Network News
July/August 2003
- Contents:
- New From the NN/LM SCR
Office
- New Special Populations
Outreach Coordinator
- Express Public Health
Outreach Award: RFP
- Partners in Public Health
Information Outreach: RFP
- Internet Connectivity Project
Sites Awarded
- DOCLINE
Update
- Reaching Out
- LIP Sites for Year 03
- Ariel Project Sites
Selected
- Inside Funding
- What's New with NLM
Databases?
- Technology
Notes
- Health Statistics on the
Internet
- The National Institutes of
Health: NCCAM
- In Every Issue:
- Regional Training and
Exhibit Calendar
- Employment
Opportunities
- NLM
Technical Bulletin
News From the
NN/LM SCR Office
--Renée Bougard, Associate Director
I would like to thank
the Network members who applied to the equipment
opportunities that we announced in May 2003. We had an
overwhelming response in almost every category of funding
that was available. Unfortunately, we are not able to fund
all the applicants at this time. Lists of awardees for each
project are included in this issue of Network
News.
Currently, we have a couple of larger public health
funding opportunities available. You may want to consider
the NN/LM SCR Express Public Health Outreach Award (see the
article at:
http://nnlm.gov/scr/scnn/jul-aug03/express.htm). Based upon
awards offered in other NN/LM regions, this new award
introduces a new application method. The Express Outreach
Call for Application is less intense than most of our
Request For Proposals. Primary Access Libraries (PALs) and
first-time applicants will receive special consideration. A
larger Partners in Public Health Information Outreach RFP
is also being offered (see the article at: http://nnlm.gov/scr/scnn/jul-aug03/partners.htm).
Both have mid-September due dates. If you are interested
and require additional information on either funding
opportunity, please contact Michelle Malizia.
The NN/LM SCR office is preparing for the NLM Site Visit
and Review on September 22, 2003, at the RML in Houston. In
late August/early September, we will announce the
availability of a feedback web form. The form will allow
our Network members to submit comments on the NN/LM SCR
programs and services. This information will be provided to
the Site Review Team for review. We want to encourage each
of you to submit your feedback, positive or otherwise. Let
the NLM Site Visit Team, as well as your RML, know what you
think about the job your RML is doing! The NN/LM SCR Staff
would appreciate receiving your recommendations while it is
still early in the RML contract. This gives us an
opportunity to reconsider our programming and services, and
make adjustments where feasible, to meet the needs of the
Network members.
As a reminder, the traveling Frankenstein Exhibit
continues to make its way through our Region. The NLM and
the American Library Association (ALA) partnered to make
the Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature
exhibit (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/frankhome.html)
available to many different types of libraries. It has been
traveling throughout the US to selected libraries since
October 2002 and will continue through March 2006. Ten
sites in the South Central Region were selected to receive
the exhibit. The full list of awardees and the itinerary is
located on the ALA website.*
While most of the awarded sites in the SCR have already
hosted the exhibit, a few sites remain on the tour:
August 1-September 5, 2003
Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, AR
http://www.cals.lib.ar.us/temp.html
September 17-November 3, 2003
Baylor University Library, Waco, TX
http://www3.baylor.edu/Library/frankenstein/
February 15-March 6, 2006
Lafayette Public Library, Lafayette, LA
http://www.lafayette.lib.la.us/
*http://www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Our_Association/Offices/Public_Programs_Office/Current_Programs/
Frankenstein__Penetrating_the_Secrets_of_Nature/Frankenstein__Penetrating_the_Secrets_of_Nature.htm
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Contents
New
Special Populations Outreach Coordinator
On July 21, 2003,
Barbara Cosart returned to the RML as the Special
Populations Outreach Coordinator. She will coordinate,
promote, and implement health information services to
special populations in the Region, as well as teach
courses, exhibit, and coordinate evaluation for all NN/LM
SCR projects and Network members. Between late 1999 and
early 2001 she served as Outreach Coordinator and Consumer
Health Coordinator for the NN/LM SCR. For the past two and
a half years, Barbara has been a librarian at Coventry
University, Lanchester Library, Coventry, UK. She earned
her MLIS at the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX,
in 1996. Barbara is employed in a partial telecommuting
capacity; she works from home in Austin for three weeks and
is in the NN/LM SCR office every fourth week
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Contents
Express
Public Health Outreach Award: RFP
--Michelle Malizia, Outreach
Coordinator
The NN/LM SCR is now
accepting applications for an Express Public Health
Outreach Award. This award is designed to foster the
utilization of health information resources and technology
by public health professionals. Potential projects could
include increasing the public health community's access to
the Internet and other information resources, training
public health staff to use health information technology or
exhibiting at a public health meeting.
