Hurricane Ike, South Central Region Medical Libraries, Hurricane Web Links, and a New Listserv.

As many of you are aware, the South Central RML is currently closed, and will remain closed until Thursday, September 18^th, due to affects of Hurricane Ike.  In accordance with the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness & Response plan, South Central’s buddy RML, the Middle Atlantic Region (MAR), is backing up the office by taking calls and redirecting DOCLINE, when necessary.  A special thanks to MAR staff for temporarily taking on this important responsibility.

For information on emergency preparedness planning for libraries as well as some post-disaster updates, see the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit at http://nnlm.gov/ep/. I am pleased to report that the toolkit received a lot of traffic the day before Hurricane Ike struck the Gulf Coast, which shows that libraries are using the toolkit as a preparedness resource.  To see additional updates (or provide a status report), check the SCR blog, Blogadillo, at http://nnlm.gov/scr/blog/.

Also of note, the National Library of Medicine home page has added a news item on hurricane resources, “Online Resources for Hurricanes, Floods, and Disaster Preparedness and Recovery” at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/disaster_resources_online.html.

Finally, a new listserv, DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB, is now available as a discussion forum for librarians, information specialists and others interested in disaster information outreach to their communities and responding to information needs for all-hazards preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. It is also the primary source for information announcing the activities of the National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Specialist Pilot Project. List members may post comments and resources of interest to those involved in disaster information outreach as well as relevant announcements of meetings, training, conferences, job openings, etc. The listserv is provided by the National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Management Research Center.  You can sign up for the list and view the archives at https://list.nih.gov/archives/disastr-outreach-lib.html.

Please contact Cindy Love, lovec@mail.nlm.nih.gov, if you have any questions or comments about the listserv.

The September 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/.  In this issue of NIH News in Health:

Good Health to Go
Eating Smart at School
Even in the chaotic world of the school cafeteria, children can make smart food choices. You can play a key role in helping children learn the fundamentals of healthy living—eating well and staying active—whatever pressures they face outside home.
full story

Back to School with Diabetes
Plan Ahead for a Smooth Start to School
Notebooks, erasers, pencil sets and backpacks are on most kids’ back-to-school lists. But if your child has diabetes, you should add a few extra tasks to the list. Planning ahead, and getting help from others, will help pave the way for a successful year.
full story

Health Capsules:

• Children’s Physical Activity Drops
• Diabetes and a Healthy Pregnancy
• Featured Web Site: NIDA Goes Back to School

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.

Subscribe to receive email alerts when new issues of NIH News in Health are posted by going to https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=nihnewsinhealth-l&A=1.

The National Library of Medicine would like to publicize your upcoming noteworthy projects about National Medical Librarians’ Month in October.

Submissions are due by this Friday, September 12, with the NLM site unveiling on October 1. Please submit by email to rml@library.med.nyu.edu:

Name of the institution

Title of project

Brief summary of the project

Name of project director

Key staff

The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce a new web exhibit: “Hooke’s Books:  Books that Influenced or were Influenced by Robert Hooke.”

www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/hooke/

Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was a remarkably versatile man — artist, biologist, physicist, engineer, architect, inventor, and more. However, his crowning glory was Micrographia: or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses, first published 1665. It was a masterpiece — an exquisitely illustrated introduction to the previously unknown microscopic world. This exhibit focuses on Hooke’s influences and legacy in print, the pioneering books that stimulated Hooke’s research, and the works he left for others — most famously the great Dutch microscopist, Antoni van Leeuwenhœk (1632-1723).

The August 2008 issue of NIH News in Health is now online at http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/.  The monthly NIH News in Health newsletter brings you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research.  In this issue:

Arm Yourself for Good Health
Stay Up-to-Date on Vaccines
As summer winds down, students from kindergarten to college are heading off to new schools, with lots of new people to meet—and new germs to catch. One of the best ways to guard you and your family against infectious disease is to stay up-to-date with your vaccines.
Full story: http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/newversion/2008/August/feature1.htm

Matching Genes and Vitamins
A Personalized Plan May Be in Your Future
You may be one of the many people who take vitamin and mineral supplements as a kind of insurance plan, to make sure your body’s getting enough of all the nutrients you need. New research suggests that doctors may one day be able to design a personalized supplement plan that’s best for your particular body.
Full story: http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/newversion/2008/August/feature2.htm

Health Capsules

• Wide Waists Boost Risk of Death
• Online Care Helps Control Blood Pressure
• Featured Web Site: Findings

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.

Now available: Online Search Clinic Recording for PubMed Update on Automatic Term Mapping, Citation Sensor, and Advanced Search

A 30 minute online search clinic was presented by the NLM® and the National Training Center and Clearinghouse (NTCC) via Adobe® Connect™ on Thursday, July 17th (2pm ET). The presentation  covered changes to PubMed including changes to how PubMed handles your search (the new automatic term mapping process), the citation sensor, and the beta Advanced Search page.

View the Clinic recording

Responses to questions that were not addressed during the Clinic time will be posted to this Web site in the near future.

Comments and suggestions regarding the new PubMed features and the search clinic are welcome.

For more training opportunities, see the National Training Center and Clearinghouse Web site and the NLM Distance Education page. Watch for announcements of new training resources in the NLM Technical Bulletin.

We hope you find the Search Clinic: PubMed Update useful and enjoyable.

The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce our newest website, AIDS Ephemera, based on an exhibit of that name at the NLM from November 2002 to June 2003.AIDS was first identified in 1981 and the initial response to the disease generated ephemeral public health materials, such as buttons, posters, cards, comic books, and even lunch boxes.  Since AIDS was both incurable and invariably fatal, these messages of prevention were the only effective steps public health officials could take.

