The Massachusetts Health Council presents a Women’s Health Forum, “Getting Healthy, Staying Healthy: Knowledge is Everything”

Friday March 20, 2009
7:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Marriott Copley Place
Boston, MA

Speakers will include Dr. Cynthia Geyer, Medical Director from Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Dr. Mallika Marshall of WBZ-TV and Marjorie Clapprood of WRKO Radio.

The conference will include challenging issues in women’s health: Breast and Cervical Cancer, Domestic Violence, Heart Disease, Reproductive and Sexual Health 30–70, Healthy Aging, Maintaining a Healthy Weight, Managing Stress, Access and Disparities.

Program details are available at http://www.mahealthcouncil.org/2009Women-Invitation.pdf.

Register online at http://www.mahealthcouncil.org/registration-ckcc.htm.

NN/LM NER will be exhibiting at this conference.

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
• Understanding Human Behavior, Using Computers to Improve our Health
• Health Capsules

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.

Harrison Wein, Ph.D., Writer/Editor
National Institutes of Health
Office of the Director, Office of Communications and Public Liaison
Bldg. 31, Rm. 5B64A, MSC 2094
Bethesda, MD 20892-2094
Phone:  301-435-7489
Fax:  301-480-4026
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

Announcing a collaborative space for Native Health Information Outreach!

Share your experiences in:

Outreach Connections:  Native Health Information Wiki

This space is intended:

• for those who work with health care providers serving Native peoples (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians).
• for those who work with Native health information consumers.
• to improve health information access for Native peoples.
• to exchange information from health information promotion and training experiences.
• to complement sites already focused on health information for Native peoples.

Librarians, patient educators, and others who provide health information to Native peoples and their caregivers are encouraged to contribute your projects to the wiki. You can include outreach projects, education and training projects, resources you’ve developed, and descriptions of research you’ve done. Share information about technology you’ve used, observations you’ve made, and advice you have for others who would like to do something similar. If you are willing to share training/teaching materials or other related materials under the Creative Commons non-commercial share-alike license, please post them. All material submitted to this site is shared under the Creative Commons non-commercial share-alike license so that you can borrow and adapt the resources for your own use.

Check out the new NN/LM – New England Region lending library! The lending library includes core resources such as: the proceedings of Medical Library Association conferences from 2000 to the present, as well as MLA webcasts and teleconferences. Did you miss the MLA webcast on Web 2.0 or strategies to promote your library’s value? Would you like to view them and receive MLA CE units? Here is your opportunity. You may borrow the webcasts and request a participant manual from the program as well. We will send you an evaluation form to complete after viewing the program. When you return the evaluation form to us, we will send you MLA CE units.

The NER’s lending library’s collection includes resources to help you stay updated on the latest trends in health sciences librarianship including important issues like:

· answering consumer health questions

· copyright in cyberspace

· disaster planning

· evidence based public health

· fundraising

· grant and proposal writing

· selecting and managing electronic resources

…and much more!

The lending library is exclusively available to Full and Affiliate members in the NER.  Requests are limited to 4 items per institution at any one time. Items are loaned out for a 2 week period. Please contact Martha Pearson at martha.pearson@umassmed.edu to request items.

Happy New Year!

Be sure to take advantage of the new resources at your fingertips for your professional development!

Free Online Distance Education Opportunity

Stay up to date professionally without leaving your desk! The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region (NN/LM NER), continues its free distant education classes on health information topics.

Each session is held via teleconference and has an online component via Adobe Connect. All you need to participate is a phone near a computer with Internet access.

Public Health Online Resources - Virtual Tour of PHPartners.org

Presenter: Hathy Simpson
Date: February 3, 2009
Time: 10:00 – 11:30 AM
Description:
This session will provide an overview of public health information resources available from the public health web portal, PHPartners.org. The Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce website, http://PHPartners.org, provides access to selected online public health resources from government agencies, health science libraries, and professional and research organizations. Hathy Simpson, Public Health Coordinator for the NER and Content Developer for PHPartners.org, will highlight information resources tailored to the public health workforce including resources on health education and promotion, data and statistics, legislation and policy, jobs and careers, public health news, environmental health, nutrition, and more!

Registration:
Registration is free and on a first come, first serve basis.

To register, please contact Martha Pearson at martha.pearson@umassmed.edu. Details of how to access the teleconference and Adobe Connect session will be forwarded upon registration.

PubMed is constantly changing. To keep you informed I am going to post brief overviews on a regular basis. This first posting will cover the 3 display formats that are typically used when viewing search results: Summary, Abstract and Abstractplus.

What’s different in each PubMed display?

Display formats vary based on added features…

Summary display-this is the default display and where most of the new features are occurring. There are many experimental “discovery tools” being tested. A user may see a new box displayed to the right of their results one day but not another.
Here’s a quick overview of what is available now:

First the format of the citation has changed.  