This 12-month project is a good opportunity for Network
members who are interested in gaining experience in
applying for grants or awards because it is small in scope.
Projects should target the public health organizations.
Examples are state or local health departments, public
health clinics, or public health organizations.
One project up to $5,000 will be awarded.
To apply, fill out the application form at:
http://nnlm.gov/scr/outrch/exp_pub_health_app.htm. The
deadline to submit an application is September 12,
2003.
Please contact me with any questions.
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Contents
Partners in Public Health Information
Outreach: RFP
--Michelle Malizia, Outreach
Coordinator
The NN/LM SCR invites
Network members to submit proposals for the Partners in
Public Health Information Outreach Award. One project up to
$20,000 will be awarded.
Digital literacy and the effective utilization of online
information are among the core public health informatics
competencies for the 21st century. The goal of the Partners
in Public Health Information Outreach award is to provide
the public health workforce with timely, convenient access
to information resources that can help them perform their
jobs more effectively. Proposed projects should target
public health department employees serving state and local
communities.
Potential projects could include:
- Providing access to health information resources to
the public health workforce within theNN/LM SCR who do
not have convenient access to the resources of health
sciences libraries
- Training the public health workforce to use
technology to retrieve and assess the quality of
information resources
- Developing new and innovative uses of technology
(PDAs, distance education, wireless applications, etc) to
improve information skills and usage by the public health
workforce
The Request for Proposals (RFP) is located at:
http://nnlm.gov/scr/outrch/partners_pubhealth.pdf.
A letter of intent can be submitted electronically by
filling out the application located at:
http://nnlm.gov/scr/outrch/partners_pubhealth_form.htm. The
letter of intent is not binding.
The deadline for submission of proposals is September
19, 2003.
Please contact me with any questions.
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Contents
Internet
Connectivity Project Sites Awarded
--Greg Bodin, Technology Coordinator
Please join us in
congratulating the following eight institutions on being
awarded Internet Connectivity Project (ICP) sites:
9th Street Ministries Free Clinic, Mena, AR
Grant Parish Library, Colfax, LA
YWCA Allendale, Shreveport, LA
El Pueblo Health Services, Bernalillo, NM
Santa Fe Indian Hospital, Santa Fe, NM
Dallas Southwest Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Memorial Health Systems of East Texas, Lufkin, TX
Wilbarger General Hospital, Vernon, TX
The ICP is designed to upgrade existing connections in
underconnected institutions, implement Internet services in
unconnected institutions and provide access to health
information resources. Sites receive a computer, printer,
fax machine, and funding for an Internet Service Provider
for one year, enabling the institutions to access NLM
products and services for staff, physicians, patients and
the public. In addition, each site is provided with
training from the local Resource Library, Primary Access
Library, or the RML.
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DOCLINE-Update
--Re MIshra, Education-Communications
Coordinator
DOCLINE 1.6 Released
NLM released DOCLINE v.
1.6 on Tuesday, July 1, 2003. The enhancements are:
For the Loansome Doc User:
- Order Documents: Added ability to request a
document from OLDMEDLINE from 1953 to 1965 using the
NLM Gateway.
- Order Documents: To reduce ordering of free
material, added link to full-text article on Loansome
Doc Order page when article being requested is
available free in PubMed Central.
For the Loansome Doc Library:
- Receipt: Added indication that article is available
free in PubMed Central to the end of the library
holdings statement.
- Receipt: PubMed UI field will display "(Old
Medline)" after number when UI is from OLDMEDLINE.
REQUESTS:
SERHOLD:
- Added ability to automatically output serial
holdings data from SERHOLD for importing into OCLC on a
quarterly basis for libraries that authorize NLM to do
so.
DOCLINE Statistics
NLM has released the
following DOCLINE statistical reports:
April-June 2003
1-1A, 1-11A, 1-1AT - Summary DOCLINE Borrower
Statistics
1-1B - Summary DOCLINE Lender Statistics
1-2A, 1-22A - Detailed DOCLINE Borrower Statistics
1-2B - Detailed DOCLINE Lender Statistics
2-14 - Resource Library Quarterly Report - Fill Rate
5-1A - Loansome Doc Detailed Lender Statistics
5-1B - Loansome Doc Throughput Report
July 2002 - June 2003
1-8A - Ranked List of Serial Titles Requested
Please note that reports 1-11A, 1-1AT and 1-22A are only
distributed to libraries that have entered requests in
DOCLINE for other libraries. Report 2-14 is only
distributed to resource libraries.
