Health Sciences Information and Resources

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What you are hearing is a British physician’s attitude toward Wikipedia–pretty amazing!!!

12/05/2011 A little history from U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health  

NLM Announces New Online Exhibition

“Building a National Medical Library on a Shoestring: 1872, the First Year”

 

“John Shaw Billings, c.1870s” 

 The National Library of Medicine, a component of the National Institutes of Health, celebrates a crucial turning point in its history with a new Web exhibition, “Building a National Medical Library on a Shoestring: 1872, the First Year.” The exhibition may be found at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/buildingnlm/index.html

The exhibition focuses on the dramatic 1872 change in the library’s mission.  Founded in 1836 as the office library for the Army Surgeon General, the Library came under the stewardship of Army Major John Shaw Billings in 1865.  Seven years later, the Library embarked on a venture to acquire the most complete set possible of medical books and journals. Billings and his work set the course for the Library’s identity today as the world’s largest medical library.

The core of the exhibition is found in the stories, difficulties, and situations that Billings encountered as he began building a comprehensive collection as quickly and frugally as possible. The exhibition also shows the Library’s early years, exploring the practical uses that the limited collection then supported.

Included is a full bibliography of published materials by and about John Shaw Billings, including articles and pamphlets, reports, books and monographs, and speeches.

During 2011, the Library is celebrating its 175^th year with a variety of activities , events, and publications.  The Library’s 175^th anniversary Web site is found at http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/175/.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/hmd_exhibit_NML_firstyear.html

And also from NLM:

12/03/2011 Having a Health Fair or other Outreach Activities?  From the Southern region of NLM comes the following resources:

Printable Materials

Related topics :
Promotional Materials Catalog - view and order items

Brochures and Handouts 

• Emergency Preparedness
  • NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan (rev: May 2009)
  • NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit (rev: May 2009)
  • A 10-step Approach to Service Continuity Planning (rev: May 2009)
  • Selected NLM Disaster Resources (2.5 mb, rev: Feb 2010)
• Environmental Health
  • Environmental Health and Toxicology Information Resources (rev: Jun 2010)
  • Tox Town
  • TOXMAP
• Health Information
• All About Drugs @ NLM (rev: Nov 17, 2011)
• Recursos sobre la salud para personas que hablan español (Consumer Health in Spanish) (rev: Feb 12, 2009)
• Resources for Nurses (rev: Jul 2009)
• Resources for Pharmacists (8″ x 10″, single page image)
• Senior Health (rev: Nov 6, 2009, trifold)
• MedlinePlus
  • MedlinePlus (rev: Sep 22, 2011)
  • MedlinePlus Connect (rev: Oct 20, 2011)
  • MedlinePlus for Health Professionals (rev: Nov 21, 2011)
  • MedlinePlus, Spanish translation (rev: Sep 22, 2011)
  • Mobile MedlinePlus (rev: Feb 24, 2010)
• Minorities
  • African-American Online Health Resources (rev: Nov 11, 2008)
  • Asian-American Online Health Resources (rev: Nov 11, 2008)
  • Latin-American Online Health Resources (rev: Nov 11, 2008)
  • Minority Health Resources (rev: Jul 2010)
  • Native American Online Health Resources (rev: Nov 11, 2008)
• Other
• AIDS Community Information Outreach Program (5 mb, rev: Jul 2010)
• Gateway Basics (rev: May 2, 2011)
• Household Products Database (rev: May 2, 2011)
• LactMed Basics (rev: Nov 4, 2010)
• Loansome Doc (rev: Nov 18, 2011)
• My NCBI (rev: Nov 18, 2011)
• PubMed
  • PubMed Basics (rev: Nov 18, 2011)
  • Full Text and PubMed (rev: Nov 17, 2011)
  • Searching PubMed with MeSH (rev: Nov 17, 2011)
  • Non-English Guides to PubMed (trifolds in various languages)
  • Searching PubMed.gov 
• Teachers and Students
  • K-12 Resources on the Web (rev: Sep 2009)
  • Resources for Science Teachers (8″ x 10″ front and back, rev: Mar 2010)
  • ToxMystery

National Library of Medicine (NLM) Fact Sheets

• DOCLINE
• HSTAT (Health Services/Technology Assessment Texts)
• International MEDLARS Centers
• Loansome Doc
• MedlinePlus
• National Library of Medicine
• National Network of Libraries of Medicine
• PubMed
• Index of all NLM Fact Sheets

http://nnlm.gov/scr/outreach/addpromo.html

12/02/2011 This new info via 

MeSH 2012: Implications for LocatorPlus, NLM Catalog and NLM Classification

The National Library of Medicine adopted the 2012 MeSH for cataloging.  Therefore MeSH heading in LocatorPlus have been changed to reflect the new 2012 vocabulary.

NLM will publish an article soon “What’s New for 2012 MeSH and MEDLINE Data Changes for 2012″ (will provide link as soon as NLM provides it).  However the Technical Bulletin did mention a few of the changes.

Medical Technology vs. Biomedical Technology: The specialty term Technology, Medical changed toMedical Laboratory Science so that it was less ambiguous.  “In examining the cataloging records assigned the heading Technology, Medical, we determined that it was better to change the MeSH heading to Biomedical Technology, rather than Medical Laboratory Science because, in the majority of the cases, this is the heading that better reflects the topic of these works. About 400 records where Medical Laboratory Science is more appropriate have been identified programmatically and will be changed after YEP.”

Publications Types: Addresses can now be used for PT.

New MeSH descriptors: “Cataloging does not use MeSH terms that represent corporate names or uniform titles that reside in the national authority file. Therefore, HapMap Project has the annotation: CATALOG: use NAF entry. Catalogers should use the NAF heading: International HapMap Project.”

For more information about the changes go to the NLM Technical Bulletin.

 http://kraftylibrarian.com/?p=1548&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kraftylibrarian%2FOLay+%28The+Krafty+Librarian%29  

 

National Library of Medicine Launches YouTube Channel

 

New Outlet Will Allow Access to Lectures, Training, Special Events and Other Video Content

 The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is pleased to announce the launch of its new YouTube channel, at http://www.youtube.com/nlmnih.

YouTube is a free video-sharing Web site, created in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos. Unregistered users may watch videos, and registered users may upload an unlimited number of videos.

