The NN/LM SCR office will be closed on the following dates:

• Friday, 22 December 2006
• Monday, 25 December 2006
• Friday, 29 December 2006
• Monday, 1 January 2007

in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

We are happy to announce our newest DOCLINE EFTS member in our region.

ARUSWA - St. Edward Mercy Medical Center Library
7301 Rogers Ave.
Fort Smith, AR 72903

Joined: 11/20/06

Rice University in Houston, Texas is one of eighteen recipients of a National Library of Medicine (NLM) grant program for research training in biomedical informatics. The field of biomedical informatics applies computer and communications technology to the field of health. Biomedical informatics requires knowledge of medicine as well as computer sciences, engineering and human behavior.

NLM’s informatics training program is designed to train pre-doctoral and post-doctoral investigators to apply biomedical computing to improve clinical medicine through applied biomedical research. The training program provide graduate degrees and in-depth research experience in health care informatics (including electronic medical records), public health informatics, translational informatics, bioinformatics and imagining and signal processing. The institutions receiving this award are responsible for the selection of trainees.

More information on the Rice University Informatics program is located at: http://cohesion.rice.edu/centersandinst/gcc/keck.cfm

Information on NLM’s Biomedical Informatics Awards is located at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/ep/GrantTrainInstitute.html

While there seems to be some controversy about the method, Medicare and others have been using podcasts and RSS feeds to publicize information about the Medicare prescription drug program to tech-savvy seniors.

An unusual mix: seniors and healthcare podcasts, by Kelly McCormack
http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/112906/mccormack.html

Medicare’s RSS site: http://www.medicare.gov/rss/default.asp

The UCLA Library launched an online collection of more than 600 AIDS posters from countries around the world on Friday, December 1, 2006 at http://digital.library.ucla.edu/aidsposters. The release of this digital project has been scheduled in conjunction with World AIDS Day.

“The collection provides a fascinating insight into the many approaches that have been used to try to modify risk behaviors,” said Roger Detels, MD, MS, UCLA professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases. “The posters range from terrifying to amusing and reflect the many cultures from which they have been drawn, which include national cultures and risk group cultures. The collection should be of interest to anyone interested in the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and attempts to control it.”

The Resource Libraries Holiday Shipping Schedule is now posted on the NN/LM SCR website at http://nnlm.gov/scr/rsdd/illshed.html. Please refer to this before requesting materials this season.

The Surgeon General has declared Thanksgiving to be National Family History Day. The Family Health History website has a printable form or a web based program you can use to track your family health history. The resource is also available in Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, French and Polish. Learning about your family’s health history may help ensure a longer, healthier life. Though this may be a sensitive subject to address with family, knowing your family health history will empower you to focus on prevention and wellness.

The resource is available at http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/

US Surgeon General’s Family Health Initiative

According to a new Pew Internet and American Life Project report, 10 million American adults look online for health information in any given day. Unfortunately, 75% of searchers do not consistently check the source and date of the content they find online. Additionally, most internet users start at a search engine when looking for health information online. Only 27% of health seekers began at a health-related website.

The most common health topics searched online include information about a specific disease or a particular medical treatment, nutrition information and exercise/fitness topics. Over 50% of all health seekers report that the information they found online affected a decision about how to treat an illness or condition.

To read more about the report: Pew Internet: Online Health Search 2006

The Specialized Information Services division of the National Library of Medicine recently debuted, Tox Mystery, an interactive environmental health website for children ages 7-10. Tox Mystery provides a fun, game-like introduction to environmental health hazards found in the home.

(more…)

A study done by the University of Washington Physician Network (UWPN) shows that customized health websites used as health interventions can help parents improve their efforts to prevent illnesses or accidents in children. Parents who were able to view health information online were more likely to talk to their doctors about preventative health, and were more likely to take preventative measure for their children’s health.

Pediatrics. 2006 Sep;118(3):1157-66.
Reported by iHealthBeat (registration is free): http://www.ihealthbeat.org/index.cfm?action=dspItem&itemID=124743