How BMJ Best Practice patient information supports better care in Ireland’s HSE
Combatting misinformation and empowering patient decisions
In a world flooded with misinformation and unreliable health advice, trusted medical information has never been more critical. Misinformation risks patient safety, reduces vaccine uptake, delays treatment, and erodes the trust essential to effective healthcare. According to the WHO, poor quality or incorrect health information increases pressure on health services, delays diagnosis, leads to inappropriate treatment, and causes avoidable complications.
Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) is tackling the challenge of misinformation head-on. As part of its national subscription to BMJ Best Practice, HSE provides health professionals with access to BMJ Best Practice patient information. These concise, evidence-based patient leaflet summaries help to reassure patients and carers and support informed, shared decision-making.
Health professionals use our patient leaflets during consultations to explain diagnoses and treatment options clearly, reduce confusion and provide patients with reliable, easy-to-understand content they can print, download or take home. By embedding accurate, accessible information into routine care, HSE supports confident clinical decisions and improves patient outcomes across Ireland.
BMJ Best Practice patient leaflets are widely used across the HSE to support communication between healthcare professionals and patients. An internal HSE library report (2024) recorded 288,000 sessions and 1.7 million interactions with the resource in one year, highlighting its practical value in everyday clinical settings.
Building trust and reducing workload
The HSE’s network of 28 libraries spans three regions across Ireland – East, South, and West. Traditionally, these healthcare library services have focused on supporting staff. However, the introduction of BMJ Best Practice has enabled a meaningful shift towards empowering patients and the public with trusted, evidence-based health information.
This move is backed by findings from the National Health Library and Knowledge Service’s 2021 user survey, which showed that access to accurate, accessible information supports shared decision-making, improves patient outcomes, and helps reduce unnecessary tests, adverse drug events, and misdiagnoses, ultimately easing pressure on healthcare systems.
“Part of the value of making a resource available universally, for all Irish citizens, is that it improves conversations between healthcare professionals and patients, and supports shared decision-making around treatments or lifestyle choices.”
Brendan Leen
Area library manager (HSE Library), Health Service Executive, Ireland
Encouraged by the success of BMJ Best Practice, the HSE is considering expanding its library services to enhance patient education and advocacy further. These services include creating a dedicated post focused on patient information. This role would be responsible for developing the best evidence-based health information resources for patients, promoting health literacy, and supporting shared decision-making.
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