients can also examine for themselves the
contradictory research on nutrition.

For the record, very few diabetes clinicians would advocate extreme
carbohydrate restriction that Dr. Feinman seems to favor, since
carbohydrate containing foods tend to be excellent sources of
micronutrients, fiber, and energy. Based on a patient's individual needs,
however, some clinicians might recommend diets moderate in carbohydrate
and higher in monounsautrated fat. Such a strategy would be fully
consistent with ADA's recommendations--and the rationale for such a
dietary approach can be found on materials accessible through ADA.

Peter Banks
Publisher
American Diabetes Association
Email: pbanks@diabetes.org