The NLM YouTube channel will post videos of database training, NLM exhibitions (such as an overview of the new Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness), public service announcements, lectures and more.  Interested parties can subscribe to be notified whenever new content is posted on the NLM channel. The NLM site also features links to NIH YouTube channels and other federal health resources.

Although figures for the number of YouTube users worldwide vary, most studies list it as the third most popular Web site, following Facebook and Google. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Google.

 

 http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/youtube_nlm_channel.html

10/14/2011 From  comes the following headline concerning mobile health devices

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/explore-history.html

 

10/06/2011 I came across this article which I thought might be helpful. Just click on the title below to access the article by Helen Fallon from her blog http://academicwritinglibrarian.blogspot.com

 Supporting Health Sciences Librarians to Publish: the Dublin EAHIL Workshop

08/25/2011 From the The American College of Physicians Foundation comes this video via YouTube.  Link is below

ACP Foundation: Health Literacy 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImnlptxIMXs

 

 

           

chttp://bit.ly/pWwlSC    Murdoch University Library 

left http://bit.ly/ndoIGg             information-literacy.blogspot.com                   

8/24/2011 I uncovered from several years ago this slideshare presentation on using Second Life in Health Science libraries but it is something to engage students in learning through gaming. Please check out the link below to view this very interesting and informative presentation. 

Second Life & Libraries

8/22/2011 From iMedicalApps comes this review of UptoDate for the iPhone

For the rest of the article and others see the website below. In addition to iPhone it also contains information and reviews about medical apps for iPad, Android and Blackberry platforms

http://www.imedicalapps.com/

8/22/2011 The following resource is a translation of Consumer Health Information from the Spanish original.  The URL in its original Spanish is below.

Summary Guidelines for Consumer

The guides are short summaries, complete with reviews of research. For Where to get notified when a new summary guide is available, subscribe to our email list.

For health condition

• Respiratory
• Cancer
• Heart and blood vessels
• Digestive system conditions
• Diabetes
• Pregnancy and Childbirth
• Muscle, bone and joint conditions
• Mental Health

Respiratory

Human growth hormone for children with cystic fibrosis: Review of research for parents and people who help care New!

The consumer guide published summary June 30, 2011

Cancer

Learn about radiation therapy in head and neck cancer: A guide for adults and people who help care New!

The consumer guide published summary June 30, 2011

Treatment for prostate cancer: A guide for men with localized prostate cancer

The consumer guide published summary June 18, 2008

When you have a breast biopsy: A guide for women and their families

The consumer guide published summary September 7, 2010

Reduce the risk of breast cancer drug: A Guide for Women

The consumer guide published summary September 7, 2010

Heart and blood vessels

A Guide for Patients in treatment of stable coronary heart disease  New!

The consumer guide published summary 5 April 2011

Comparison of two types of pills for high blood pressure, ACEI and ARB – A Guide for Adults

The consumer guide published summary July 29, 2009

Treatments for renal artery stenosis: A Consumer Guide to

The consumer guide published summary July 29, 2009

Radiofrequency ablation to treat atrial fibrillation: A Guide for Adults

The consumer guide published summary September 7, 2010

Treatments for High Cholesterol: A Guide for Adults

The consumer guide published summary September 7, 2010

Digestive system conditions

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

The summary of the consumer guide published February 1, 2006

Diabetes

Premixed Insulin for Type 2 Diabetes: A Guide for Adults

The consumer guide published summary September 7, 2010

Gestational Diabetes: A Guide for Pregnant Women

The consumer guide published summary September 7, 2010

Pregnancy and Childbirth

Thinking of you induce labor? Guide for Pregnant Women

The consumer guide published summary September 7, 2010

Muscle, bone and joint conditions

Control pain with a broken hip: A guide for adults and people who help care  New!

The summary of the consumer guide published 15 Aug 2011

Options to address the tearing of muscles and tendons of the shoulder: A Guide for Adults with injuries to the rotator cuff New!

The summary of the consumer guide published June 30, 2011

Choosing Pain Medication for Osteoarthritis

The summary of the consumer guide published November 21, 2007

Medications for rheumatoid arthritis: A Guide for Adults

The consumer guide published summary July 29, 2009

Osteoporosis treatments that help prevent bone fractures: A Guide for Women after menopause

The consumer guide published summary July 29, 2009

Osteoarthritis of the knee: A Guide for Adults

The consumer guide published summary September 7, 2010

Mental Health

Depression after brain injury: A Guide for Patients and caregivers who help with the care New!

The consumer guide published summary 15 Aug 2009

Antidepressant medications: A Guide for Adults with depression

The consumer guide published summary July 29, 2009

http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/index.cfm/guides-for-patients-and-consumers/informacion-en-espanol/

National Network of Libraries of Medicine South Central Region

8/19/2011 The sources provided below from NNLM are a treasure trove of information and printable materials.  It should prove helpful to be aware of the existence of these materials.

Printable Materials

Related topics :
Promotional Materials Catalog - view and order items

Brochures and Handouts 

• Emergency Preparedness
  • NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan (rev: May 2009)
  • NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit (rev: May 2009)
  • A 10-step Approach to Service Continuity Planning (rev: May 2009)
  • Selected NLM Disaster Resources (2.5 mb, rev: Feb 2010)
• Environmental Health
  • Environmental Health and Toxicology Information Resources (rev: Jun 2010)
  • Tox Town
  • TOXMAP
• Health Information
• All About Drugs @ NLM (rev: May 2, 2011 
• Recursos sobre la salud para personas que hablan español (Consumer Health in Spanish) (rev: Feb 12, 2009)
• Resources for Nurses (rev: Jul 2009)
• Resources for Pharmacists (8″ x 10″, single page image)
• Senior Health (rev: Nov 6, 2009, trifold)
• MedlinePlus
  • MedlinePlus (rev: Aug 9, 2011)
  • MedlinePlus Connect (rev: Aug 9, 2011) 
  • MedlinePlus for Health Professionals (rev: Jul 27, 2011)
  • MedlinePlus, Spanish translation (rev: Aug 12, 2011)
  • Mobile MedlinePlus (rev: Feb 24, 2010)
• Minorities
  • African-American Online Health Resources (rev: Nov 11, 2008)
  • Asian-American Online Health Resources (rev: Nov 11, 2008)
  • Latin-American Online Health Resources (rev: Nov 11, 2008)
  • Minority Health Resources (rev: Jul 2010)
  • Native American Online Health Resources (rev: Nov 11, 2008)
• Other
• AIDS Community Information Outreach Program (5 mb, rev: Jul 2010)
• Gateway Basics (rev: May 2, 2011)
• Household Products Database (rev: May 2, 2011)
• LactMed Basics (rev: Nov 4, 2010)
• Loansome Doc (rev: Feb 12, 2010)
• My NCBI (rev: May 2, 2011)
• PubMed
  • PubMed Basics (rev: Aug 16, 2011)
  • Full Text and PubMed (rev: May 2, 2011)
  • Searching PubMed with MeSH (rev: May 2, 2011)
  • Non-English Guides to PubMed (trifolds in various languages) 
• Teachers and Students
  • K-12 Resources on the Web (rev: Sep 2009)
  • Resources for Science Teachers (8″ x 10″ front and back, rev: Mar 2010)
  • ToxMystery