The October-December 2002 DOCLINE quarterly statistical
reports are no longer available. Further schedule
information may be found in the DOCLINE - Quarterly Reports
(Statistics) FAQ,
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/doc_quarterly_reports.html.
Instructions for downloading and printing reports may be
found at HELP/Online Manual/Requests - Reports or at
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/faqdocline.html#reports.
EFTS Advisory Committee Meeting
(as reported by Susan Dorsey, Head
of Access Services, Rudolph Matas Medical Library, Tulane
University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans,
LA)
The first meeting of
the Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS) Advisory
Committee was held by teleconference on July 29, 2003. This
new committee was formed to bring thoughts, ideas, and
opinions about EFTS and the future of interlibrary loan
billing needs of the health science community on a national
and international scope.
Participation in EFTS has grown to over 800 national and
international members and is predicted to expand to 1800.
Much of the membership growth can be attributed to NLM
participation and billing for interlibrary loans through
EFTS. The Committee is composed of three members from each
region: a PAL (Primary Access Library), a Resource Library,
and a RML representative. NLM, CISTI and other Canadian
medical libraries, as well as the EFTS staff in
Connecticut, also are represented.
EFTS is currently setting up a new software program to
move from paper-based to electronic billing statements.
Participants will be able to check their institution's
balance and customize their accounts online. It is
estimated that these changes will be in place in late 2003.
There was discussion of possible barriers that would
prevent some libraries from participating and possible
changes that need to be considered. EFTS is very interested
in getting feedback from medical libraries, and this is an
opportunity to help in the design of the program.
If you have any questions or suggestions about EFTS,
feel free to contact any of the regional representatives.
Your representatives are: Re Mishra (ruicham@library.tmc.edu),
Heather Moberly, Veterinary Medicine Librarian, Oklahoma
State University, Stillwater, OK (moberlh@okstate.edu) and
me (sdorsey@tulane.edu). We
will have another meeting in September 2003 and will be
happy to share your thoughts with the committee. See the
EFTS website (http://efts.uchc.edu) for more
information
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Contents
Reaching
Out
--Michelle Malizia, Outreach
Coordinator
This month marks the debut of "Reaching
Out," a column devoted to the outreach activities of
Network members in the Region.
Cindy
Sharp, Outreach Librarian, The University of Texas Health
Center at Tyler, Wise Medical Research Library (UTHCT),
Tyler, TX, recently collaborated with the Tyler Public
Library on a week of story times for preschool and
elementary children entitled "Me and My Body." The goal of
this event was to help children learn more about their
health and to alleviate any fears they may have of going to
the doctor or hospital.
During the week, five pediatricians, three nurses and
two medical librarians visited the public library and read
aloud from such health-related books as: How Do
Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?, Lee the Rabbit with
Epilepsy, Shelley the Hyperactive Turtle, and
Franklin Goes to the Hospital. The children were
treated to a show and tell with items such as stethoscopes,
otoscopes, tongue depressors and masks. They also took part
in health-related crafts and games, including a
Twister-like game highlighting parts of the body.
Cindy set up a table in the library for the
parents/guardians/day care workers of the children
attending the story hours. She handed out brochures,
bookmarks and other resources on finding quality consumer
health information through MEDLINEplus and Tox Town. A
representative of the UTHCT library was present to answer
any questions.
Parents, day care workers and approximately 150 children
attended this successful event
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Contents
LIP Sites for
Year 03
--Barbara Cosart, Special Populations
Outreach Coordinator
Please join us in
congratulating the following institutions that were
selected to receive Library Improvement Project (LIP) site
awards for Year 03:
Dept of Veterans Affairs Medical Center/AHEC, Library
Service, Alexandria, LA
Claiborne Parish Library, Homer, LA
Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System, Chapman Memorial
Library, Jackson, LA
Jackson Parish Library, Jonesboro, LA
Lincoln General Hospital, Medical Library, Ruston, LA
Each site will receive a computer, printer, fax machine,
and Loansome Doc and Internet Service Provider subsidies to
improve the services of their libraries.
