Outcomes research as well as entry of patients into clinical trials is facilitated by automatic transfer of relevant records. Researchers and clinical staff rely upon a variety of intelligent software tools for data collection and analysis. Knowledge of esoteric statistical tests have been replaced by visual modeling programs which quickly analyze patterns in the data and present the findings in a variety of graphical formats. PDAs are highly individualized to meet the owners' preferences and needs. Those who prefer text receive primarily character-based information while images or voice can be selected as a predominant form of display or input for those who prefer it.
Librarians function as guides for individualizing the various intelligent query agents.
Librarians are also responsible for information source evaluation, also known as quality filtering. Print collections continue to be used, but increasingly retrospective conversion of the print collections to electronic formats is being completed. Sophisticated pattern recognition and improved automated approaches to indexing have greatly increased search precision and recall.