National Library of Medicine (NLM) Fact Sheets

• DOCLINE
• HSTAT (Health Services/Technology Assessment Texts)
• International MEDLARS Centers
• Loansome Doc
• MedlinePlus
• National Library of Medicine
• National Network of Libraries of Medicine
• PubMed
• Index of all NLM Fact Sheets

http://nnlm.gov/scr/outreach/addpromo.html

8/18/2011 From            

Should Hospitals Buy iPads or Let Doctor’s Use Their Personal Device?

Does your hospital allow iPads or tablet devices?  How about smartphones?  Nope don’t feel too bad, a lot of hospitals (including mine) still haven’t thought of  personal devices as necessary medical devices.  The personal information device (iPad, tablets, smartphones) represent a watershed event where doctors are able to access medical information on the go.  They aren’t tied down to a computer or laptop.  It will be interesting to see how small and large hospitals deal with this watershed event.  It has been interesting to see what hospitals (well known and not so well known) have made the progressive leap and what hospitals (well known and not so well known) have not. 

There are two schools of thought (three if you count a no adoption policy).  One is the hospital buys one specific device and supports it.  The other school of thought is to allow physicians to user their personal devices.  

FierceMobileHealthcare looked at two institutions that implemented mobile device policies, one hospital bought the device and the other allowed doctors to use their own device(s).  Both institutions are trying to provide doctors with a way to use mobile technology at the bedside, but each have their own reasons for the path they chose. 

Hospital buys the device:

Dale Potter, CIO of 1,300-bed Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada implemented an iPad roll out which was described by FierceMobileHealthcare as ”arguably the largest roll out of hospital-owned tablets in the northern hemisphere.”

8/18/2011 Katherine Ellison explores the need for research and “scholarly” in the medical school curriculum.  Who better to assist with this task than the Health Sciences Librarian

Medical student research and reading

by KATHERINE ELLINGTON

According to Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) policy, medical education curricula should provide opportunities for and encourage medical student participation in research and scholarly activities. Some med students take the summer between first and second year while others may take elective time or a year-off to pursue more in-depth research experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Med students may also choose to become the subject of research by participating in a clinical trials as patients, although I’m not sure this counts for credit. I’ve had a few experiences with supervised research.  One summer, I reviewed and collected data from pediatric charts for a study about the development of prepubescent girls growing up in an urban city environment.  I spent my afternoons in the department of medical records collecting data, reviewed the relevant literature and by summer’s end, I had increased the data set available, gained some skill with reading patient charts and presented my take on the research to faculty and peers.  Before medical school, I spent a summer preparing administrative paperwork for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, I collected documents and signatures, reviewed protocols for clinical trials, followed-up with patients on their ability to continue with studies and scheduled appointments.

Each encounter with research in a clinical setting has required me to complete research-specific certification on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the Human Subjects Protection Training. The required reading includes the Nuremberg Code, the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki and the Belmont Report.  Furthermore, reading about the gravity of inhumane experimentation in the Tuskegee study along with many documented, but not so famous cases sheds light where “the lack of informed consent, deception, withholding information, withholding available treatment, putting [patients] and their families at risk, exploitation of a vulnerable group of subjects who would not benefit from participation” are evident and harmful.  Civil rights leader and educator Dr. Dorothy Height served on the National Belmont Commission that developed the basis for regulations known as Common Rule 45 CFR part 46 defining the boundaries between practice and research with a code for ethical principals based on respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.

The most popular summer reading among my medical humanities colleagues is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. It’s the story of HeLa cells starting with the life of the donor Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman with cervical cancer who in the 1950s came to Johns Hopkins seeking medical care. Predating IRBs and ethical guidelines there was no mandate for the protection of the use of Lacks cells by physician-scientist George Otto Gey and his colleagues from around the world. Remarkably, Henrietta Lacks’ (named HeLa) cell line led to the discovery of vaccine development, molecular biology techniques including cloning, gene mapping applying scientific research for the advancement of medicine. I first came to know the immortal HeLa cell line in medical genetics when I did a poster presentation about Henrietta Lacks for the class. While some had worked with HeLa cells, no one had heard of Lacks or the unique history the immortal cell line. This story offers the opportunity for contemporary questions and discussions about biomedical research, health disparities, ethics and health policies.

The role of IRBs in research is now on the table for review with major revisions proposed to the Common Rule. High-volume research, technology, global collaborations among medical and academic centers as well as biomedical corporations drive the need for new guidelines and practices in research that will continue progress and benefit society.

Katherine Ellington is a medical student who blogs at World House Medicine.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/08/medical-student-research-reading.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

 8/15/2011 As much as I am not a fan of WebMD this application of technology to aid monitoring the patient intrigued me

http://www.webmd.com/news/20110815/electronic-tattoo-may-help-monitor-patients?src=RSS_PUBLIC&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

8/8/2011 From the National Library of Medicine comes this announcement followed by an article and photos. 

NLM Launches Healing Totem Journey Blog in Advance of New Exhibition

The National Library of Medicine has launched a new blog in connection with its upcoming exhibition, Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness.

The exhibition, which will examine concepts of health and medicine among contemporary American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, will feature a healing totem pole intended to promote good health. The totem, created especially for NLM by artist Jewell Praying Wolf James of the Lummi Nation, will be transported on a truck and will stop for tribal blessings in nearly a dozen states as it makes its cross-country trip.

