CIAP 2025 User Survey – Your questions answered

You can access CIAP from any internet-connected device by navigating to www.ciap.health.nsw.gov.au. You may also find links to CIAP on your local intranet and LHD library websites.

CIAP uses IP authentication, which means you can access all the resources on CIAP from a NSW Health facility without needing to sign in. If you are at a NSW Health facility and do not have seamless access to CIAP resources, please report this directly through the CIAP Request Form in SARA. If you’re offsite or using a personal device, you will need to login using your StaffLink ID and password.

Access to CIAP is available to all individuals who currently work in or for a NSW Public Health Organisation, including Visiting Medical Officers (VMOs), and medical, nursing, and allied health students while working on placement in a NSW Health public hospital.

For more information, refer to the About page on CIAP or Contact Us.

If you have issues with your StaffLink account, please contact the Statewide Service Desk on 1300 28 55 33.

For non-urgent CIAP enquiries, use the CIAP Request Form in SARA.

For urgent business-hours issues, call the Statewide Service Desk on 1300 28 55 33 and press 2 for clinical. If the agent is unable to assist, ask to be transferred directly to the CIAP team.

For urgent after-hours support, call 02 9086 3468.

Refer to the Contact Us page on CIAP for all contact information.

CIAP does not require a dedicated mobile app. The CIAP website is mobile-responsive and can be accessed through any mobile browser. You can also save the CIAP homepage as a shortcut or tile on your smartphone for quick access.

Several CIAP resources, such as MIMS, UpToDate, Therapeutic Guidelines, and others, offer their own mobile apps that can be downloaded and used. Access to these apps is managed by individual publishers, and each requires a different method of authentication or login.

For instructions and eligibility details, visit the Mobile Apps page on CIAP.

No. CIAP is a statewide resource and operates separately from LHD and Specialty Health Network libraries. While CIAP and the libraries both support access to clinical information, they are managed separately and serve complementary purposes:

• CIAP holdings include statewide subscriptions to key clinical information resources such as journals, databases, drug references, and clinical decision-support tools.
• Library holdings are managed locally and may include additional journals, books, and resources specific to the needs of that LHD or facility. Some libraries have integrated their local holdings into CIAP to enable seamless access for their users. Speak with your local librarian for more information.
• Library staff can assist with obtaining journal article full-text, advanced literature searches, training, and support in using both CIAP and local resources.

For journal articles not available in full-text on CIAP, you can request it through the document delivery feature managed by LHD libraries. Delivery times vary but are typically within a few business days.

Contact the State Wide Service Desk on 1300 28 55 33 and they will be able to reset your password.

Access to CIAP is available to all individuals who currently work in or for a NSW Public Health Organisation, including Visiting Medical Officers (VMOs); and medical, nursing, and allied health students while working on placement in a NSW Health public hospital.

Due to the licensing agreements with publishers, CIAP is not available to individuals who have no working affiliation with NSW Public Health organisations, such as General Practice Divisions and Groups, Universities, private pharmaceutical companies, and Non-Government Organisations and Bodies such as Aged Care, Private Healthcare, and Private Hospital facilities.

If you believe you are eligible for CIAP access but do not have a StaffLink ID, please contact your manager or the CIAP helpdesk using our Contact Form.

No, you can access CIAP from within a NSW Health facility without needing to sign in.

If you are at a NSW Health facility and do not have seamless access to the CIAP resources, please report this directly through SARA.

If you are still employed by NSW Health and have maintained your Stafflink details you will have access to CIAP offsite.

Other Australian States provide access to clinical information resources for health workers within their own public health systems. See their Clinical Information Portal websites.

Yes. The CIAP team offers half-day workshops, 1 hour overview, and on-demand training sessions for clinicians. Sessions are predominantly delivered online and cover topics such as effective searching, resource navigation, and specialty-specific content. To request or register for training, visit the Training Events page on CIAP or contact the CIAP team.

Self-paced training references are available on the User Guides & Videos page of the CIAP website and can be accessed from the CIAP top navigation menu. These include recorded webinars, short video tutorials, user guides, and step-by-step instructions to help you make the most of CIAP’s resources.