• The title of the article now displays on top and is the link to open the abstract or abstractplus display.
  The option to have the author(s) display first is still available by using the drop-down menu to convert to text format or for saving to a file.
• The icons that indicated whether there was an abstract, full text or availability in PubMed Central are no longer available. Instead it is noted at the end of the citation if an abstract is not available; otherwise it can be assumed that there is one.
• PubMed Central availability is noted below the citation. The limits section in Advanced Search or preferences in MyNCBI can be used to filter your results for free full text. This is not clearly indicated in the summary format but icons to the supplier are shown in the abstract and abstrcatplus displays

New features:

• Recent Activity-a box displayed to the right of the results shows your search history in PubMed as well as other databases from NCBI, currently these include PubMed Central, Gene and OMIM

• Drug Sensor-a new resource from the PubMed Bookshelf titled, PubMed Clinical Q&A will display in a box on the right side of the page if content connected to the drug term is available. This resource is in process. It is a growing collection of evidence based medicine summaries (more on this in a future posting).

• Citation Sensor-

• Identifies components of a citation in your search terms and make suggestions for possible matches
• Displays in a yellow highlighted box at the top of the full results page

• Gene Sensor-currently displaying to 50% of the users, this will be located in the same area as the Citation Sensor-it will provide a link to a record(s) in Entrez Gene where terms from your search have identified information there.

MORE TO COME: additional boxes will randomly display to the right of the citation. Some of these, “Results found in article titles” and “Also Try”, are displaying to a limited amount of users now.

Click to view image

Abstract display-this format has not changed much. It is the most basic display with the abstract included-here library and publisher icons show at the top of the citation, related articles are identified with a link.

• Related Articles link is to the right of the citation
• Library and publisher icons are at the top of the citation

Click to view image

AbstractPlus display- this adds more content than the plain abstract page. The related articles feature is visible in a box to the right of the citation and results for consumer drug information are displayed here.

• Related articles with related reviews box-this is where the first five related articles are displayed in a box to the right of the citation, two review articles within that set are marked with the word highlighted in red. The results can be expanded by clicking on the appropriate link below the box.
• Patient Drug Information (AHFS Consumer Medication Information)-This is drug information intended for the consumer, the information comes from the same source used in MedlinePlus
• Library holdings, publisher icons-Icons linking to available full text are displayed, in abstractplus library icons are displayed below the citation and publisher icons are to the right above the boxes

Click to view image

By Caroline Marshall

Horblit Health Sciences Library

Danbury Hospital, Danbury CT

When I took on the role of consumer health librarian here at the hospital two years ago, I learned pretty soon that I had to be creative in how I went about promoting consumer health information. The reason, I had little or no budget!! Here are some ideas based on what I have done and what I plan to do to promote consumer health outreach.

I started off by visiting local public libraries and offered myself and my library as a resource for questions that they did not have the resources to answer. I let them know that they could refer patrons to me either by phone or in person. Additionally when I do projects such as the Sun Safety competition I do each year I send brochures, handouts and posters to the libraries so that they can display them for their patrons. I am working closely with a public library in NY State that contacted us regarding setting up a consumer health collection. In addition to providing collection advice I have put them in touch with our Community Relations department to help them set up health talks at the library with our physicians.

Another area to contact is the local high schools. For example, one of the nearby high schools has a multinational population. I offered to provide foreign language health resources and provided them with web links for their website. Additionally I arranged for the school’s Careers Club to visit and learn about several departments in the hospital. They were all very impressed by the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).

Don’t forget your local Community Organizations! I got in touch with the local Adult Education ESL coordinator and she very kindly faxed me a list of community organizations. I have visited the Senior Center and done a short presentation on MedlinePlus The list of organizations I visited is long, including a MOM’s Group, The Hispanic Center, and Women’s Center etc. Support Groups are another area for outreach. For example, in my area there is a Grandparents Support Group for grandparents raising their grandchildren. I will offer to do a presentation on MedlinePlus and NIH Senior Health. There is also a Low Vision Support group I was planning on visiting, to introduce them to audio health materials such as the MedlinePlus Tutorials and the Healthy Roads Media site that includes audio formats for a wide range of health topics. Additionally there is a Diabetes and Cancer support group. Your local Town Hall should be able to give you a list of support groups in your area.

Many communities have a Visiting Nurse Association and a Parish Nurse. Your local church should be able to put you in touch with your Parish Nurse and you could offer to do something at their next area meeting. They will probably be involved in local health fairs so you could offer to provide consumer health information on popular health topics. Always try to include some easy to read health information and handouts in large print. Find out if there is a particular minority group or groups in that area and be sure to include some information in that particular language.

Check out your local community college or university. They may have a health science course; my local university has a Health Promotion and Exercise Science Department which can lead to preparation as a community health educator or a school health educator. The courses cover consumer health, mental health, and CAM just to name a few. I agreed to do a presentation to a class in January on Health Literacy, showing the students resources for writing and developing easy to read health materials. MedlinePlus has a good section on Health Literacy and the CDC has a fairly comprehensive guide developing materials called Simply Put.