A healing totem journey blog (www.nlm.nih.gov/totemblog/) gives readers a special look at the making and meaning of this magnificent piece of art. The blog also will follow the totem on its journey from Washington state, where it was created, to NLM, where it will stand. The blog captures the sights and sounds of the journey through writings, photographs and video clips. Background information on the totem and its creation also appear, along with notes on the tribes conducting the blessings, and interviews with tribal leaders, National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) members and others along the route. Readers are invited to comment and ask questions, and they can sign up for updates via e-mail and RSS.

“A huge amount of planning goes into bringing the totem to NLM,” explains Beth Mullen of NLM’s Exhibition Program, in the History of Medicine Division. She designed and will help monitor the blog. “We hope the blog will generate awareness and build excitement about the Native Voices exhibition and this important new addition to the Library’s grounds.”

The healing totem is scheduled to begin its journey on September 12, 2011. The Native Voices exhibition opens to the public on October 6, 2011.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/totem_blog.html

8/2/2011 Check out the National Library of Medicine’s History Division

Learn more about Civil War medicine from the Life and Limb online exhibit from the National Library of Medicine http://ow.ly/5T6fw 

 

The advantage of Electronic Medical Records from the St. Louis Post Dispatch

 

 

From the Krafty Librarian blog comes new information on My NCBI enhancements and a link to the NLM Technical Bulletin which includes this page which came from the bulletin.

My NCBI Enhancements

The June 24, 2011 NLM Technical Bulletin reported on some enhancement to My NCBI’s My Bibliography.  My Bibliography will soon display links to free full text, related citations, and articles cited in PMC.  It will also have a “portlet” for related PubMed citations.  The citations in the portlet will be based on topics of the citations that are stored in My Bibliography.

For more information including a picture of how it will look go to the NLM Technical Bulletin.

http://bit.ly/p3DBxN

6/29/2011 While I could have included this article in Social Networking and Health Sciences since it was discussing medical records I chose to put it here.

Yet, the medical world is still stuck using 1980s communication technologies.  Many clinicians still rely on pagers and telephones as their primary means of communicating with care teams.  Email systems within medical centers are secure and often used extensively, but violate HIPAA regulations if communicating with another health care professional outside the medical center.  Many offices (probably the majority of private practices) still fax progress notes.

Although I dream of the day when we have a system like Dr. Vartabedian’s vision, I am not very optimistic such a system will come to fruition anytime soon.  The biggest barrier is the general fragmentation of our health care system.  Academic medical centers, hospitals, private practices, and ancillary facilities (imaging and laboratory centers) exist in silos.  No form of integrated communication currently occurs between these pieces of the health care system.  More importantly, each of these players is adopting their own EMR systems, few of which are interoperable.

I have tempered my expectations of what future systems will look like.  Integration of audio clips into the EMR or speech recognition software to automatically include communication seems like a stretch for now.  Also, automatic linking to relevant medical literature based on entering a diagnosis into the EMR would be fantastic but not practical at this point (put something like “ulcerative colitis” into PubMed or Google Scholar or even UpToDate and see all the irrelevant crap you come up with).  I would be satisfied with truly interconnected EMR systems (i.e.–I can pull up any patient’s chart from any hospital or clinic and see their entire recorded medical history), the elimination of pagers and subsequent replacement with secure smartphone communication systems, widespread use of tablets at the bedside that update the record in real-time so I can finish notes at a workstation, and some level of integration of Facebook/Twitter-like communication within care teams (i.e.–during a hospitalization, I can see a feed of everything that has happened to my patient with links within the feed to notes/imaging/labs as they are updated in real-time and be able to leave short messages for other team members).

Health information technology seems to be steadily progressing towards this type of system.  However, the speed is pedestrian at best.  We need an increased pace of innovation and adoption to ensure health information technology keeps up with technological innovations outside the medical world.  Ideally, the medical world could become a place where such technological innovations are pioneered, and it’s the rest of the world trying to keep up.  Keeping pace would be good for now.

Josh Herigon is a medical student who blogs a Number Needed to Treat.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/06/social-media-merge-electronic-medical-records.html

6/26/2011 Press announcement:  New Biomedical Journal to be published

Leading research organisations announce top-tier, open access journal for biomedical and life sciences

27 June 2011

The three organisations aim to establish a new journal that will attract and define the very best research publications from across these fields. All research published in the journal will make highly significant contributions that will extend the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

A team of highly regarded, experienced and actively practising scientists will ensure fair, swift and transparent editorial decisions followed by rapid online publication. The first issue of the journal, whose name has yet to be decided, is expected to be published in the summer of 2012.

The three research organisations developed their plans following a workshop in 2010 at HHMI’s Janelia Farm Research Campus attended by a number of leading scientists. The participants concluded that there was a need for a model of academic publishing that better suits the needs of the research community.

Dr Robert Tjian, President of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, says: “The message from the research community was clear: we are fortunate to have many excellent journals, but there is need for a different, more appropriate and efficient publishing model.”

Professor Herbert Jäckle, Vice President of the Max Planck Society, says: “A journal which aims to represent and publish the very best research outcomes needs an editorial team of experienced – and, crucially, actively practising – scientists. It must also be editorially independent of those who provide the financial support.”

Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, says: “We will attract the most outstanding science for publication by establishing a journal in which researchers have confidence in robust editorial decisions taken by their scientific peers. This will be a journal for scientists edited by scientists. The ethos of the journal will be to avoid asking authors to make extensive modifications or perform endless additional experiments before a paper can be published.”

Recruitment is under way for an Editor-in-Chief who – like each member of the journal’s editorial team – will be an experienced, active scientist. The editorial team will be editorially independent of the funders. They will rely on their scientific expertise and active research experience to identify the best papers, make scientifically based judgments and exercise leadership in steering these papers through peer review.

The journal will employ an open and transparent peer review process in which papers will be accepted or rejected as rapidly as possible, generally with only one round of revisions, and with limited need for modifications or additional experiments. For transparency, reviewers’ comments will be published anonymously.

As the journal will only exist online, it offers an opportunity to create a journal and article format that will exploit the potential of new technologies to enable improved data presentation. The journal will be an open access journal: the entire content will be freely available for all to read, to reproduce and for unrestricted use. This open access system will also enhance opportunities to share content and to more directly engage the reader.

The three organisations have made a commitment to cover the costs of launching the journal to ensure its success. The long-term business model will be developed by the incoming Editor-in-Chief and the team they build.

