Update: This class is now full (3/4/09 - 5pm ET) - Please contact Sheila Snow-Croft to be put on a waiting list for the next session - to be announced.

Online Training Opportunity
Nursing on the Net: Health Care Resources You Can Use

March 9-20, 2009

Taught by Sheila Snow-Croft, this session will begin on the 9th of March
and end on the 20th. 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.

Below is a description of a team-taught Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Division of Health Sciences Informatics course on “Bringing Evidence to Practice” for health sciences librarians. It will be on Mondays from 9-12 in the fourth academic quarter starting March 23 and ending on May 11, 2009. The tuition for the 1.5 credit course is $1805. The course requires students to bring some background in statistics. The aim of the course is to teach core skills associated with the Informationist role in clinical and public health contexts – finding and presenting evidence to address a clinical or public health question.

Prospective students should contact Kate Oliver by email (koliver1@jhmi.edu) to discuss the prerequisites prior to registering. Kate would be happy to answer any other questions you might have.

ME 600.807. To Be Offered 2008-9, 4th quarter (Mar 23 - May 15, 2009),
Mondays 9-12.

Course Description: This course is designed for professionals seeking to
develop the core competencies needed to assume an informationist role in the
fields of clinical medicine and public health. Students will analyze and
present evidence to support decision-making in case scenarios drawn from
clinical or public health practice. A combination of lecture and laboratory
exercises will teach the skills involved in finding, analyzing, and
delivering evidence for clinical and public health decision-making:
identifying a question embedded in a case presentation, developing effective
search strategies for relevant evidence to address the question, evaluating
and synthesizing the identified evidence, and effectively presenting that
evidence. Evaluations will be based on participation in class, exercise
completion, and final oral and written presentations of assigned cases.

The prerequisites are a Master’s degree from an accredited Library and
Information Science program or permission of the instructor and Bloomberg
School of Public Health (BSPH) courses 140.611.01 Statistical Reasoning In
Public Health I and 140.612.01 Statistical Reasoning In Public Health II or
the equivalent. (These courses are offered during 1st and 2nd Quarters or as
a part of BSPH Summer Institutes. They are also offered through the Internet
as a part of the Distance Education program at BSPH). Evidence of the
applicant’s training and experience in literature searching will be an
important factor in the instructor’s evaluation of course applicants who
seek an exception to the prerequisite professional information degree.
Course enrollment is limited to 10 students. Minimum of 5 students required
to offer the course. 1.5 credits. Tuition: $1805.00

The course faculty are:
Kathleen Burr Oliver, MSLS, MPH, Course
Director koliver@jhmi.edu
Harold P. Lehmann, MD, PhD, FACMI, lehmann@jhmi.edu
Deborah Ann McClellan, PhD, dmcc@jhmi.edu
Karen A. Robinson, MSc, krobin@jhmi.edu
Claire Twose, MLIS, ctwose1@jhmi.edu

http://www.medpedia.com/about

Medpedia is just getting started. It is a long term project and is not yet a comprehensive resource. Medpedia is applying a new collaborative model to the collection, sharing and advancement of medical knowledge that, over time, will produce the world’s most comprehensive resource.

The Medpedia Project and Medpedia.com is maintained by Medpedia Inc., a brainchild of Ooga Labs, a technology greenhouse in San Francisco. It is produced in association with Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other leading global health organizations. Medpedia will be a commons for the gathering of the information and people critical to health care. Many organizations have united to support The Medpedia Project.

Medpedia is for use by both medical professionals and non-professionals. Its intended uses and benefits include:

• Knowledge sharing and communications tool for people with similar medical interests
• Source of insight and new knowledge for medical professionals
• Historical repository for real-world discussions of medical topics of interest
• Up-to-date news of the latest developments in medicine

Here’s your chance to use your information/library science Master’s degree to very good purpose. If this Fellowship doesn’t fit with your interests or timing, please pass this announcement along to others who may wish to pursue application.

The Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund will award two 12-month, paid “Learning Partnerships” placing experienced health sciences librarians within leading health care organizations for the purpose of both partners gaining a greater understanding of how best information sciences can be effectively applied in each environment. This on-the-edge fellowship offers mid-career librarians the opportunity to be fully immersed in the environment of a health care organization. The fellow will participate in team settings designed to utilize the librarian’s skills and knowledge in non-traditional ways, resulting in a tangible and valuable contribution to the host organization. For more information about the Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund, the Learning Partnerships, fellowship application process, and eligibility requirements, please visit the Sewell Fund website at http://www.sewellfund.org/LearningPartnerships2009.htm.

Although only two Fellowships will be awarded, three Host Organizations have been selected to vie for the placements. They include:

• The Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy at the University of Florida, Shands/UF Hospital, and the UF Health Sciences Library in Gainesville are working together to experience how librarians can truly be members of the health care team. They are designing a position called a “clinical patient informationist”. This unique health care practitioner would work alongside clinicians and patients to directly impact patient care and outcomes.
• San Antonio Metropolitan Public Health District’s mission is to provide leadership and services for San Antonio and Bexar County to prevent illness and injury, promote healthy behaviors, and protect against health hazards. As a local governmental public health agency Metro Health works at the front line of community health by providing essential health surveillance, laboratory services, education and outreach, emergency response programs, regulatory activities and policy interventions. The Learning Partnership Librarian will take a leadership role in the development and implementation of two major department initiatives: (1) A comprehensive Employee Education & Development Program; and (2) An Information & Communications program to expand the use of information technology to promote awareness of Metro Health resources and services and respond to public information needs. Supplementing Metro Health as host of a Learning Partnership Librarian, the San Antonio Regional Campus of The University of Texas School of Public Health and the University of Texas Health Science Center Library have committed as partners to provide resources and mentorship for the Learning Partnership.
• The Public Health Foundation (PHF), incorporated in the District of Columbia, is a national, non-profit 501(c)3 organization with a clear focus on improving public health infrastructure and the performance of public health agencies and systems. For more than 35 years, PHF has been on the forefront of initiatives designed to strengthen and improve the infrastructure and performance of systems that protect and promote the public’s health. The mission of PHF is: Improving public health infrastructure and performance through innovative solutions and measurable results. This mission aims to help PHF achieve its ultimate vision to create “a high-performing public health system that protects and promotes health in every community.”

More information about the host organizations can be found on the Sewell Fund website at http://www.sewellfund.org/LearningPartnerships2009.htm

Eligibility:

• Only those individuals with an MLS or equivalent degree from an ALA-approved university program are eligible to apply for the fellowship. Candidates must be mid-career; applicants who have just finished their MLS will not be considered.
• Must be available for a full-time, 12-consecutive-month fellowship.
• Candidates must be United States citizens or have met the requirements of I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification for employment in the United States prior to application for the fellowship
• Prepare to sign a Partnership Agreement with the Host Organization and the Sewell Fund which specifies performance and reporting expectations.

For more information about the fellowship, please visit the Sewell Fund website at http://www.sewellfund.org/LearningPartnerships2009.htm

The University of Florida’s Health Science Center Libraries has been named a host organization for the Sewell Learning Partnership for 2009/2010.

This program is similar to the NLM 2nd year associate program and provides funding so that a mid-career librarian can be placed in a health sciences environment. The Sewell Foundation is now recruiting for mid-career librarians for this program.   http://www.sewellfund.org/LearningPartnerships2009.htm

If anyone has questions about the UF project, please contact Beth Layton at the University of Florida.

by Jennifer Wenger, Office of Public Liaison, NIH
(301) 496-7243, jwenger@mail.nih.gov

Stellar Scientists, Author Took Part in NIDCD’s 20th Anniversary Symposium http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/about/20th_symposium_video.htm

The scientific and human sides of communication and communication disorders were featured when the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), one of the National Institutes of Health, held a symposium to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The symposium took place at the Natcher Conference Center, on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md. It highlighted accomplishments of NIDCD research over the past two decades as well as the perspectives and talents of people who have a personal connection with a communication disorder.

