National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) | |
NICHSR collaborates with other NLM components and with members of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine® (NN/LM®) to exhibit NLM products and services and to present specially focused training classes at national meetings of HSR-related organizations.
This four-module course is designed primarily for health sciences librarians. Module 1 provides basic concepts in health economics and guidance in identifying and using key secondary health economic information resources (bibliographic databases, value-added information, grey literature, web resources, etc). Module 2 covers sources and characteristics of information relating to health care financing in the U.S. in order to provide some context for understanding the role of health economics in health policy formulation and decision-making. Modules 3 and 4 cover health economic evaluation studies - how to search for published studies in MEDLINE (and EMBASE) and how to use the Drummond 10-point checklist for assessing their quality. This course may also be of interest to others who would like to develop more systematic approaches to finding information relating to health economics.
The course was created from modules originally presented at the Medical Library Association 2002 as a Continuing Education workshop. Sponsored by NICHSR, the CE workshop was developed and taught by Moira Napper, University of Aberdeen, Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), and Jean Newland, Lippincott Library, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
The online interactive format for this course and the review, quizzes, and related content were developed for NICHSR by Laura Larsson, MLS, and Charles Hendricksen, PhD, Cedar Collaboration. Click for PDF version of Introduction and Quizzes, 3.98MB ; Click for PDF version of Module 1, 1.46MB ;Click for PDF version of Module 2, 1.17MB ; Click for PDF version of Module 3, 772kb ; Click for PDF version of Module 4, 1.07MB .
These recommendations consist of compilations of selected books, journals, Web sites, and bibliographic databases related to health outcomes. Produced by AcademyHealth at the request of the National Library of Medicine’s National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR), the project focused on developing the core and desired sets of resources for health libraries and those new to the field. A brief introduction answers the questions - What are health outcomes? and Why are they important? A full project report (in PDF) is also available.
Due to the breadth of the methodological areas covered by health services research, these recommendations are organized both by core and desired materials, as well as by topic area. An introductory essay answers the questions - What Are Health Services Research Methods? and Why Are They Important?
What are the key resources in health economics? The National Library of Medicine contracted with AcademyHealth to tackle this question and develop a report (available in PDF) with a core list of materials (books, journals, websites and bibliographic databases) and a desired list of books and journals in the field of health economics. The lists are primarily geared to individuals who are new to the field or unfamiliar with the various resources on health economics and need to acquire and/or access publications, databases, and websites in the health economics domain.
What information resources are essential in a library supporting health policy programs and/or a workforce working on health policy issues? The National Library of Medicine decided to take a look at this question. It contracted with AcademyHealth to provide a selected list of essential materials in health policy. The resulting report (in PDF format at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/corelib/corelibhp.pdf) intended as a selection guide rather than as standard, provides recommendations for books, journals, Internet sites, and organizations and publishers to monitor for reports. The recommendations are primarily geared to academic and health sciences librarians who are not familiar with the literature of health policy and who need to acquire publications or assist in locating Internet sites in the domain. However, we hope that librarians and other information providers in hospital and related special libraries may also find the recommendations useful.
The project is motivated by the desire to collect and document the insights and experiences of innovators and leaders in the field of health services research. It is co-sponsored by the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) and the History of Medicine Division (HMD). Several initiatives are being pursued: individual oral and video interviews, a historical video for use in training health science librarians and HSR students, and solicitation and archiving of pertinent collections of papers.
NLM commissioned a historian to write a video script drawing on the library of oral history transcripts and video interviews that NLM has developed as part of its effort to document the history of Health Services Research (HSR). The video combines narrative with the interviews to relate the development of HSR into a recognized field of study. HSR had its beginnings in 17th century England, came into prominence in the 1960s and today struggles to provide data to answer these enduring central health care questions: What works? Under what circumstances? For which condition? and At what cost?
The health services researchers interviewed in the video (in order of their initial appearance) are: Kerr White, Dorothy Rice, Charles Flagle, Mitch Greenlick, Morris Collen, Edward Hinman, Norman Weissman, audio of Sam Shapiro, Karen Davis, Joseph Newhouse, Kathleen Lohr, Judith Lave, Gordon DeFriese, John Wennberg, Paul Cleary, and Marsha Lillie-Blanton.
Follow the link above to view the video as a RealMedia Web presentation with associated table of contents. To see the captioned version click here. This presentation requires RealPlayer. Download a copy here. Please note that the free version of RealPlayer is RealPlayer 8 basic, available by clicking on the link on the lower left of the RealPlayer page.
Copies of the 48 minute video are available free from NICHSR. email: nichsr@nlm.nih.gov
Health statistics can be difficult to track down. They are also difficult to use because they feature information collected from competing perspectives. This class presents sources of statistics based on four broad areas: health correlates, health conditions, health care and health consequences. It puts statistics, particularly government statistics, in context by providing explanations of the rationale behind data collection. That is, why are specific federal agencies collecting data and what purpose will this data serve, in terms of health policy and planning? Further, the class demonstrates how to identify and find important results; assess the benefits and limitations of these results; and progress from summaries to detailed original reports. Instruction in this self-study class is reinforced by a series of 15 exercises.
The course developer and instructor, Dr. Dan Melnick, previously directed the federal government's Office of Applied Studies, which reports statistics for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He also served as a Division Director for the National Science Foundation and as a Specialist in Federal Statistical Policy at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. The course is based on Dr. Melnick's latest book, Portrait of Health in the United States, published (expected January 2001) by Bernan Press.
Dr. Goodman's HTA 101: Introduction to Health Technology Assessment includes a discussion of the origins and fundamental concepts and issues of health technology assessment (HTA), basic steps in the practice of HTA, suggested readings, and a glossary of HTA terms. It is available in PDF format for printing.
A recently added feature on the Partners Web site is the Healthy People 2010 Information Access Project. The National Library of Medicine and the Public Health Foundation staffs worked together to develop pre-formulated search strategies for selected Healthy People 2010 focus areas. The one-click strategies run subject searches of the PubMed database.
Last reviewed: 25 February 2009
Last updated: 25 February 2009
First published: 01 January 2001
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanent: Dynamic Content