Primary Care and General Pediatrics

GPnotebook (www.gpnotebook.co.uk) is a computerised reference resource that has been developed over more than two decades. It is a database that now contains over 2 million words of clinical information and over 27 000 index terms.

 

The original idea for the database began in the canteen of John Radcliffe Hospital in 1990 while James McMorran, a first year Oxford University clinical student, was writing up his medical notes. Instead of writing notes in longhand he wrote his notes in ‘mind maps’ of packets of information linking different concepts and conditions in a two-dimensional representation of clinical knowledge. 

 

GPnotebook is regularly used by doctors, particularly GPs in the UK. Access to GPnotebook is free and unrestricted to medical students (via validation of their University email address) and doctors and medical students in developing countries (validation via Facebook). During the a 12 month period, 11.5 million unique users accessed pages on GPnotebook. Of those who logged into personal accounts, 30 621 users were GMC accredited clinicians working in the UK and of these, 18 719 GMC accredited doctors using the site described themselves as GPs.