The Refugee Health Information Network (RHIN - http://www.rhin.org) is a national collaborative partnership that has created a database of high quality multilingual, public health resources for those providing care to resettled refugees and asylees. RHIN is guided by refugee health professionals and health information specialists. All content available for downloading through RHIN is available at no charge.

RHIN resources include:

• Health education materials in various languages and formats (brochures, fact sheets, videos)

• Provider tools (including information on refugee populations and cultures)

• Links to related Web sites

RHIN also provides links to existing sites specializing in refugee health, access to medical information from the National Library of Medicine, and a variety of posted documents from health care providers throughout the country. In selecting materials RHIN places greatest emphasis on identifying, collecting, and making available materials that have been produced by U.S. Federal and state government agencies, major national organizations, academic institutions, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations. Web sites that are linked to by RHIN are constantly evaluated to ensure substantive information is provided and quality is maintained.

The NN/LM SCR will be offering the class Public Health Information on the Web at the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library on September 10, 2008 from 8:30 am – 12:30 pm.

Course description:

The field of public health encompasses a wide array of disciplines including health education, epidemiology and nursing. Digital literacy and the effective utilization of online information are among the core public health informatics competencies for the 21st century. This hands-on class will highlight web resources tailored to the public health workforce.

At the completion of the class, participants will be able to:

* Define the role of information in the public health environment
* Identify resources to support health education and promotional programs and activities
* Retrieve information in support of evidence-based public practice
* Obtain data sets and statistics relevant to public health on a state, local and national level

To register for the class: http://resource.library.tmc.edu/classes/index.cfm#225

The Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, http://phpartners.org, has released two new topic pages: Nutrition and Workforce Development.

The Nutrition topic page includes links to government, professional and research organizations that focus on nutrition issues; grants and funding opportunities; legislation and health policy issues related to nutrition; published literature and research reports; and nutrition promotion, education and information resources.

The Workforce Development page provides links on public health workforce development activities and resources including education and training opportunities; legislative action; professional meetings, summits, councils, and conferences; new workers development programs; tools and resources on public health workforce issues; and workforce projects and research reports.

To keep up-to-date on new PHPartners resources, sign up for the weekly email update or subscribe to the PHPartners RSS feed.

Do you work with public health professionals? Are you interested in public health? Are you interested in attending the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting?

This year’s APHA meeting will take place in San Diego, CA from October 25 – 29, 2008. Its theme is Public Health Without Borders.

The Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund, Inc. is offering stipends to librarians and other information professionals to help cover the costs of their attending and/or participating in this meeting. Successful applicants from the greater San Diego area will receive a stipend of at least $650. Successful applicants from outside greater San Diego will receive at least $1,000. This amount covers most of the APHA Membership at $195 and Early Bird (pre-August 15, 2008) Member Registration at $380. Though significant, these amounts will NOT cover all costs, so stipend recipients will need to find additional monies to cover remaining costs.

Completed applications are due July 25, 2008–just over 3 weeks from today. To apply, download the Word application form at http://phha.mlanet.org/activities.html. Add all required application materials to the completed form and send as a SINGLE email attachment to Joey Nicholson at: jnicholson@nyam.org.

For more information, contact Joey Nicholson at: jnicholson@nyam.org.

Please forward this message to others who may be interested.

Hope you’ll join us at this colorful and fascinating meeting!

Joey Nicholson
Chair, Client Relations Committee
PH/HA Section, MLA

Database Trainer/Online Analyst
National Training Center and Clearinghouse The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
212-822-7355

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, South Central Region (NN/LM SCR) announces a new web page for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery: http://nnlm.gov/scr/services/prepare.html.

This web page highlights the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit, an emergency preparedness resource for libraries. Also included are links to emergency preparedness and recovery resources from the federal government; libraries, schools, and medical associations; community-based organizations; and animal health organizations.

The exhibition “Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health” opened at the National Library of Medicine on April 17, 2008. This exhibition documents community partnerships throughout the world to prevent disease and improve quality of life. Using historical photos, first-person accounts, and examples of successful interventions, the exhibition traces a remarkable story of achievement against great odds.

