Mindfulness Research Guide: a New Paradigm for Managing Empirical Health Information

Abstract

Scientific knowledge of human health continues to grow substantially through publication in empirical journals. These journals, which serve as the warehouses of scientific knowledge, continue to publish vast amounts of empirical information. This abundance of information, which promotes an understanding of and advances in human health, is also a precursor of information overload that can result in unintended and negative effects in both empirical and applied fields. Researchers and practitioners also struggle with this abundance as they are often pressured by an inability to stay abreast with the vast influx of current information. I offer a brief discussion of a new paradigm to manage empirical health information. The Mindfulness Research Guide serves as a case example for use as a publicly available specialized electronic information management system that endeavors to manage, organize, centralize, and deliver a wide range of information on a specific health construct—mindfulness. As empirical information continues to accumulate and guide our knowledge of human health at an unprecedented pace, new information management paradigms such as the Mindfulness Research Guide will be needed to organize, maintain, and deliver information in an easily accessible and timely fashion.