The Lowitja Institute will today launch a landmark search tool that will make online searching for information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health easy.

LIt.search is now available on the Lowitja Institute website.

LIt.search enables the user to search the worldwide PubMed database and confine their search to articles about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. With one click the tool provides access to all available literature in this field and to 27 predefined search topics.

Funded by the Lowitja Institute and developed in partnership with Flinders Filters at Flinders University, LIt.search will be launched at 3.30pm today at the Primary Health Care Research Conference at the Hilton in Sydney.

Lowitja Institute Director and launch host, Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver AM, is keenly aware of how useful this tool will be, not just for students, but for anyone interested in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. ‘Some of our students are absolutely baffled by the amount of information available on the Internet. A tool like this is critical in providing the best quality information to help them through their studies, as well as helping policy makers make the best informed decisions,’ said Professor Jackson Pulver.

Flinders Filters Project Manager, Dr Jennifer Tieman, has been pleased to be involved with a project that will provide greater access to the wealth of literature available on PubMed about the health of Australia’s First peoples. ‘Given the importance of the Closing the Gap strategy, access to the research knowledge about Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait health is crucial. The LIt.search tool will help health care providers, community organisations, academics, researchers and policy makers find this literature quickly and easily’ said Dr Tieman.

The Lowitja Institute would like to thank Flinders University, the Flinders Filters project team, the PHC Search Filter team and Media Insights for their great work and support in developing LIt.search.

LIt.search is now available on the Lowitja Institute website.

The Lowitja Institute is Australia’s only national health research institute with a sole focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Media contact – Tracey Johnston 0428 347 573