The NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan’s online toolkit has a new page as of today.  The Pandemic Planning page is located here:  http://nnlm.gov/ep/pandemic-planning/. 

The page contains links to the CDC’s H1N1 site as well as to several Word documents that contain information about pandemic planning, some service continuity issues that may need to be addressed, and a sample of a table-top exercise that can be used to assist in pandemic planning.

According to Susan Yowell, Project Assistant, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan,”The current focus of the content of the page is on academic health sciences libraries, but we believe the content can be adapted to suit the needs of other types of libraries or institutions.  We will continue to develop the page, adding relevant content as it emerges.”

*Special thanks to Susan Yowell, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, Charlottesville, VA, for this information.

Check out the August issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest National Institutes of Health research.

In this edition:

Concerned About Coffee? It May Actually Be Good for You
Because it tastes so good, you may assume coffee is bad for you. But researchers are finding that coffee poses little to no health risk for most people. It may even have some health benefits.

You’ve Got Rhythm: Your Internal Clock Affects Your Health
While you struggle to stay on time for your daily activities, your body has its own internal clock. Every day, this clock helps you feel alert at work, hungry at mealtime and drowsy at night. When you fight against your biological clock, your health can suffer.

Health Capsules:
•    Questions Raised About “Depression Gene”
•    Tasty Recipes for People with Diabetes
•    Featured Web Site: NIH Education and Awareness Campaigns

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.
Visit our Facebook wall to suggest topics you’d like us to cover, or start a discussion about how you use the newsletter. We want to hear what you think! Also check out the NIH Health & Science Gifts and send some to your Facebook friends.
Please pass the word on to your colleagues about 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.

To help inform and empower the Latino population in the United States, Self Reliance Foundation provides an interactive, multi-dimensional online presence with its Acceso Hispano initiative. The fundamental goal of Acceso Hispano is to improve the quality of life of the Hispanic population living in the United States by linking to the support services or information they may need. The site serves as a news platform and communication tool between service providers, promotores and the public, as well as provides educational resources. All portions of the website are available in English and Spanish.

Acceso Hispano has recently launched an online service provider directory as a tool for connecting service providers to the communities which seek them out. The directory currently contains more than 17,000 community organizations, services, and programs throughout the United States, related to education, health, civic participation, finances, violence reduction, arts and culture, science and environment, and immigration.  Any 501c3 nonprofit organization, community group, government or educational institution that provides affordable or free and bilingual services is encouraged to add their listing to the database and to utilize the search services to help provide referrals to clients.

 The Acceso Hispano website may be accessed at http://www.accesohispano.org

Healthy Roads Media has responded to numerous requests for materials available in a format which could be used in closed-circuit television or video-on-demand systems by hospitals, large clinics, educational systems and social service systems to provide information to populations they are trying to serve.

Healthy Roads Media has recently converted approximately thirty topics into an MPEG video format that will work in these systems. To cover the costs of this effort and maintain the resources, a fee will be requested for these files.

(more…)

On Thursday, July 16, 2009, MedlinePlus® news published a story from Reuters Health with these three key points:

1.) H1N1 virus has spread more quickly than other pandemics;

2.) The World Health Organization (WHO) states it is ”pointless” to count individual cases;

3.) Countries should track deaths, unusual patterns

WHO has said that the current H1N1 pandemic is the “fastest-moving pandemic ever”, and that it is now virtually “pointless” to try to count every case. The WHO Briefing note (issued July 16) went on to say that “further spread of the pandemic, within affected countries and to new countries, is considered inevitable.”  Influenza viruses of past pandemics have required six months or more to spread as widely as the new H1N1 virus has spread in less than six weeks.

(more…)

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has launched new resources in Spanish.

These may be accessed from the AHRQ main website (http://www.ahrq.gov/) by following the link to “Informacion en español” or by going directly to the page at http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/espanoix.htm

These resources include: a monthly online health advice column, Consejos de Salud Para Tí (Health Advice for You); more than thirty-five consumer guides on healthcare quality, surgery, health conditions, and diseases; thirty- and sixty-second audio spots on health issues; and links to the latest health news of interest to the public. Users may subscribe to free e-mail updates.

All of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Presentations from the Medical Library Association (MLA) Annual Conference 2009 have been posted on the NLM Technical Bulletin.

MLA 2009: NLM® Online Users’ Meeting: Remarks

MLA 2009: NLM® Online Users’ Meeting: Questions and Answers

MLA 2009: NLM Online Users’ Meeting: PowerPoint® Presentations for Meeting Remarks, MedlinePlus®, and DOCLINE®

MLA 2009: NLM® Theater Presentations

MLA 2009: NLM® Update PowerPoint® Presentations

One topic covered in many of these presentations was the PubMed redesign. In developing the redesign concepts, NCBI has the following goals:

• Make PubMed easier to use
• Simplify the interface
• Refresh the look of the site
• Organize information better
• Make “power features” readily accessible
• Promote scientific discovery

MedlinePlus enhanced its Health News RSS feeds this week. The MedlinePlus Health News feeds now include images and hyperlinks to corresponding MedlinePlus Health Topics. The images add visual interest to the feeds and the Health Topic links allow subscribers to quickly and easily access information on the diseases, conditions, and wellness issues that are discussed in the news stories and press announcements.

You can subscribe to the Health News RSS feeds by copying and pasting the URLs below into your preferred RSS reader/aggregator:

MedlinePlus Health News (English): http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/feeds/news_en.xml
MedlinePlus Health News (Spanish): http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/feeds/news_es.xml

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) brings you a new issue of the newsletter “Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Focus on Research and Care,” at http://nccam.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2009_may. Among the stories featured:

• Four out of five American adults will experience low-back pain (LBP). Many will try complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies to manage their pain. Given the many choices, how can one approach making decisions about CAM use for LBP?

• An eminent surgeon and bestselling author delivers the first Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture on the Science of CAM, on “Chinese Medicine, Western Science, and Acupuncture.”

• A special section for consumers addresses “Spinal Manipulation for Low-Back Pain” and “Acupuncture for Pain.”

• A member of NCCAM’s National Advisory Board who is a pain researcher and a chiropractic physician offers his perspective.

• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has, among its goals, spurring advances in biomedical research and the Nation’s health. What are NCCAM’s topic areas for these funds?

• The National Institutes of Health has a website—including information on CAM—designed specifically for older people.

In addition to this newsletter, you can subscribe to the monthly “NCCAM Update” eBulletin. To learn more, visit http://nccam.nih.gov/news/subscribe.htm.

Last week, the H1N1 influenza virus returned to the forefront of national and world news with the announcement of its elevation to Phase 6 pandemic status by the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO Pandemic Phase Descriptions indicate that the primary difference between Phase 5 and Phase 6 is related to its spread to additional regions and countries of the world, and is not related to the severity of the illness or the number of resulting deaths. Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO, in her press release on June 11, 2009 stated, “No previous pandemic has been detected so early or watched so closely, in real-time, right at the very beginning. The world can now reap the benefits of investments, over the last five years, in pandemic preparedness.”

(more…)