CIAP has developed a series of EBP Learning modules to support NSW Health clinicians gain skills to integrate the best available evidence into practice. The modules can be completed in your own time and include optional assessments. A Certificate of Achievement for each module is available following successful completion of the assessment.

Participation in any CIAP education activities can facilitate your CPD. Refer to the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Page on CIAP for further information.

Some CIAP resources, such as UpToDate, and BMJ Best Practice, also offer CPD opportunities. CPD eligibility, tracking, and certificate generation are managed by the individual publishers. Please refer to each resource’s website for details on how to record or claim CPD/CME points.

You can stay informed about new resources, updates, and events by subscribing to the CIAP Newsletter or following announcements on the main banner on the CIAP website. Newsletter subscription details and past newsletters are available on the Newsletter page on CIAP.

CIAP education is not currently mandatory. However, the CIAP team welcomes collaboration with LHD education coordinators to support the inclusion of CIAP resources in onboarding and professional development activities and has developed training specific to junior medical officers and new graduate nurses and midwives.

In line with the current Therapeutic Good Administration (TGA) and NSW Health stance on the use of AI for clinical advice or guidance, CIAP will not be investing in AI tools at this stage.

CIAP provides a personalised interface that allows users to save favourite resources for quick access, manage Table of Contents (TOC) alerts for selected journals, and save Discovery searches. You can request for non-CIAP resources/websites to be indexed so that you can save them alongside your favourite CIAP resources for quick access.

This feature is accessed via the My Favourites icon located in the Journals or Books panels on CIAP. Please note that you must be logged into CIAP to use these personalised features.

The CIAP Search provides a central point for searching across and within the CIAP collection. It allows users to:

• Locate CIAP resources, books, and journals — for example, MIMS or the New England Journal of Medicine
• Search within key resources (Only UpToDate and LAP, currently)
• Find individual articles and book chapters available through CIAP and other reputable sources.

From the search results page, use the top menu to navigate between the Discovery Search, Journals, Books, Resources, PICO Search, My Favourites, and Citation Matcher.

Usage data showed that the Specialty Guides were not well used and often duplicated information already available on CIAP’s homepage and resource panels. This consolidation helps streamline navigation and reduce overlap, making it easier for clinicians to find the most relevant and current information directly from the main CIAP site.

A small number of guides can still be found on the Specialty Guides panel on CIAP.

The Bolam principle (1957) protected doctors against negligence claims if other colleagues would have acted in the same manner. The Bolam principle was overturned in an Australian court in 1995 and according to Coiera (1997) * it is likely that this will happen in other countries where it applies. It seems that this has already happened in Israel.

In 1998, an Israeli court issued a verdict that a doctor, who does not update his medical knowledge using professional literature, is liable for malpractice. It seems that a certain eminent brain surgeon established that his client was suffering from a brain tumour, while she was really suffering from a very rare kind of multiple sclerosis. The professor was not aware that such a disease even existed.

There is no doubt that patients are better informed these days as they have access to numerous information sources via the Internet (free Medline as well as non-accredited sources). A well-informed patient population and overworked clinicians with poor access to the literature is a recipe for increasing litigation. This should be a good incentive to ensure that we do provide the most recent literature at the most convenient location for clinicians in all care settings.

CIAP provides access to several citation databases, each with distinct coverage and functionality. All databases can be found on the Databases panel on CIAP.

The majority of CIAP databases are on the Ovid platform and share similar functionality, however they differ in the types of literature indexed, subject focus, and search features. When conducting a literature search, it’s important to utilise a variety of databases to increase the probability of finding relevant articles.