In her presentation “In an Instant,” author Lee Woodruff shared her family’s story about the life-altering changes they experienced when her husband, ABC news anchor and reporter Bob Woodruff, suffered a traumatic brain injury after his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Iraq. (The Woodruffs coauthored The New York Times bestselling book of the same title.) Mr. Woodruff’s injury impacted the language part of his brain causing aphasia, a disorder that affects a person’s ability to express and understand language. In addition, Ms. Woodruff discussed her experience when she and her husband discovered that their 5-month-old daughter – one of twins – was hearing-impaired.

The symposium included three scientific sessions representing NIDCD’s primary areas of research: hearing and balance; smell and taste; and voice, speech, and language. An opening session entitled “As Time Goes By: A Population Perspective on Hearing in Aging,” was delivered by epidemiologist Karen J. Cruickshanks, Ph.D., an NIDCD advisory council member and a professor in the Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Presenters for the Hearing and Balance section included:

• David P. Corey, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, who spoke on “Biophysics, Genes, and Structure: An Integrated Understanding of the Inner Ear.”
• John K. Niparko, M.D., professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who spoke on “Childhood Development after Cochlear Implantation.”

Presenters for the Smell and Taste section included:

• Richard Axel, M.D., university professor and investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University, who spoke on “Internal Representations of the Olfactory World.” Dr. Axel is a recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his groundbreaking research on the sense of smell.
• Gary K. Beauchamp, Ph.D., director and president of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, who spoke on “The Chemical Senses and Human Health: Food and the Environment.”

Presenters for the Voice, Speech, and Language section included:

• Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, who spoke on “Language Across the Life Span: Improving Lives in the 21st Century.”
• Robert E. Remez, Ph.D. professor in the Department of Psychology, Columbia University, who spoke on “Progress and Prospects in Research on Speech Perception.”

The symposium also featured musical performances by Yew Choong Cheong, an internationally acclaimed pianist with hearing loss, and Richard Reed, a rock-and-roll and R&B musician who lost his hearing from exposure to certain medications and who now wears a cochlear implant. Cheong, who is currently working toward his Ph.D. in music at West Virginia University, performed in the atrium during registration and throughout the closing reception. Reed performed a first-hand demonstration on his keyboard of what music sounds like through a cochlear implant, entitled “Music Lost and Found.”

Also providing remarks that day were Raynard S. Kington, M.D., Ph.D., deputy director of NIH and James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIDCD;. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who authored the legislation that created the NIDCD, offered remarks by videotape. Scientific posters from NIDCD intramural researchers were featured during the reception, and professional and advocacy organizations in the area of communication disorders staffed exhibits featuring educational resources and other information.

For more information about NIDCD programs, and release of the webcast of the anniversary symposium, see the NIDCD Web site at www.nidcd.nih.gov.

The Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University in collaboration with the National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC) released a new edition of the knowledge path about oral health for infants, children, adolescents, and pregnant women. Presented in time for Children’s Dental Health Month in February, this electronic guide points to resources that analyze data, describe effective programs, and report on policy and research aimed at improving access to and the quality of oral health care. The knowledge path contains sections with resources for professionals, resources for consumers, and resources on specific aspects of oral health. Topics include child care and Head Start, dental sealants, early childhood caries, fluoride varnish, K-12 education, pregnancy, school-based care, school evaluation mandates, and special health care needs. The knowledge path is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_oralhealth.html. Knowledge paths on other topics are available at http://mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/index.html.

Susan Brune Lorenzo, MLS
E-mail: smblorenzo@gmail.com
Maternal and Child Health Library
National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health at Georgetown University
Web site: http://mchlibrary.info

March 8-13, 2009, Portland, Oregon

All communities have unmet health needs. Sometimes it is hard to determine exactly what those needs are, and often it is hard to get programs funded.

