The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, SE/A Region will be closed on Monday, January 19, 2009 to observe  Dr. Martin Luther King Day.  We will reopen at 8:30 am on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.

The National Library of Medicine will also be closed on the 19th of January for MLK Day  and will remain closed on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 for the inauguration ceremonies in Washington, DC .

Social networking tools are increasingly being seen not only as personal applications for creating connections between people, but for creating presence for organizations such as libraries and, even, hospitals. Ed Bennett, Director, Web Strategy at the University of Maryland Medical System and David Ekrem, Manager, Web Development at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children maintain a list–Hospital Social Network List — of hospitals that use social networking tools to create bridges to their users. The list draws a line between the official sites of the hospitals and those created by hospital “fans,” including only those that they felt were created by the hospitals themselves. If your own hospital is not on this list and uses some of the tools they track, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, they invite you to alert them via email at ebennett@umm.edu.

For information on how they created the list, please visit the FAQ available on the website.

In case you missed my message before the holidays, we are now accepting applications for larger outreach projects and technology fairs for year 04 of our NN/LM contract. The application form for our larger outreach projects (and note, this is only the application you will have to submit a proposal if your application is accepted) as well as technology fairs (this is THE application) are available on the SE/A site. While we will be accepting applications until April, we encourage you to send in your applications early. This helps to strengthen our budget justification to NLM. As with your budget, it is best to have strong supporting evidence of why you need every precious dollar.

So, while you watch the football games this weekend or my beloved #1 Pitt Panthers play basketball, sit and muse about how you can address health information access issues in your community or enhance the technology skills and knowledge of the health providers or librarians in your institution or your state. Then fill out the applications found under the “Funding” link on the nnlm.gov/sea site.

We are looking forward to hearing from you. If you have questions, please call or email any of the SE/A coordinators or me.

Planning for the health and safety of those attending mass gatherings is an enormous challenge for local officials. Mass gatherings are defined as those attracting more than 1,000 participants and include events like the Olympics, Super Bowl, religious services conducted by the Pope, state funerals, and presidential inaugurations. Public health concerns range from ensuring adequate drinking water, food safety, first aid, and toilet facilities to planning for the extremes of possible major accidents, dangerous weather and even terrorist threats.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has compiled a Web page of links to information on the public health aspects of planning for all kinds of mass gatherings, http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/massgatherings.html. These resources include a search of PubMed for medical journal article citations as well as documents from government and other sources. Topics include preparedness for large numbers of casualties and management of disease outbreaks.

The upcoming 2009 Presidential Inauguration is an excellent example of a mass gathering requiring extensive planning. Washington DC-area TV, radio, newspapers and their Internet sites are the best sources for learning about local health services, emergency, and hospital planning for the inauguration.

Health tips for those attending inauguration weekend outdoor activities are available from the US Department of Health and Human Services at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2009pres/01/20090112a.html.

For more information on the Disaster Information Management Research Center at NLM, please visit http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/.

http://www.ahrq.gov/populations/sahlsatool.htm

Two health literacy measurement tools developed by AHRQ grantees are now available on AHRQ’s Web site:

• Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine - Short Form (REALM-SF): a 7-item word recognition test to provide clinicians with a valid quick assessment of patient health literacy.
• Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50): a 50-item instrument designed to assess a Spanish-speaking adult’s ability to read and understand common medical terms in Spanish.

The Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine—Short Form (REALM-SF) has been validated and field tested in diverse research setting, and has excellent agreement with the 66-item REALM instrument in terms of grade-level assignments.

The Short Assessment of Health Literacy for Spanish Adults (SAHLSA-50) is a validated health literacy assessment tool. The SAHLSA is based on the Rapid Estimates of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), known as the most easily administered tool for assessing health literacy in English.

Both health literacy measurement tools, along with instruction for administering them, can be found at: http://www.ahrq.gov/populations/sahlsatool.htm.

Keeping up with PubMed changes requires persistence or the provided RSS feed.  For ease or currency, subscribe to the NLM Technical Bulletin’s RSS feed.  When a new article is posted on the NLM Technical Bulletin, you’ll get a message in your blog reader.

Some of the recent articles about PubMed improvements include:

Gene Sensor. NLM Tech Bull. 2008 Nov-Dec (365):e16.

Gene Sensor detects if the PubMed query includes a gene symbol and links it to the Gene Database.

My NCBI Improvements. NLM Tech Bull. 2008 Nov-Dec (365):e25.

1/12/09 - Update - This class is full.    Please contact Sheila Snow-Croft to be put on a waiting list.

Nursing on the Net: Health Care Resources You Can Use is now online!

Taught by Sheila Snow-Croft, the first session begins on the 16th of January and ends on the 23rd. It offers 4 MLA CE contact hours and is an online, asynchronous, instructor-led class using Moodle, a free service that does not require software downloads or installation.

For more information or to register for the class, please contact Sheila
Snow-Croft.

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/medsun/

MedSun provides a representative profile of reports from healthcare facilities, such as hospitals. MedSun improves understanding of medical device problems so FDA, healthcare facilities, clinicians, and manufacturers can better address safety concerns. Over 350 health care facilities, primarily hospitals, participate in the network. MedSun is unique because it educates health care professionals about the importance of monitoring, being aware of, and reporting device related problems to FDA and the manufacturer.

MedSun also ensures that new safety information is rapidly communicated to the medical community thereby promoting patient safety.

The MedSun Subnetworks

These subnetworks are designed to collect and share information about actual and potential adverse events from specific clinical areas of MedSun facilities using high-risk products.

The content that FDA produces is not copyrighted. Stories can be reprinted without permission and copies can be downloaded and displayed free of charge. Editors wishing to use MedSun’s material in publication are asked to please acknowledge MedSun as the source and send copies of stories to medsun@s-3.com.

Subscribe to Email Updates at https://service.govdelivery.com/ service/subscribe.html?code=USFDA_65

For questions contact Tina Powell at 1-800-859-1292 or email at: medsun@s-3.com

On December 22, 2008, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant’s retention pond failed, creating a tidal wave of water and fly ash which destroyed several homes and ruptured a major gas line in a neighborhood located adjacent to the plant in Harriman, Tennessee. It is estimated that approximately 3.1 million cubic feet of fly ash and water were released on to land adjacent to the plant and into the nearby Clinch and Emory River. There’s concern about the potential effects of this spill on the quality of water, air and soil in the region.

From its extensive environmental health and toxicology resources, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has compiled a Web page of links to chemical information on fly ash and medical journal articles on the ash’s possible human health effects, http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/coalashspill.html. These resources provide background information on fly ash, also known as coal ash, which is a by-product of burning coal in power plants to generate electricity.

Links to public health information from local and federal authorities responding to this incident are also included. Contact information for local community assistance is listed on the TVA Internet site, http://www.tva.gov/.

For more information on TOXNET and other NLM environmental health and toxicology resources, please visit http://tox.nlm.nih.gov.

The January 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. In this edition:

When the Weather Gets Cold
Winter Health Problems
For many people, winter is a welcome time of year. But for people with certain diseases like arthritis, it can be a pain—literally. Here’s what you need to know to survive winter’s chill.
full story

Understanding Human Behavior
Using Computers to Improve Our Health

Can we use computers to understand generosity? The behavior of crowds? The root of prejudice? Researchers are developing computer models to improve our understanding of human behavior and the world we live in.
full story

Health Capsules:

• CAM Widely Used
• Supplements Fail to Prevent Prostate Cancer
• Featured Web Site: See All You Can See

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 email
us or call 301-435-7489 for more information.