 

6/21/2011 NLM offers a tutorial on journal articles at the following link:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/viewlet/search/journal/journal.html

6/18/11

• Category – Mobile Phones
• Mobile Optimized Site

• Category – Mobile Phones
• Mobile Optimized Site

• Category – Mobile Phones
• Mobile Optimized Site

• Category – Mobile Phones
• Mobile Optimized Site

• Category – Mobile Phones
• Mobile Optimized Site

• Category – Mobile Phones
• Mobile Optimized Site

• Category – iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android, and Blackberry

• Category – iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Palm OS PDAs, and Blackberry

• Category – iPad

• Category – iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

• Category – iPhone/iPod Touch

• Category – iPhone/iPod Touch

• Category – iPhone/iPod Touch

Appearing in the blog called Health Tap this entry discusses health and technology in an interactive way

How Technology Has Changed The Way We Access Health

THE MOM TAP — BY RON GUTMAN ON JUNE 14, 2011 12:58 PM

Originally posted on Huffington Post

When I grew up, the primary sources of health information for most of us were our physicians or our friends and family. But over the past decade the resources we use and rely on for health information, and how we use it, have radically changed. With the ubiquitous availability of the Internet, we’re now taking on the role of gathering and assessing this information ourselves, often before we visit or return to our doctors. To find health information, most of us turn to search engines or health sites — whether to answer questions about a new physical discomfort, a known ailment or about a health matter facing a child or other person we care.

The way we find health information has problems

But when we look for health information online, we face significant challenges. The amount of health information we find is vast, and what we find is impersonal and often irrelevant. Also, in most cases, it’s provided by sources whose trustworthiness cannot be easily validated.

When we search for answers to health questions, we receive vast amounts of information — page after page of search results, countless posts on unstructured forums, opinions of people who for the most part are not trained medical professionals or lengthy articles that go on and on about every possible complication and treatment related to a health topic. What we find often leaves us more confused than when we started, uncertain as to what’s relevant and what to trust.

On the rare occasion that we find something that may be useful, we face another problem.

Today, health information online is organized around topics (like symptoms, conditions, and treatments) but not around what’s most important: you. This means that entirely different people (for example: you, me, an average 25-year-old pregnant woman, a 65-year-old man with a chronic disease, an 8-year-old child with asthma and a healthy 42-year-old man) get the same results when they enter the same search, or look on the same health website. This makes little sense: If these very different individuals went to the same doctor, they’d get different answers to the same question. Imagine visiting your doctor and receiving health information before being asked any basic questions about yourself (your age, gender, health history, etc.). We’d never accept this kind of non-contextual information from our physicians, yet we need to make important health decisions every day based on what we find online — even when what we find is not necessarily relevant for us.

The existing solutions for finding health information online are of little or no use to most of us. Research confirms this fact: Nearly 60 percent of adults report that the health information they find online is of no help at all, according to a 2010 Pew Internet Study.

Moreover, with all the great things that the Internet has brought for helping disseminate health information, there’s one thing that I believe is highly problematic: Physicians, who used to be in the epicenter of the health conversation when I grew up, have become marginalized on most health sites, and the emphasis is put on encyclopedias, articles, blog posts and message boards where health information is shared among and by people with no formal health education or expertise. This reality of online health has caused a dangerous and justified erosion of trust.

How online health information is changing

Thankfully, the way we look for and find health information online, how useful it is to us and what we do with it are all about to change. The wealth of information to which we have access is finally being made useful, relevant and — most important — engaging, through new innovations and technologies.

We are in the midst of historic evolution. Today — right now — the consumer health industry is being radically redefined. We’ve reached a tipping point where the right mix of technology, innovation, motivation and need are converging to create an opportunity for real, radical and positive change for anyone who looks for health information online. This convergence is opening the door to a promising and exciting era in health, which I’ve coined as: “Interactive Health.”

Interactive Health: Five factors that will forever change our relationship to health information

“Interactive Health” enables new ways of understanding and relating to our health by bringing together five primary elements to drive change: new apps and devices (including portable connected devices, like smart phones and tablets, and data collection devices); personalization (based on user-provided data); engagement (created by game dynamics and new user interfaces); the increased presence, leadership and participation of doctors online; and a vibrant social dialogue about health.

New Devices and Apps
Hundreds of thousands of smart phones and tablets are activated every day. The numbers are astonishing: More than 600,000 new devices running the Google Android operating system (mostly smart phones) and Apple iOS (including the iPhone and iPad) are activated every day. More than 30 million apps are downloaded each day. These go-anywhere devices and apps are like “computers on the go,” providing instant access to information and services in new ways.

Personalization
The ubiquity of cloud computing and new faster and cheaper ways to collect, store and process large amounts of data is enabling mass personalization for the first time. Data is being processed in exciting new ways to create personalization for users — financial information, entertainment, and general purchases (from books to consumer goods) are being personalized with services like Amazon.com, mint.com, and Netflix. We’re just beginning to see the potential of personalization in other areas of our daily lives.

Game Dynamics and Engagement
The gaming industry is now bigger than the film industry, and continues to grow. People of all ages are now engaging with games, and gaming elements, every day. As a result, interactive and game dynamics are now appearing in mobile and online applications and creating new types of engagement with information.

Doctors Coming Online
For years, physicians have been marginalized and visibly missing from the online conversation about health. They are now increasingly embracing social media and adopting new technologies and new ways of connecting with patients and patients and other physicians online. Physicians are engaging in new IT-based means of delivering care and sharing information, as well as new methods for sharing their expertise online.

The Social Conversion about Health
The online conversation about health, in social networks and beyond, is becoming increasingly vibrant. We’re finally facing up to the unsustainable path of our existing system of care, and starting to use the online conversation to connect with experts and other individuals similar to us when it comes to health. This trend helps people remain more engaged with their health and explore new ways of improving their health and well being.

Why now is the right time

Today, health care costs in the U.S. have ballooned to almost $3 trillion per year. This enormous burden, which is threatening the viability of our entire economy, can be traced in large part to inefficiencies in the healthcare system and to a lack of engagement by consumers in their health, whether they are well or chronically ill.

But there’s hope: Some of the best entrepreneurs, investors, engineers and physicians are finally looking for creative ways to engage people in their health and well being. They are bringing to health and health care the kind of personalization, socialization and engagement we’ve been used to receiving at Amazon, Facebook and Zynga to drive much-overdue change.