Produced by government health departments as well as private organizations, these ephemeral objects became an important medium for messages of awareness, prevention, compassion, and responsibility.  Buttons and posters provided information on disease symptoms and safe practices, while comic books spun tales of the consequences of risky sex and needle sharing.

The materials for this website are drawn from the NLM’s Prints & Photographs collection.  Many donors contributed these materials—we wish to take special note of the contributions of William H. Helfand, who, as a consultant to the Library, organized and carried out a project to secure AIDS posters from the many agencies and organizations that were producing and distributing them in the 1980s and ’90s.

Please visit the site at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/aidsephemera

The July 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/.  In this issue of NIH News in Health:

Medical Imaging
Changing Health Care, Saving Lives
If you or someone you know has had a mammogram to check for breast cancer, an X-ray to detect a broken bone, or an ultrasound to examine an internal organ, then you’ve seen the benefits of medical imaging firsthand.
full story

Are Your Wrists at Risk?
Learn About Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
You’re working at your desk, but you’re distracted by a tingling or numbness in your hand and wrist. Then a sharp, piercing pain shoots from your palm through your arm. If you’ve had symptoms like these for several days—or worse, weeks—or if they keep you up at night, you may have carpal tunnel syndrome.
full story

Health Capsules:

·   Social Ties Affect Smoking Behavior

·   Eating Well as You Get Older

·   Featured Web Site: Time to Talk

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.

Subscribe to receive email alerts when new issues of NIH News in Health are posted by going to https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=nihnewsinhealth-l&A=1.

The June 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/.  In this issue of NIH News in Health:

More than a Feeling
How the Arts Affect Your Health
For thousands of years, people have searched for the meaning and beauty of life in music, painting, poetry and other arts. Now scientists are finding that the arts can benefit both your mental and physical health.
full story

What Makes Your Head Hurt?
Tension is the Most Common Culprit
If you suffer from headaches, you’re not alone. Headaches are one of the most common health complaints. But only rarely do they warn of a serious illness.
full story

Health Capsules:

·   Fat Cell Numbers Stay Constant in Adults

·   Blood Pressure Control and Kidney Disease

·   Featured Web Site: Asian American Health

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.

Subscribe to receive email alerts when new issues of NIH News in Health are posted by going to https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=nihnewsinhealth-l&A=1.

NIH Launches Undiagnosed Diseases Program

Clinical Researchers to Tackle the Most Puzzling Medical Cases

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced a new clinical research program that will aim to provide answers to patients with mysterious conditions that have long eluded diagnosis. Called the Undiagnosed Diseases Program, the trans-NIH initiative will focus on the most puzzling medical cases referred to the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., by physicians across the nation.

“A small number of patients suffer from symptoms that do not correspond to known conditions, making their care and treatment extraordinarily difficult. However, the history of biomedical research has taught us that careful study of baffling cases can provide new insights into the mechanisms of disease — both rare and common,” said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., who has made a point during his six-year tenure at NIH of encouraging trans-NIH initiatives. “The goal of NIH’s Undiagnosed Diseases Program is two-pronged: to improve disease management for individual patients and to advance medical knowledge in general.”

The new program, which got under way over the past month, is the culmination of efforts by William A. Gahl, M.D., Ph.D., clinical director at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the NIH; John I. Gallin, M.D., director of the NIH Clinical Center; and Stephen Groft, Pharm.D., director of the NIH Office of Rare Diseases (ORD). With the program infrastructure now in place, the program is ready to accept patients, the first of which is expected to be seen in July 2008.

“The NIH Clinical Center, the nation’s clinical research hospital, provides an extraordinary environment for excellence in both patient care and collaborative clinical investigation,” said Dr. Gallin. “This new program will capitalize on a rich set of skills already at the Clinical Center to help patients with unusual medical conditions. These patients partner with us in clinical research to identify new diseases or new treatment.”

To evaluate each patient enrolled in the new program, NIH will enlist the expertise of more than 25 of its senior attending physicians, whose specialties include endocrinology, immunology, oncology, dermatology, dentistry, cardiology and genetics. Dr. Gahl, who is an expert on rare genetic diseases, will serve as director of the new program.

“We have developed a stringent referral process to ensure this program deals with those cases that have truly confounded medical experts,” Dr. Gahl said. “We will be very selective when it comes to patient eligibility. Our focus is strictly on conditions that have not been diagnosed.”

To be considered for this NIH pilot program, a patient must be referred by a physician and provide all medical records and diagnostic test results requested by NIH. Patients who meet the program’s criteria — as many as 100 each year — will then be asked to undergo additional evaluation during a visit to the NIH Clinical Center that may take up to a week.

Two nurse practitioners will manage patient recruitment and logistics for the new program, which will utilize existing facilities and staff already at the NIH Clinical Center, NHGRI and ORD. Funding for the program includes $280,000 per year from the ORD.

In organizing the Undiagnosed Diseases Program, NIH has reached out to patient advocacy groups that often serve as a source of information and support for people struggling with mysterious ailments. “We hope to build upon our strong working relationships with many patient advocacy groups. These organizations provide a crucial link in our nation’s efforts to improve human health through biomedical research,” said Dr. Groft. “We hope that this new partnership of NIH researchers, advocacy groups and patients will give hope for many Americans who now face troubling medical symptoms with no clear diagnosis.”

For more information about the Undiagnosed Diseases Program, go to: http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/Undiagnosed. Physicians and patients with specific inquiries may call the NIH Clinical Center clinical information research line, at 1-866-444-8806.