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Contents
Ariel
Project Sites Awarded
--Re Mishra, Education-Communications
Coordinator
The following seven
institutions have been awarded as Ariel® Project for
DOCLINE Libraries sites for Year 03:
St. Vincent Foundation, Medical Library, Little Rock,
AR
UAMS/AHEC-Pine Bluff, Melville Library , Pine Bluff,
AR
Northwestern State University, Nursing Education Center
Library, Shreveport, LA
Lovelace Sandia Health System, Medical Library,
Albuquerque, NM
St. John Medical Center, Medical Library, Tulsa, OK
Tulsa Regional Medical Center, Medical Library, Tulsa,
OK
School of Public Health Library, Houston, TX
These sites will receive, as needed, the Ariel software,
a scanner, a computer, and a printer.
Please join us in congratulating all of the
libraries!
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Contents
Inside
Funding
--Michelle Malizia, Outreach
Coordinator
Recent Awardees
The University of
Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), Oklahoma City, OK,
was recently awarded an NLM Internet Access to Digital
Libraries (IADL) grant for a project entitled "Health
Education Assets Library Services Enhancement." The goal of
this project is to improve access to health education
materials for both healthcare educators and consumers by
enhancing and refining the current Health Education Assets
Library (HEAL) prototype. The three major objectives
are:
- to plan, develop and implement a powerful set of
search tools and interfaces to enhance retrieval of
relevant items;
- to develop high quality training materials for all
levels of users; and
- to evaluate the HEAL search engine enhancements and
training materials.
Texas Women's University (TWU), Denton, TX, was awarded
an NLM Information Access Grant for the project "Informing
Neighborhood Health: Facilitating Information Access for
Community Clinics." The overall goal of the project is to
facilitate information access at select faith-based health
clinics located in Harris County, TX, that primarily serve
the homeless and working poor. At the beginning of the
12-month period, workstations and broadband connections, if
needed, will be purchased and installed for each
participating faith-based clinic. A web page for the
project will be developed to facilitate access to relevant
information. The page will be alpha-tested with TWU project
staff and refined based on feedback, and then beta-tested
with participating community-based clinic staff and further
refined. By the end of the 12-month period, staff at all
participating agencies will have been provided the
opportunity to attend training sessions. A final project
evaluation will be conducted at the end of the fourth
quarter in the form of a focus group consisting of
representatives from each participating clinic.
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What's New with NLM Databases?
--Re Mishra, Education-Communications
Coordinator
SNOMED Clinical Terms® To Be Made
Available in UMLS®
On July 1, 2003, Tommy
G. Thompson, Secretary of Health and Human Services,
announced an agreement with the College of American
Pathologists (CAP) that will make SNOMED Clinical Terms
(SNOMED CT®) available to U.S. users at no cost through
NLM's Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®).
For more information, see:
SNOMED Clinical Terms® To Be Added To UMLS®
Metathesaurus®. NLM.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/Snomed/snomed_announcement.html.
Press release:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/press_releases/paperlesspr03.html.
MLA 2003 NLM Online Users' Meeting
NLM held its annual NLM
Online User's Meeting at MLA in San Diego, CA on May 5,
2003.
To read the remarks made at the meeting see: NLM Online
Users' Meeting 2003: Remarks. NLM Tech Bull. 2003
Jul-Aug;(333):e7a.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ja03/ja03_mla_sk.html.
To read the questions and answers from the meeting, see:
NLM Online Users' Meeting 2003: Questions and Answers.
NLM Tech Bull. 2003 Jul-Aug;(333):e7b.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ja03/ja03_mla_qa.html.
To read about and see the PowerPoint presentations, see:
MEDLINEplus® and DOCLINE® PowerPoint® Presentations. NLM
Tech Bull. 2003 Jul-Aug;(333):e7c.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ja03/ja03_mla_ppt.html.
Ask Cosmo
NLM has launched Cosmo
(http://wwwns.nlm.nih.gov/),
a virtual customer service representative, created so as to
free up customer service representatives' and reference
librarians' time from answering frequently asked questions.
It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and
answers basic questions about the Library and its products
and services.
For more information see:
Glazer A. Virtual Representative Provides 24/7 Access to
NLM Information. NLM Tech Bull. 2003
Jul-Aug;(333):e2.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ja03/ja03_cosmo.html.
A Wise Old Owl Becomes NLM's Latest Customer Service
Feature. NLM. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/cosmoowl.html.