Work with a school or a class in school on a project. For example, if you support a project on Sun Safety you can get great posters from the American College of Dermatology which actually show the sun damage you cannot see with the naked eye. If you choose a class with younger children you could do an art project on ways to stay safe in the sun. The children in the lower grades may be more receptive to that type of project rather than the higher grades. You could also include a quiz and a word search and if you know any dermatologists or plastic surgeons you might be able to get some free samples of sun cream to hand out. The EPA has a SUNWISE Program for schools and communities with resources for educators http://www.epa.gov/sunwise/ this might be a good thing to introduce to local schools.

Another project which I want to do is work with a public library or an Adult Education Center to offer a class on how to find health information on the web.

I have made some post cards with my library’s name and that we can provide health information free of charge to be displayed at local health fairs. They say Be Informed; Horblit Health Sciences Library at Danbury Hospital provides health information free of charge to the public. Call or visit us etc. I make sure the Community Relations Department has a good stock and leave some in the lobby of the hospital. I have also given some to a local doctor’s office as a pilot study to see if their patients were interested in following up their visits with further information.

If you do have a Community Relations Department at your hospital it is a good idea to get to know them. I provide information for the health fairs they attend to promote the hospital. In addition they act as a Speaker’s Bureau providing physicians to speak at different health events and of course they like to have handouts. They have also invited me to several community events and I have managed to do some consumer outreach that way.

I always do my research first, checking out the web pages of the organizations I plan to visit, seeing where I can fit in. I have also set up a spreadsheet; I enter the month and who I met, phone number etc, what I gave them and whether it was an introductory meeting or a follow up. This way I can keep track of what I sent and who everyone is. It is also a good way of keeping stats !

Consumer Health Outreach is an ongoing project, you have to get yourself out there again and again. I have only had one, touch wood, bad experience when a school library I approached wouldn’t even talk to me. But, in general I have had good experiences and met some great people. One thing I particularly like to do is to invite the libraries I have worked with to come and visit my library so they can see where they are referring people. It also helps me to network for future collaborations. As I said it is an on going project but you just have to keep at it and enjoy yourself along the way.

“Connecting with the NER” A Distance Education Series: December Programs

Stay up to date professionally without leaving your desk! The National Network of Libraries of Medicine/ New England Region brings you a continuation of our popular distance education series. This ongoing series features hot topics in health sciences librarianship and highlights major updates to National Library of Medicine resources.

Register for one or both sessions. Additional sessions will be announced soon.

Each session is held via teleconference and will have an online component via Adobe Connect. All you need to participate is a phone near a computer with Internet access. Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. If there is more than one interested participant from your library, we encourage you to use a speaker phone to participate together.

We are currently accepting registrations for the first two programs.

PubMed and More: News from the National Library of Medicine
Lauri Kolakoski Fennell
Date: December 10, 2008
Time: 10:00-11:30 AM
Direct from her official NLM Orientation, Lauri will be sharing news and updates from Bethesda. The focus of the session will be on PubMed changes. New information on SIS and NCBI resources, along with other news from NLM, will also be covered. Watch for more details when she returns on December 8th.

Setting up RSS Feeds: Newsfeeds, Blogs, and PubMed
Penny Glassman
Date: December 17, 2008
Time: 2:00-3:30 PM
This session will provide participants with an introduction to the NN/LM NER Blog, describe how RSS feeds work with Bloglines and Google Feeds, and discuss PubMed RSS Feeds, including how to create a feed for your Web site.

Highlights:

1. The NN/LM NER Blog
2. RSS Feeds Explained
3. Feed Readers: Bloglines and Google
4. PubMed and RSS Feeds: Personal Use and Creating for a Web Site

To register, please contact Martha Pearson at martha.pearson@umassmed.edu <mailto:martha.pearson@umassmed.edu> and let her know the session(s) you want to attend. Details of how to access the teleconference and Adobe Connect session will be forwarded upon registration.

For additional information, including a preview of the sessions planned for January and February, please go to http://nnlm.gov/ner/training/distancelearning.html.

Learn about the history and future directions of MedlinePlus Go Local in Naomi Miller’s latest article, The NLM Hosted Go Local System: An Opportunity for Medical Libraries. Most importantly, learn how your library can benefit by participating in Go Local.

Welcome to October!

Marking Medical Librarians’ Month and to celebrate the work of medical librarians throughout the country, the National Library of Medicine has put out its annual page featuring the work of medical librarians and the interesting projects they conduct for their institutions and beyond.

This year New England Network Member institutions and their librarians in New Hampshire and Maine are recognized for their work respectively in theater and outreach to immigrant populations. Read about those projects at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/lo/profiles08/ner.html .

And you can read about the projects from all of the regions in the Network at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/lo/profiles08/.

Happy Medical Librarians’ Month!