Below is a summary of the databases available on CIAP:

• MEDLINE: The U.S. National Library of Medicine’s biomedical database covers medicine, nursing, dentistry, and health care systems. It provides access to peer-reviewed journal articles indexed with MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) for precise and structured searching.
• Embase: Covers biomedical and pharmacological research, including international journals and conference abstracts not indexed in MEDLINE. It is particularly strong in drug, device, and clinical trial information and is indexed using Emtree subject vocabulary.
• PsycINFO: Focuses on psychology, psychiatry, behavioural science, education, and related fields. It includes journal articles, books, and dissertations relevant to mental health research and practice.
• Emcare: Covers nursing, allied health, and general clinical practice, with strong international representation and overlap with MEDLINE.
• Maternity & Infant Care: Specialises in all aspects of pregnancy, labour, birth, postnatal care, and neonatal health, drawing from journals, books, and grey literature.
• PreMEDLINE: Provides access to in-process citations and articles awaiting full indexing in MEDLINE, offering the most recent biomedical literature.
• EBM Reviews (Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews): Integrates evidence-based resources such as the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and other key publications.
• ProQuest: Covers a wide range of topics within the health sciences, including nursing, nutrition, and public health. It includes a range of resources including peer-reviewed journals, clinical training videos, reference materials, and dissertations. ProQuest uses a different platform to Ovid.

To save searches, results, and preferences on the Ovid platform, you must first create a personal Ovid account (also known as a My Account). This account is separate from your CIAP login and allows you to:

• Save and rerun database searches.
• Set up automatic search alerts.
• Save and share citations, results lists, and search histories.
• Customise display and search preferences.

You can create or access your personal account by selecting ‘My Account’ at the top of any Ovid page and following the prompts to register or log in.

Please note that saved items and preferences are stored within your Ovid personal account and are not linked to your CIAP login credentials. For more information on these features, refer to the Help menu within the Ovid platform or contact your local LHD library.

No. CIAP does not subscribe to citation management software.

Users with a citation manager software tool can export references directly from the Ovid databases.

When exporting from the Ovid platform, users can:

• Export search results or selected references.
• Choose from different export formats, including full citation, citation plus abstract, or custom fields.
• Save custom templates for exporting (if logged into Ovid personal account).

For guidance on exporting references from Ovid, refer to the Help menu within the Ovid platform or contact your local library.

Yes. Links for all of the NSW Health pathways can be found by selecting NSW – Health Pathways from the Diseases & Conditions panel on CIAP.

All subscriptions to NSW Health Pathways are managed by NSW Primary Health Networks.

Yes, there are currently two primary sources for this information:

• The textbook Drugs in Pregnancy and Lactation by Briggs can be found on the Medications panel on CIAP.
• LactMed is an open-access database from the U.S. National Library of Medicine and can be found on the Medications panel on CIAP.

CIAP are also investigating a statewide licence for The Women's Hospital Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Guide.

Yes. A link for the NSW Medicines Formulary can be found on the Medications panel on CIAP. You must be on the Health Network to access the NSW Medicines Formulary.

Yes. Links for ECAT, ACI, ECI, CEC, and other NSW Government agencies and resources can be found on the Emergency Care and Guidelines panels on CIAP.

Yes. You can run a book search using the Anatomy and Physiology filter to view a complete list of relevant titles in the CIAP collection.

Access Medicine includes a series called Big Picture Physiology that includes an extensive collection of short physiology overviews, and a series of physiology textbooks called Ganong’s.

Access Medicine also includes interactive Human Anatomy Modules where you can explore anatomy using 3D interactive models.

Several resources on CIAP contain procedural videos/guidance.

The Access Medicine platform includes a suite of multimedia and study tools aimed primarily at Medical Students and Junior Doctors. Refer to the Procedural Videos page and select your topic of interest.

Lippincott Procedures contains Australian open-discipline Procedures. You can also find useful non-Australian procedures, including physical therapy and respiratory therapy content.

CIAP resources are selected using a number of criteria, including:

• Authoritativeness, impartiality, accuracy, currency, scope, and depth of coverage.
• Relevance of resources to a maximum number of users.
• Resources that represent value for money.
• No/limited duplication of content on CIAP.

In addition to analysing metrics, the CIAP team collaborates with working groups of NSW Health clinicians to understand the value of the subscribed resources and gain insights into content gaps and overlaps.

No, you will need to use separate login details for each of the personalised resources and downloadable apps available on CIAP.

All mobile apps available for download are listed on CIAP’s Mobile Apps panel. Each App has a unique set of instructions for how to download and set up on your device.