What’s special about Interactive Health

Interactive Health is all about becoming healthier and happier through your everyday engagement with your health and well-being. It’s about making health more than just the topic of periodic doctor visits or New Year’s resolutions, and making it a part of your everyday life. When heath information becomes personal and based on real validated data and grounded in trustworthy expert knowledge, we are more likely to become engaged with it and make better long lasting informed decision, as well as have a long-lasting impact on our health and well-being.

The first way to increase health engagement is by personalizing it through data and information that’s contextualized and actually about you. Today, new products are coming to market — fromelectronic wireless scales (that collect weight and BMI information), to interactive watchesthat gather biometric measurements, to always-on pedometers that monitor our physical activity. All of these can help us collect and make use of personal data in new, individualized ways. Moreover, in the near future, even more sensors will be integrated into smart phones and other devices we use every day. Information that previously was rarely collected, and then only during doctors’ visits (and even then we didn’t have access to it), is now being made personal. In addition, with increased EMR adoption in hospitals and physician practices, we’ll have better access to our own health information. Together, these trends, devices and apps will help us automatically collect, access, and monitor our personal health information in new ways.

The second way to increase our personal engagement with our health is to have a “personal health companion,” a new, easy-to-use tool for making personalized health information and data easy to manage, analyze and understand in real-time. A personal health companion built on what we choose to share can help us make better choices about our health and well-being, and provide us access — via an intuitive interface — to trusted medical information and support networks that will create and sustain the motivation needed for lasting health engagement.

This is not vision of a distant future. The foundation for Interactive Health exists today — in 2011 — and its time is now. We have the technology, social trends, motivation and talent to bring these elements together and make Interactive Health a reality.

What Interactive Health means for you

Interactive Health is a powerful vision that is quickly becoming a reality. In the world of Interactive Health, a doctor’s visit can start on a mobile device, progress to a real clinic and continue with instant access online. You can receive secure, tailored health information from a personal health companion that helps you make informed decisions before and in-between doctors visits. The new era of Interactive Health is an exciting world of possibility, and one where:

• Mobile and online applications for improving health are fast, simple and accessible, anytime and anywhere.
• Information is personalized and tools help you receive secure, tailored, relevant and actionable health information.
• There is 24/7, easy access to trusted physicians and their wisdom, online and offline.
• Interactive technologies connect you with relevant, experienced support groups to help you make informed decisions.
• Simple tools with game-like interactions make it fun to become and remain engaged in your health.

Interactive Health is not about “fixing” the broken health-care system or the problems of finding health information online. It’s about engaging each of us (well or ill) in our health, well-being and in the process of care. Moreover, it’s about empowering and inspiring physicians and health-care professionals to actively lead, participate and help us achieve better and more cost-effective care. Interactive Health is about making personalized health knowledge, supportive care and motivation available to you, anytime and anywhere, so that you can integrate this knowledge into your daily actions to live a longer, healthier, happier life.

Welcome to the new era of Interactive Health.

http://blog.healthtap.com/2011/06/how-technology-has-changed-the-way-we-access-health/

 

6/15/2011   Good News for Health Sciences Librarianship

NLM & Maryland Institutions to Collaborate on Education Initiatives for Librarians

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) and three other institutions in Maryland are forming a new partnership. They will work together to enhance the training of librarians and improve the public’s access to, and understanding of, health information.

Representatives from the National Library of Medicine; the Health and Human Services Library at the University of Maryland at Baltimore; the University of Maryland at College Park; and the Universities at Shady Grove signed a memorandum of understanding that outlines their collaboration.

The partner institutions share an interest in health and medical education, advanced training, and information dissemination. They will develop and participate in curriculums and courses, training and internship opportunities, and other educational initiatives. They also will explore areas of mutual interest for research, and will develop initiatives to increase access to careers in medicine and health, with a particular interest in reaching students who are under-represented in the fields.

As an initial effort, the partners will work with the University of Maryland, College Park, College of Information Studies (known as the iSchool) to:

• design a specialization in health sciences information for the iSchools Master of Library science program to be offered by the iSchool at the Universities at Shady Grove
• assess the feasibility of a series of regular internship placements for iSchool students at the partner libraries
• identify areas of mutual interest for research or other collaboration

The initiatives outlined in the agreement will be carried out to the extent funds are available. The partners will collaborate to secure external funding for the efforts where possible.

About the partner institutions:

The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) is a regional higher education center under the auspices of the University System of Maryland (USM) that provides access to baccalaureate and graduate degrees to residents in Montgomery County and the surrounding region.  Nine USM institutions bring more than 60 degree programs into the region.  These degrees programs include Pharmacy, Nursing, Public Health, Health Care Management, Respiratory Therapy, Information Studies/Library Science, and Biology. Other programs in communication, simulation, and psychology have strong health specializations.  USG maintains strong partnerships with regional education, community colleges, businesses and community organizations to support its mission.

Since its founding in 1836, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has played a pivotal role in translating biomedical research into practice. NLM, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the world’s largest medical library with more than 17 million items in its collection; and it is the developer of electronic information services used by scientists, health professionals, and the public around the world. NLM makes its information services known and available with the help of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, which consists of 5,600 member institutions, including eight Regional Medical Libraries. NLM conducts and supports research that applies computer and information science to meet the information needs of clinicians, public health administrators, biomedical researchers and consumers.

Founded in 1813, the Health Sciences and Human Services Library at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (HS/HSL) is one of the largest health sciences libraries in the eastern United States, serving diverse constituents on campus, across the state and throughout the region. The HS/HSL supports the programs of the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Social Work, and the Graduate School as well as the University of Maryland Medical Center and Shock Trauma Center.  Since 1983 the library has served as the headquarters for the Southeastern/Atlantic Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine under contract to the National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health.

To accomplish its goal of serving the state through local and national engagement and worldwide impact, the University of Maryland, College Park exploits its advantages as the flagship of the University System of Maryland, its location in the resource-rich Washington, DC metropolitan area, its diverse community and its momentum. The College Park campus is home to 37,000 students in over 100 majors taught by 4,000 faculty members. Graduate degrees in over 100 fields are awarded. The University is supported in its academic endeavors by the University of Maryland Libraries, which is comprised of eight libraries and close to four million volumes. Electronic resources such as journals, databases and e-books now comprise over half the Libraries’ annual acquisitions of new materials.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/md_ed_initiatives.html

 

TUESDAY, June 14 (HealthDay News) — Your chances of suffering harm because of a medical error are about the same in a doctor’s office as in a hospital, according to a new study.