Planned Change to MeSH Publications
For many years, NLM has
published several MeSH publications each year: three MeSH
"tools" (the Annotated Alphabetic MeSH, the MeSH Tree
Structures, and the Permuted MeSH) and the Medical Subject
Headings Supplement to Index Medicus (familiarly known as
the "Black and White" MeSH), which combines the Alphabetic
arrangement and the Tree Structures in a single
publication.
Sales of the MeSH tools have been declining steadily for
a number of years, while use of the MeSH browser, other
resources on the MeSH homepage, and the MeSH database in
Entrez has climbed. Due to the greater coverage,
flexibility, and currency of the MeSH browser, NLM's own
indexers and catalogers no longer use the print
publications. The printed MeSH tools do not reflect more
than 100,000 MeSH Supplementary concepts, which are updated
nightly, nor the infrequent - but highly important -
additions to MeSH main headings that are made between
annual editions of the vocabulary. The most recent examples
of such additions are "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome"
and "SARS Virus".
For 2004, NLM plans to cease publication of the MeSH
"tools" and simultaneously to expand the content in the
"Black and White" MeSH. The expanded "Black and White" MeSH
will include additional listings (e.g., geographicals,
publication types, new headings by category), a primer on
the use of the MeSH, and more detailed material on indexing
and cataloging practices. The "Black and White" MeSH is
available from the Government Printing Office and can be
ordered separately from printed Index Medicus. NLM will
announce ordering information for the "Black and White"
MeSH when it becomes available.
NLM Classification Updated
The online National
Library of Medicine Classification (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/class/),
was issued in a newly revised edition on July 14, 2003.
This revision incorporates all new Index headings resulting
from MeSH terms added to the 2003 vocabulary and selected
for addition to the Index.
The new edition contains 133 new MeSH concepts, and
nearly seven hundred index entries were brought into closer
compliance with MeSH. In addition, four new Schedule
numbers were added and 40 Schedule records were maintained
since the 2002 revised edition was published on February 4,
2003.
Pharmacologic Action Headings in
PubMed
NLM is modifying the
way PubMed searches for Pharmacologic Action MeSH headings.
They are also introducing a new search tag, [PA], to search
for substances known to have a particular pharmacologic
action. These changes are expected to be completed later
this summer.
For more information, see: Nahin AM. Pharmacologic
Action Headings: PubMed®. NLM Tech Bull. 2003
Jul-Aug;(333):e6. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ja03/ja03_papx.html.
Storing a Default Email in Cubby
Now you are able to
store a default email address in your Cubby account in
PubMed (http://pubmed.gov).
For more information see: Store an E-mail Address for
PubMed® in the Cubby. NLM Tech Bull. 2003
Jul-Aug;(333):e3.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ja03/ja03_email.html.
Loansome Doc OLDMEDLINE
A new version of the
NLM Gateway (http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/gw/Cmd)
was released on July 1, 2003, allowing users to use
Loansome Doc to order articles from OLDMEDLINE. Over 1.5
million citations from 1953 to 1965 are now available for
ordering through the NLM Gateway.
New NLM Training Manuals Available
The July 2003 editions
of the training workbooks used by the National Training
Center and Clearinghouse (NTCC) for all of their classes
are now available at: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/web_based.html.
The PubMed workbook was updated to reflect changes since
May 2003. The NLM Gateway workbook was updated to reflect
changes from January-July 1, 2003.
Back to
Contents
Technology Notes
--Greg Bodin, Technology Coordinator
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi, short for
Wireless Fidelity, is a common term for communication
between devices without cables or wires. Simply put, Wi-Fi
is communication via radio waves between a receiver device
such as a computer, laptop, PDA, etc. and a transmitter
device called an access point or node that is connected to
a local area network (LAN) and/or the Internet. Typically,
devices can be 150-300 feet away from the access point for
communication to occur.
To communicate via Wi-Fi, devices must use a
communication protocol called 802.11. There are currently
three versions of the protocol: 802.11b, 802.11a, and
802.11g. 802.11b and 802.11a are currently the most
prevalent, but newer devices are being designed to
communicate via the newly released 802.11g protocal as
well.
Wireless networks can be installed in hospitals,
libraries and other institutions, where they provide users
with the ability to connect to local area networks or the
Internet anywhere in the transmission area. Many public
wireless access points (called hotspots) are being
implemented. These are sites where free or fee-based access
to the Internet is available via a wireless network.
