As the health care websites offer more interactive features and have established their reputation for reliable medical information, they have seen an increase in their usage.

The NLM’s MedlinePlus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/) is among those reliable websites. It saw an increase to its brain cancer topics after Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.

According to the Chief Medical Editor at WebMD, physicians these days are more willing to tell their patients to go to credible online health information resources since they enable patients to be better prepared for their physician visit.

Read full article at: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2008/6/12/Health-Web-Sites-See-Spike-in-Use-as-Quality-Reliability-Increase.aspx?topicID=61.

On Monday, May 19, 2008, Google officially offered their new health service, Google Health, to the public. This service will allow users to input their health information into Google Health and link to their health records in participating pharmacies and health providers, such as Walgreens and Quest Diagnostic Labs. Once records are listed, patient health conditions will link to web pages about those conditions.

Concerns about patient privacy are being voiced by some organizations like the World Privacy Forum, since services like Google Health are not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which sets strict standards for security of medical records.

For more information:
New York Times: Google Offers Personal Health Records on the Web
Yahoo! News: Google Makes Health Service Publicly Available
Washington Post: Google Health: a Quick Hands-On Look

From the National Library of Medicine (NLM):

On May 7, 2008, MedlinePlus debuted a multilingual feature, providing access to high quality health information in languages other than English and Spanish. This new service benefits people who prefer to read consumer health information in their native language. It also helps the information professionals and health care providers who serve them. Over the years, many of you have requested this enhancement. Your suggestions helped us to develop this important service.

The new collection contains over 2,500 links to information in more than 40 languages and covers nearly 250 Health Topics. Continuous growth is expected.
(more…)

Libraries for the Future (LFF) announces an expansion of Fit for Life (FFL), a national program to help public libraries promote lifelong health and wellness through locally-created programs. A central component of FFL will be its organization around five pillars of brain health that have emerged from the latest scientific research: diet, physical exercise, intellectual challenge, mental stimulation through new experiences, and socialization.

A grant from the MetLife Foundation has allowed LFF to offer training and grants of $10,000 to $25,000 to 15 urban library systems. Fit for Life will extend grant awards to 15 urban library networks. Each participating library will be required to submit a proposal in collaboration with at least five community organizations, to expand possibilities for community outreach and activities. FFL libraries will be charged with launching community-wide public awareness campaigns to promote the importance of fitness and nutrition, offering health programming for individuals of all ages, distributing free health publications, and recording accomplishments related to all of the above.

For the application, click here: http://www.fitforlifelibraries.org/RFP.html

The January - March issue of Consumer Connections is now live at: http://caphis.mlanet.org/publications/consumerconnections.html. Consumer Connections is the newsletter of the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section (CAPHIS) of the Medical Library Association, and is published on the CAPHIS website quarterly.

Table of Contents:

CAPHIS at MLA 2008
CAPHIS Events
CAPHIS CE

Articles
CAPHIS Kudos
Update from the National Library of Medicine, Division of Specialized Information Services

• NLM Disaster Information Management Research Center
• Drug Information Portal Released
• TOXMAP: New Health Data, Roads, TRI 2006
• Radiation Event Medical Management (REMM)
• Special Populations: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness

Reviews

• A Woman’s Guide to Hormone Health: The Creator’s Way for Managing Menopause
• Autism in your Classroom: A General Educator’s Guide to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Last Call: Alcoholism and Recovery
• The Art of Aging: A Doctor’s Prescription for Well-Being
• Overcoming Urinary Incontinence: A Woman’s Guide to Treatment
• Gifts: Mothers Reflect on How Children With Down Syndrome Enrich Their Lives

For more information about Consumer Connections, please visit the CAPHIS website: http://caphis.mlanet.org/publications/newsletter.html

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 April issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research, is now online at http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/. We also thought you might be interested in the NIH Office of the Director channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=NIHOD, where you can watch videos to learn more about NIH. In this issue of NIH News in Health:

When a Medical Emergency Strikes: A Race Against the Clock
If you’re seriously injured, your recovery—and even your life—can depend on how quickly the emergency medical team arrives, what type of treatment you get and how fast they get you to a hospital.

Guard Your Liver: Protect Yourself From Hepatitis
Hepatitis can make you feel as if you have the flu, but it’s a completely different disease. Flu is caused by viruses that attack your lungs and respiratory system; hepatitis is a liver disease. Some forms of hepatitis get better on their own. But others can inflict serious liver damage, and may even leave you needing a new liver.

Health Capsules:
· Allergens in Homes Linked to Asthma
· Diet and Metabolic Syndrome
· Featured Web Site: Anabolic Steroid Abuse

You can also click here to download a PDF version for printing.

Please pass the word on to your colleagues about The NIH News in Health. We are happy to send a limited number of print copies free of charge for display in offices, libraries or clinics. Just contact us for more information.

Harrison Wein, Ph.D., Writer/Editor
National Institutes of Health
Office of the Director, Office of Communications and Public Liaison
Phone: 301-435-7489
E-mail: weinh@od.nih.gov
The NIH News in Health: http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/
NIH Research Matters (eColumn): http://www.nih.gov/news/research_matters/index.htm

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.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) released a new search engine for MedlinePlus Go Local, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/golocal/, using the Vivisimo search software. By popular demand, search results now include health information from MedlinePlus, as well as the health services in MedlinePlus Go Local.

A look through the MedlinePlus Go Local search logs shows that many users are looking for health information as well as services. Examples include drug names such as Provigil and Cialis, disorders such as GERD and TMJ, and services such as dentists that take Medicaid and where to get a flu shot. In addition to adding health information from MedlinePlus, the new search results also feature improved relevance rankings, links to maps and directions, bold-face search words in context, and an integrated spell checker that suggests alternative search terms and spelling corrections.

Funding is available from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation for community partners to build programs to help families and caregivers of older adults.

Most frail older adults are cared for by family, friends and other nonprofessionals. With this funding initiative, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation will help community partnerships develop innovative ways to support these devoted caregivers.

AVAILABLE GRANTS

Up to $9 million over three years through the Family and Informal Caregiver Support Program will support from 12 to 20 community-based Projects with grants ranging from $100,000 to $300,000 per year (for a total of $300,000 to $900,000 for each grant recipient from March 2009 through February 2012).

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS

The Foundation encourages non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations, including aging and human service agencies, faith-based and other community-based organizations, tribal organizations, and units of local government to participate.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

http://www.hjweinbergfoundation.org/subPages/grantmaking/rfp.htm
CaregivingRFP@theweinbergfoundation.org