Enhance, Access and Understand: The University of Edinburgh and the Wellcome Trust is an exhibition and series of six lunch time talks celebrating the recent Wellcome Trust Research Resources funded projects undertaken at the Centre for Research Collections. This funding has made possible the cataloguing, conservation and care of collections for the benefit of public access.

Lothian Health Services Archive: cracking the case note conundrum (talk 6 of 6)

Dr. Louise Williams, Archivist, Lothian Health Services Archive

Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA) holds over one million patient case notes in one of the largest collections of its kind in the UK. Case notes are fascinating records of treatment and care with much to offer to medical historians, clinical researchers and genealogists. Despite this, their use in research has been limited. Researchers can be deterred by the sheer number of cases, the different ways in which cases are organised, specialist medical language and restrictions on access to modern health records - even thinking about case note research can seem like hard work!

This talk will explore how LHSA has been working with neurosurgery and tuberculosis case notes to realise their potential as research resources in two unprecedented Wellcome Trust funded projects.

For more information about this exhibition and lunch time talks please visit: http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/library-museum-gallery/crc/events-exhibitions