Researchers can help quantify health needs, but there is frequently a disconnect between what the community wants and what the researcher wants. That’s where a partnership between research and communities can help.

The goal of this program is to provide community members with the tools to approach researchers, identify research questions, write grants and collaborate on projects that address cancer health disparities. This training seminar is open to tribal community members with an interest in improving cancer prevention, screening, and treatment in his or her community. Throughout the week, participants will become familiar with elements of writing a winning community-based grant. Seminar topics will cover the following grant-writing basics: where to locate funding sources, how to establish grant-writing goals and objectives, how to develop a budget, and more.

Successful applicants receive a scholarship covering travel, hotel, per diem meal allowance, and course materials.

Click here for a brochure with an application form and draft agenda.

Applications are due by February 6, 2009.

If you are unable to view the attached application, please contact Jessica Kennedy and she can get an application form to you. Ms. Kennedys e-mail address is blarjesj@ohsu.edu and her phone number is (503) 494-1126.

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine MidContinental Region is sponsoring a workshop on Knowledge Management to be held in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 16-17. Participants of this workshop must attend as a team of two. The teams must include a hospital librarian and a professional from another department in the same institution. The goal of the workshop is for each team to explore the potential of knowledge management in the hospital setting, and to develop and implement a program in their institution.

In addition to the April 16-17, 2009 workshop, there will be required readings, two required online pre-workshop sessions and post-workshop communication sessions. These pre-workshop sessions will be held on March 9 and April 7 on Adobe Connect. The post-workshop sessions will be scheduled at a later date.

Cost of the workshop is $35: this includes one lunch and all break refreshments. This workshop is open to participants nationwide; however preference will be given to members of the MidContinental Region. The first 2 teams of MidContinental Region network members accepted for the workshop will have their travel expenses paid. Those 2 teams will be responsible to attend all sessions and either present their project within 18 months of the session or publish their work in a MidContinental Region publication.

For further information, and to apply to the workshop, go to http://nnlm.gov/mcr/education/classes_knowledge_management.html.
Deadline for submission of applications is February 6, 2009.

Update 1/29/09

The NN/LM-New England Region’s online learning program on Health Information Outreach and Community Engagement: Lessons Learned from the Experts is full. We are pleased with the overwhelming enthusiasm for the program. Due to a large waiting list, the program will be recorded for later viewing. The NER plans to send the link for the recording directly to participants on the waiting list as well as post it on our Connecting with the NER site. Unfortunately, MLA CE units will not be awarded for viewing the recording of the program

Health Information Outreach and Community Engagement: Lessons Learned from the Experts

Thursday, February 12, 2009 / 2 – 3:30 PM

Engaging your community with health information outreach projects is rewarding, meaningful work. Come learn from the experiences of experts in health information outreach and community engagement. Each speaker has led a successful health information outreach subcontract from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine/ New England Region. The program is intended for anyone interested in pursuing funding or learning more about how to engage the local community in effective health information outreach.

*Earn 1.5 Medical Library Association CE units

The Experts:

Beth Schneider, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Project: Access to Resources for Community Health (ARCH) / Head Start CAPIC Collaboration
Marianne Burke, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Project: Connecting Patients, Providers, and the Community with Quality Health Information Outreach
Anne Conner, Littleton Regional Hospital, Littleton, NH
Project: Northern New Hampshire Health Information Outreach

Participants will:

a) Learn about three successful health information outreach projects
b) Learn how to plan and implement a successful health information outreach project
c) Know about the process of applying for funding from the NN/LM
d) Be aware of the rewards and challenges of conducting a health information outreach project
e) Gain knowledge about project evaluation

Registration:
Registration is free and on a first come, first serve basis. Session will be limited to fifty participants.
To register, please contact Martha Pearson at martha.pearson@umassmed.edu.

In your email please include:
• Name
• Institution/address with zip code/phone/e-mail
• Name of the program (Health Information Outreach and Community Engagement: Lessons Learned from the Experts).

Details of how to access the teleconference and Adobe Connect session will be forwarded at registration.