Using the U.S. National Practitioner Data Bank, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College compared malpractice claims paid on behalf of physicians who work in hospitals or doctors’ offices.

Of the nearly 11,000 malpractice payments made on behalf of physicians in 2009, about half were for adverse events from medical errors that occurred in a doctor’s office and half were from errors that occurred in a hospital.

Adverse outcomes in doctors’ offices were most often the result of incorrect diagnoses, whereas unsuccessful surgery was the most common cause of negative outcomes in hospitals, according to the study, published in the June 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The researchers said the finding shows the need to improve care in doctors’ offices.

“Physician practices have not been the focus of patient safety research, much less of policy efforts to reduce medical error,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Tara Bishop, an assistant professor of public health and medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and a physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said in a college news release.

“Our findings may reflect a lack of coordination within and between doctors’ offices,” Bishop said. “For example, a primary care physician may refer a patient to a specialist, but the actual appointment may never happen. A cardiologist may order a scan, unaware that it was already performed during a patient’s hospital stay.”

“The problems associated with outpatient safety may not be easy to fix, but the adoption of electronic health records is already improving communication between doctors,” she noted. “Patient safety is likely to improve markedly as more and more doctors’ offices change the way their records are kept, updated and accessed.”

SOURCE: Weill Cornell Medical College, news release, June 14, 2011

More Health News on:

Health Occupations

Patient Safety

Recent Health News

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_113189.html

This is the sample page from NLM and the New York Academy of Medicine’s new Resource Guide for the consumer in preparation for disasters. 6/8/2011

Using

all of the words any of the words exact phrase

Advanced Search

• New Resources
• About the Resource Guide
• Help / FAQ

For more information check the website at: http://phpreparedness.nlm.nih.gov/latest.php?currentPage=1&currentRecord=1&has_javascript=N

 

As reported by the website amdnews.com:

FDA signals it will regulate medical apps

Technically Speaking. By PAMELA LEWIS DOLAN, amednews staff. Posted May 30, 2011.

ericrumsey 6/3/2011 Eric Rumsey on Twitter speculates:

 

Medical Librarians Notice? – PubMed Health now has Comparative Effectiveness Research links

• outline the known benefits and harms of different treatment options or prevention strategies
• explain what is known—and what is not known—about new or emerging health-care tests or treatments
• provide useful background on health conditions

For more information on comparative effectiveness research see What Is Comparative Effectiveness Research. (which follows)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/about/

“Comparative effectiveness research is designed to inform health-care decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness, benefits, and harms of different treatment options. The evidence is generated from research studies that compare drugs, medical devices, tests, surgeries, or ways to deliver health care.

There are two ways that this evidence is found:

• Researchers look at all of the available evidence about the benefits and harms of each choice for different groups of people from existing clinical trials, clinical studies, and other research. These are called research reviews, because they are systematic reviews of existing evidence.
• Researchers conduct studies that generate new evidence of effectiveness or comparative effectiveness of a test, treatment, procedure, or health-care service.

Comparative effectiveness research requires the development, expansion, and use of a variety of data sources and methods to conduct timely and relevant research and disseminate the results in a form that is quickly usable by clinicians, patients, policymakers, and health plans and other payers. Seven steps are involved in conducting this research and in ensuring continued development of the research infrastructure to sustain and advance these efforts:

1. Identify new and emerging clinical interventions.
2. Review and synthesize current medical research.
3. Identify gaps between existing medical research and the needs of clinical practice.
4. Promote and generate new scientific evidence and analytic tools.
5. Train and develop clinical researchers.
6. Translate and disseminate research findings to diverse stakeholders.
7. Reach out to stakeholders via a citizens forum.

Common questions about comparative effectiveness research

Q: Why is comparative effectiveness research needed? What problem is it trying to solve?

• If you don’t get the best possible information about your treatment choices, you might not make an informed decision on what treatment is best for you.
• When you shop for a new car, phone or camera, you have lots of information about your choices. But when it comes to choosing the right medicine or the best health-care treatment, clear and dependable information can be very hard to find.
• It’s true that some treatments may not work for everyone, and that some treatments may work better for some people than others. This research can help identify the treatments that may work best for you.

Q: What are the practical benefits of comparative effectiveness research?

• You deserve the best and most objective information about treating your sickness or condition. With this research in hand, you and your doctor can work together to make the best possible treatment choices.
• For example, someone with high blood pressure might have more than a dozen medicines to choose from. Someone with heart disease might need to choose between having heart surgery or taking medicine to open a clogged artery. Reports on these topics and others include the pros and cons of all the options so that you and your doctor can make the best possible treatment decision for you or someone in your family.
• Every patient is different — different circumstances, different medical history, different values. These reports don’t tell you and your doctor which treatment to choose. Instead, they offer an important tool to help you and your doctor understand the facts about different treatments”.

http://www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/index.cfm/what-is-comparative-effectiveness-research1/

The example that Ramsey gives is that of Asthma (seen below) in PubMed Health.  There are many more conditions in PubMed Health which are just as exhaustively researched, analyzed and methods of treatment compared.

http://1.usa.gov/keVRK8

 

 

An abstract from an article from PubMed on tobacco experimentation. To see the full article click on the link below:                                                                                  

6/2/2011

The role of friends’ disruptive behavior in the development of children’s tobacco experimentation: results from a preventive intervention study.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20694577?dopt=Abstract

The BBC mobile reports today June 1:

Hundreds of GPs admit to using the website Wikipedia as a medical research tool

Is this scary to anyone else?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13615420?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

There seems to be a lot of Wikipedia in the news lately and Eric Rumsey compares it to Medpedia in this article. “Eric Rumsey is a librarian and web developer at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, University of Iowa. He is the founder and manager of the Hardin MD site.”

Wikipedia vs Medpedia:  
The Crowd beats the Experts

May 31, 2011 – 9:31 am

In his keynote talk at the recent Medical Library Association annual meeting, Clay Shirky told the story of how Wikipedia, which is done by volunteers, has far surpassed the Medpedia project, which was founded in 2009 as an expert-doctor-produced system to compete with Wikipedia. Marcus Banks’s write-up of Shirky’s talk has a good segment on this:

Skirky contrasted the entry for biopsy on Wikipedia to that for biopsy on Medpedia, which utilizes physician editors rather than the unwashed masses.  Turns out that the Wikipedia entry is much more robust and developed, a thorough introduction to the topic of biopsy available to all. On the other hand, Medpedia offers a puny paragraph and calls it a day.