Security issues are still a concern with Wi-Fi.
Communication via the radio waves can be intercepted and
secure encryption technology for Wi-Fi is still being
developed and tested. Also, interference by various devices
such as microwave ovens and cordless phones can limit
Wi-Fi's usefulness.
Webliography
Wi-Fi Planet (802.11).
http://www.80211-planet.com/
Wi-Fi (802.11b) Wireless Networking for Your PDA. PDA
Buyers Guide.
http://www.pdabuyersguide.com/tips/wifi.htm
Comparison of wireless LAN standards. MobileInfo.
http://www.mobileinfo.com/Wireless_LANs/802.11a_802.11b.htm
HotSpotList.com.
http://www.hotspotlist.com/
A directory of public 802.11b hot spots.
Wireless LANs. MobileInfo.
http://www.mobileinfo.com/Wireless_LANs/index.htm
Overview and table of contents.
Wi-Fi Alliance.
http://www.wi-fi.org
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toContents
Health
Statistics on the Internet
--Michelle Malizia, Outreach
Coordinator
Do these questions
sound familiar?
- What is the average price of prescription drugs in
the state?
- How many smokers attempt to kick the habit every
year?
- What are the eligibility income levels for the state
Medicaid program?
Health statistics are the types of reference questions
that both frustrate and motivate librarians. Indeed,
finding quality statistical health information can be
difficult and time consuming. Here are some websites to add
to your statistical information arsenal:
Webliography
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
http://www.ahrq.gov/
Provides evidence-based information on health care
outcomes, quality, and cost, use, and access. Information
from AHRQ's research helps people make more informed
decisions and improve the quality of health care
services.
CDC Wonder. CDC.
http://wonder.cdc.gov/
Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, CDC Wonder provides a single point of access to
a wide variety of CDC reports, guidelines, and numeric
public health data. Public-use data sets about mortality,
cancer incidence, hospital discharges, AIDS, behavioral
risk factors, diabetes and many other topics are available
for query.
State Facts Online. The Kaiser Family Foundation.
http://www.statehealthfacts.kff.org/cgi-bin/healthfacts.cgi
Developed by the Kaiser Family Foundation, this resource
contains the latest state-level data on demographics,
health, and health policy, including health coverage,
access, financing and state legislation. It also provides
state comparison health data.
National Center for Health Statistics. CDC.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/
Widely considered to be the premier health statistics site
on the web, this is an enormous virtual data warehouse.
Statistical information available on this site includes:
accident rates, birth rates, growth charts, leading causes
of death, mortality rates, health status indicators by
state and disease incidences of everything from AIDS to
whooping cough.
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
CDC.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/osp/data.htm
Provides injury (fatal and nonfatal) and mortality
statistics on a national and state level. The site also
contains an interactive mapping system to help users
identify and communicate the impact of injury deaths by
county, state, region or the entire United States.
WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS). World
Health Organization.
http://www3.who.int/whosis
Provides a gateway to health and health-related
epidemiological and statistical information available from
the World Health Organization.
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toContents
The National
Institutes of Health: NCCAM
--Greg Bodin, Technology Coordinator
The National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) (http://nccam.nih.gov/) was
established in 1998 as a center of the National Institutes
of Health (NIH). The NCCAM mission is to support research
on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), to support
research training in CAM, and to provide information to
consumers and healthcare professionals on which CAM
therapies work, which do not, and why.
NCCAM funding is used for research and training, as well
as information resources for healthcare professionals and
consumers. Intramural and extramural projects designed to
advance complementary and alternative medicine research are
funded in a variety of areas, including arthritis, asthma,
immunology, manual therapies, and probiotics. Information
on current research projects and research funding
opportunities is available on the NCCAM research
page(http://nccam.nih.gov/research/).
Several important health information resources are
available on the NCCAM website. Probably one of the most
useful is CAM on PubMed, which is a subset of the PubMed
database, providing access to citations and abstracts in
complementary and alternative medicine literature.
Background information and sample searches are available on
the CAM on PubMed page(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nccam/camonpubmed.html).
The actual CAM subset is also available on the PubMed
limits page under the subsets pull down menu.
Alerts and advisories are also available concerning many
CAM therapies from the NCCAM Health Information page
(http://nccam.nih.gov/health/).
Current information on drug interactions, harmful side
effects, and public health advisories is available here.
Also, treatment information is available and may be
searched by treatment type or by disease.
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