To visit the exhibition online, go to: http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/againsttheodds/exhibit/index.cfm.

In 2007, the Institute of Medicine convened the Committee on the Future Health Care Workforce for Older Americans to determine the health care needs of Americans over 65 years of age and to assess those needs through an analysis of the forces that shape the health care workforce, including education and training, models of care, and public and private programs.

The resulting report, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, says that as the population of seniors grows to comprise approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population, they will face a health care workforce that is too small and critically unprepared to meet their health needs. The committee concluded that for aging family members and friends to continue to live robustly and in the best possible health, bold initiatives are needed to:

• explore ways to broaden the duties and responsibilities of workers at various levels of training;
• better prepare informal caregivers to tend to the needs of aging family members and friends;
• and develop new models of health care delivery and payment as old ways sponsored by federal programs such as Medicare prove to be ineffective and inefficient.

Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce
Committee on the Future Health Care Workforce for Older Americans, Institute of Medicine, April 14, 2008
News Release: http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12089
Available online at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12089

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) announces the solicitation of quotations from organizations and libraries to design and conduct projects that will improve access to HIV/AIDS related health information for patients, the affected community, and their caregivers.

Standard Awards are offered for up to $60,000;  Express Awards are offered for up to $10,000.

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The Federal Inter-Agency Forum on Aging Related Statistics released a new report, Older Americans 2008: Key Indicators of Well-Being. According to the report, average life expectancy continues to increase, and today’s older Americans enjoy better health and financial security than any previous generation.

However, rates of gain are inconsistent between the genders and across age brackets, income levels and racial and ethnic groups. Some critical disparities also exist between older Americans and older people in other industrialized countries.

Highlights from Older Americans 2008 include:

• In 2006, an estimated 37 million people in the United States—12 percent of the population—were 65 and older. Projections forecast that by 2030, approximately 71.5 million people will be 65 and older, representing nearly 20 percent of the total U.S. population.

• Americans’ longevity continues to increase, although life expectancy at age 65 in the United States is lower than that of other industrialized countries. While older people experience a variety of chronic health conditions that often accompany aging, the rate of functional limitations among people age 65 and older has declined in recent years.

• Life expectancy in the U.S. is lower than that of many high-income countries, such as Canada, France, Sweden and Japan. In the early 1980s, U.S. women age 65 had one of the highest average life expectancies in the world, but over the last two decades, the life expectancies of older women in many countries surpassed that of women in the United States.

• Factors affecting the health and well-being of older Americans, such as smoking history, influenza and pneumonia vaccinations and mammogram screenings, are key indicators that have shown long-term improvements but no significant change in recent years.

• There was no significant change in the percentage of older people engaged in physical activity between 1997 and 2006.

• The percentage of people age 65 and older who are obese, as with other age groups, increased between 1988-1994 and 2005-2006, from 22 percent to 31 percent. However, over the past several years, the trend appears to have leveled off.

• Between 1992 and 2004, average inflation-adjusted health care costs for older Americans increased from $8,644 to $13,052. Costs varied by race and ethnic group, income and health status.

• In 2004, as in the previous 4 years, over half of out-of-pocket health care spending (excluding health insurance premiums) by community-dwelling older people was for purchase of prescription drugs. By 2004, prescription medications accounted for 61 percent of these out-of-pocket expenses. Out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs are expected to decline because of the savings available through the Medicare prescription drug program.

April 7 - 13 is National Public Health Week. This year’s theme is Climate Change: Our Health in the Balance. The public health community will be focusing on the effects climate change has on the health of the population. Each day highlights a particular solution and issue related to this theme:

• Monday: Be Prepared
• Tuesday: Travel Differently
• Wednesday: Eat Differently
• Thursday: Green Your Work
• Friday: Green Your Home

For more information, see the National Public Health Week website at http://www.nphw.org/nphw08/default.htm