In fairness, Shirky does exaggerate the contrast a bit, in not mentioning that the Medpedia article has links to five specific types of biopsy. But those other articles are relatively short, and Shirky is right that the total amount of information in Wikipedia far exceeds Medpedia. So he’s certainly correct that Wikipedia has won the battle for the general medical online information market. Searching PubMed shows it: A search for wikipedia retrieves 83 articles; a search for medpediaretrieves 0 (zero!) articles. So, indeed, Medpedia has just never caught on.

Bertalan Meskó: “I believe elitism kills content”

Shirky said in his MLA talk that he had predicted when Medpedia launched that it would be a failure (confirmed here). He also mentioned that other commentators had similar questions about the purpose of Medpedia. One of those was the prominent Hungarian physician-blogger Bertalan Meskó (@berci). He’s a Wikipedia administrator, and echoes the sentiments of Shirky inquestioning the need for Medpedia at the time of its launch in 2009 (boldface added):

When we have a Wikipedia, why do we need a Medpedia? … [do] we need Medpedia to provide reliable medical content? That’s what we are working on in Wikipedia. … I believe elitism kills content. Only the power of masses controlled by well-designed editing guidelines can lead to a comprehensive encyclopaedia.

Finally, a recently-published article gives more evidence for Wikipedia’s supremacy as the king of the medical information hill – Wikipedia: A Key Tool for Global Public Health Promotion, in Journal of Medical Internet Research (2011) is written by a group of Wikipedia medical administrators (including Meskó). The authors document the important place of Wikipedia in the online health information sphere, and make an appeal for more people with medical interests to participate as Wikipedia editors. Tellingly, the corresponding author, Michaël R Laurent, has an association with Medpedia — Apparently, from his leadership in Wikipedia, though, he’s decided it’s a better way to go than Medpedia.

Related articles:

• Wikipedia vs Encarta: The Ali-Frazier of Motivation – Well-told story by Daniel Pink, 2010 MLA keynote speaker
• As Spam hits Google Machine, Human Wikipedia Thrives

Eric Rumsey is at: eric-rumsey AttSign uiowa dott edu and on Twitter @ericrumsey

http://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/hardinmd/

The following article on how technology is changing the medical field appeared on the website, “Test Drive College Online.”

“Test Drive College Online (TDCO) is an innovative program that provides a unique opportunity for qualified participants to take an actual online college course. This program was created specifically for people who are interested in using TDCO as a stepping stone toward a degree”.

How Technology is Changing the Medical Field

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The use of technology within the medical field has been growing for years. The advent of portable devices has changed the way doctors, nurses, and health care workers perform their duties.

Stanford’s School of Medicine realized the difference one of these devices could make and lent iPads to new students last year. While many of the students stopped using their iPads after a few weeks many conveyed that they did like using the iPads, but only for certain subjects.

Medical students enjoyed using the tablet for their anatomy course as it allowed them to draw and make notations easily.

Step into any hospital and you’re likely to see that medical records are now electronic and portable. The switch to electronic records is nothing new and solved issues with illegible handwriting as well as providing easier access to records.

The usefulness of these devices in medical programs is undeniable. Students involved in internships and residencies can watch video tutorials, pull up “cheat sheets” and find vital information with a portable electronic device. This doesn’t mean they are not already trained, but think about how much easier it would be to have the information you need right at your fingertips.

Students involved in distance learning can easily get ahead of the game as they often become knowledgeable in computers and other forms of technology throughout their studies. Online degree programs may also be more likely to use various forms of technology including video conferencing, virtual worlds and possibly medical software.

http://blog.testdrivecollege.com/2011/05/24/technology-in-medical-field/

 

5/30/2011

I encountered the following study: The Value of Library and Impact of Library and Information Services by  Joanne Gard Marshall, Alumni Distinguished Professor School of Information & Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which concentrates on medical libraries which can be found at

http://bit.ly/myZxM2

The Value Study was a partnership of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Middle Atlantic Region (NNLM/MAR) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).

5/26/2011

I don’t want to give away any trade secrets but PubMed Central (NCBI) is constantly posting articles on Twitter sometimes as many as 10 or 20 a day! It would be wise to start “following” them. Such as from Twitter today:

4/30/2011

I came across an interesting Health Sciences Librarian’s Blog with  links for:

“How do you stay current with health care news?”

which I included with the links in the side panel which has other information as well.

 

A Canadian Health Sciences Wiki

I encountered an amazing resource called HLWiki Canada.  It contains a treasure trove of resources for health/medical librarians:

Health librarianship

• Answering health and medical reference questions
  • Types of health information
  • Consumer health information
• Best Canadian medical books
• Core competencies
• CHLA/ABSC (Canada)
• Health librarianship pathfinder
• Health libraries
• International medical book & journal donation programs
• Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
• Medical education in Canada
• National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
• PubMed – MEDLINE
• Reference services
• Top Biomedical Texts 2010, Print & Online

Searching in biomedicine:

1. Medline & PubMed
2. Expert searching
3. Filters (ie. hedges)
4. Hand-searching
5. Nucleotide searching
6. Point of care decision-making tools – Overview
7. PubReMiner
8. Scoping studies
9. Systematic review searching

Evidence-based practice:

1. Evidence-based health care
2. Five steps of EBM
3. Evidence-based librarianship
4. Evidence-based web 2.0
5. Major clinical studies & trial types

Teaching health library users

• Adult learning theory (androgogy)
• BOPPPS Model
• Course design
• Information literacy
• Library workshop evaluation
• Point of care decision-making tools – Overview
• Presentation skills

 

Social media landscape

Collaboration 2.0

 

http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/UBC_HealthLib-Wiki_-_A_Knowledge-Base_for_Health_Librarians

The pathfinder below comes from the Canada Wiki above

Health librarianship pathfinder

This pathfinder (or start-here) is a guide to information sources in health librarianship for students, professional librarians and interested individuals. Its purpose is to provide a starting point for materials that support the study of health libraries and health librarianship. Links are provided to key journals and monographs, international associations, discussion groups and websites. Please add your own links and favourite websites. To browse our in-depth articles on a range of HSL topics, see the wiki index.

• 4 stars denotes librarian-selected, high quality information. Starred sites are great places to begin your research.
• An online or print publication intended to present Canadian information for Canadians

Literature searching

http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Health_librarianship_pathfinder#Literature_searching