MAR announced the inaugural issue of our quarterly newsletter–The MAReport.

Our goal is…

• to spotlight various aspects of our services and NLM resources
• to highlight a Network member
• to announce classes and training for the next quarter, and
• to touch on any number of possible topics in future issues

Make sure to sign-up to receive future issues using the Subscribe feature. Also, please share the newsletter with colleagues and friends:  http://nnlm.gov/mar/newsletter/.

Make sure to check out the various free classes and training opportunities MAR is providing over the next couple of months.  A brief list includes:

• Combatting Information Fatigue: Health Information Resources for Veterans (online)
• 10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning (online)
• PubMed for Experts (in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA)

The third in our series of resources for National Preparedness Month addresses the concerns of pet owners during an emergency or disaster.  According to the 2011-2012 American Pet Products Association, 72% of U.S. households own at least one pet.  Translated into numbers, approximately 78.2 million dogs and about 86.4 million cats are owned in the United States.  The Ready Campaign, FEMA, Citizen Corps, American Red Cross, and the Humane Society of the United States have developed a community pet preparedness toolkit for owners or pet caregivers.  The toolkit contains links to pet-friendly lodgings, Ready Campaign Pets Toolkit, a trifold brochure that you can print for your consumers and community members, plus much more to explore.

Michelle Burda

Network & Advocacy Coordinator

National Network of Libraries of Medicine

Middle Atlantic Region

PDF available from the National Academies Press

From the use of personal products to our consumption of food, water, and air, people are exposed to a wide array of agents each day—many with the potential to affect health. Exposure science investigates the contact of humans or other organisms with those agents (that is, chemical, physical, and biologic stressors) and their fate in living systems. Exposure science has been instrumental in helping us understand how stressors affect human and ecosystem health, and in efforts to prevent or reduce contact with harmful stressors. In this way exposure science has played an integral role in many areas of environmental health, and can help meet growing needs in environmental regulation, urban and ecosystem planning, and disaster management. There are increasing demands for exposure science information, for example to meet needs for data on the thousands of chemicals introduced into the market each year, and to better understand the health effects of prolonged low-level exposure to stressors. Recent advances in tools and technologies—including sensor systems, analytic methods, molecular technologies, computational tools, and bioinformatics—have provided the potential for more accurate and comprehensive exposure science data than ever before. This report provides a roadmap to take advantage of the technologic innovations and strategic collaborations to move exposure science into the future.

September is National Preparedness Month and the National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) has lots of resources on preparing for the unexpected! It is up to all of us to be informed during disaster and emergencies, and DIMRC’s goal is to connect people to quality disaster health information. We’ll be sending out lists of resources on 3 topics throughout the month of September. We encourage you to take some time to explore these resources and to share them with your patrons.

This week, take some time to check out these resources on how to get involved in disaster preparedness and response:

American Red Cross

The Red Cross responds to approximately 70,000 disasters in the United States every year and offers flexible volunteer opportunities and classes in live-saving skills.

Community Emergency Response Teams

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help.

Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals

The Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals (ESAR-VHP) is a federal program created to support states and territories in establishing standardized volunteer registration programs for disasters and public health and medical emergencies. The program, administered on the state level, verifies health professionals’ identification and credentials so that they can respond more quickly when disaster strikes. By registering through ESAR-VHP, volunteers’ identities, licenses, credentials, accreditations, and hospital privileges are all verified in advance, saving valuable time in emergency situations.

Medical Reserve Corps

The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is a national network of local groups of volunteers committed to improving the health, safety, and resiliency of their communities. MRC units are community-based and work to locally organize and utilize volunteers who want to donate their time and expertise to prepare for and respond to emergencies and promote healthy living throughout the year. MRC volunteers supplement existing emergency and public health resources.

You can also find more information on disaster medicine and public health preparedness on DIMRC’s website: http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/

Caroline Spellman (Contractor)

Associate Consultant

Aquilent, Inc., supporting the mission of the National Library of Medicine

Specialized Information Services Division

Disaster Information Management Research Center

6707 Democracy Blvd., Ste. 510

Bethesda, MD 20892-5467

spellmancm@nlm.nih.gov

Check out the September issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research. In this edition:

See, Hear, Speak / Are Kids’ Senses Ready for School?
Early classroom success depends on healthy hearing, vision, speech and language. If a child has problems in these areas, the sooner they’re spotted, the better they can be treated.
Read more about hearing, language and vision at school.

Safe Driving for Distracted Teens / Steering in the Right Direction
Mile for mile, teens are involved in 3 times as many fatal crashes as more experienced drivers. Why are young drivers so vulnerable to accidents and injuries? And what can we do to reduce their risk? NIH-funded researchers are looking for some answers.
Read more about teen driving.

Health Capsules:

• Household Mold Linked to Asthma in Children
• Video Looks at the Science of Yoga

Featured Website: 52 Weeks for Women’s Health

This week’s featured emergency and disaster preparedness resource provides librarians and other healthcare information providers with information from NLM’s Specialized Services (SIS) Disaster Information Management Research Center (DMIRC).  This center collects, organizes and disseminates health information resources and informatics research related to disasters of natural, accidental, or deliberate origin.  DIMRC is committed to maintain access to health information during disasters for example, the Emergency Access Initiative (EAI) provides temporary, free, full-text access from major biomedical journals and numerous e-books and databases following any widespread disaster that is expected to severely limit libraries’ abilities to function for at least several weeks.  DIMRC also develops innovative products and services to serve health professionals and the public, conducts research to support disaster health information management and collaborates with other agencies and communities.

Michelle Burda

Network & Advocacy Coordinator

National Network of Libraries of Medicine

Middle Atlantic Region

Date:  September 24, 2012

Location:  New York Academy of Medicine

Details:  http://www.iom.edu/Activities/PublicHealth/HealthLiteracy/2012-SEP-24.aspx

From the Institute of Medicine—The International Health Literacy meeting will be available to  the public as a webinar – live audio and the PowerPoint slides will be broadcast.  Please pass this along to any listservs, colleagues, and other interested groups.  People can sign up at this page: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/988831/BPH-WEBINAR-Improving-Health-Health-Systems-and-Health-Policy-Around-the-World-9-24-12 and they  will receive an email with a link to the broadcast page on the day of the event.  Several days after the meeting video will be made available on the Roundtable page.  The IOM will be promoting the webinar to its members and on social media throughout the month.  We would like to thank Linda Harris and HHS for making this possible.

Presenter:  Siobhan Champ-Blackwell, Aquilent

Location:  Free, Online:  http://nnlm.gov/mar/ (the URL is posted the morning of each session)

Date:  September 11, 2012

Description: Ms. Champ-Blackwell promotes and implements the disaster health information goals of the Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and for the Bethesda Hospitals’ Emergency Preparedness Partnership.

Learn about NLM disaster information resources and emergency response tools. See a demo of the Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER) and how it can provide emergency responders with critical information in the palm of their hand.

MAR announced the inaugural issue of our quarterly newsletter–The MAReport.

Our goal is…

• to spotlight various aspects of our services and NLM resources
• to highlight a Network member
• to announce classes and training for the next quarter, and
• to touch on any number of possible topics in future issues

Make sure to sign-up to receive future issues using the Subscribe feature. Also, please share the newsletter with colleagues and friends:  http://nnlm.gov/mar/newsletter/.