Deadline is December 31, 2010 for MAR’s Small Outreach Project Awards http://nnlm.gov/mar/funding/smallprojuhpsenior.html

This award for Full and Affiliate Network members is intended to promote library services and NLM products and services. Priority will be given to applications targeting unaffiliated health professionals who work with seniors and/or in nursing homes, but all projects are welcome. Eight (8) awards of up to $2,000 each are available. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until December 31, 2010 or until all the funds have been awarded.

Last week, NLM annouced MedlinePlus® Connect, a free service that allows EHR systems to link to MedlinePlus. Here is a recent Technical Bulletin article about it, including screen shots:

NLM Technical Bulletin, Nov-Dec 2010, MedlinePlus Connect: Linking Electronic Health Records to Consumer Health Information

Two new or updated brocures are now availalbe online from NLM:

 All About Drugs @ NLM brings together all of the NLM databases that include drug information and provides brief descriptions of each resource.

LactMed Basics has been revised. This pamphlet describes and helps users search LactMed, the free online database for breastfeeding mothers. The LactMed database has information on the effects of drugs on lactation. We’ve recently heard that this database has become one of the most accessed in the TOXNET suite of databases, now being the third most accessed among eleven databases.  The American Academy of Pediatrics has retired its periodic list of drugs used during lactation, and has plans to indicate that LactMed is the preferred database in upcoming policy statements.

The Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University released a new edition of the knowledge path, Infant Mortality and Pregnancy Loss.  The knowledge path directs readers to resources that analyze data, report on research aimed at identifying causes and promising intervention strategies, and describe risk-reduction efforts as well as bereavement-support programs. Separate sections present resources about factors that contribute to infant mortality and pregnancy loss: birth defects, injuries, low birthweight and prematurity, preconception and pregnancy, and safe sleep environments. The knowledge path was created for health professionals, policymakers, researchers, and families. View the path online at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_infmort.html. A resource brief for families accompanies the knowledge path and is available at http://www.mchlibrary.info/families/frb_infmort.html.

Posted on behalf of Angela B. Ruffin, PhD, Head, NN/LM National Network Office :

From yesterday’s announcement:

Today NLM announces MedlinePlus Connect (http://medlineplus.gov/connect), a free service that allows electronic health records (EHR) systems to link users to MedlinePlus (http://medlineplus.gov), an authoritative up-to-date health information resource for patients, families and health care providers. MedlinePlus provides information about conditions and disorders, medications, and health and wellness.

 MedlinePlus Connect accepts requests for information on diagnoses (problem codes) and medications. NLM mapped MedlinePlus health topics to two standard diagnostic coding systems used in EHRs: ICD-9-CM and SNOMED CT CORE Problem List Subset.  When an EHR submits a request to MedlinePlus Connect, the service returns the closest matching health topic as a response.  MedlinePlus Connect also links EHR systems to drug information written especially for patients. For medication codes, MedlinePlus Connect accepts RXCUIs and NDCs. The API for using this service conforms to the HL7 Context-Aware Knowledge Retrieval (Infobutton) Knowledge Request URL-Based Implementation specification.

 MedlinePlus responds to problem code requests in either English or Spanish. Currently, it supports requests for drug information in English only.  NLM is working on adding laboratory test responses to MedlinePlus Connect. We will also support an XML-based Web service at a future date.

You can find more background and technical information at http://medlineplus.gov/connect. If you are an EHR owner or developer interested in staying up-to-date on technical developments with MedlinePlus Connect, or talking to other organizations that are using it, join the free email list at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/connect/emaillist.html. To send questions or feedback, use the MedlinePlus Contact Us link at http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/contact/index.cfm.

From the NLM Technical Bulletin:

 Comings and Goings for PubMed® Limits

The following changes will be made to the PubMed Limits screen in November 2010.

 Subsets

Two subsets will be added:

Dietary Supplements: This subject subset was announced in the recent article, Dietary Supplements — A New PubMed® Subset.

Veterinary Science: This subject subset was added to the Special Queries page in 2007 (see Veterinary Search Added to PubMed® Special Queries). The strategy was originally called Veterinary Medicine/Animal Health.

 The Space Life Sciences and PubMed Central® subsets will be removed from Limits; however, they will still be available for direct searching using space [sb] and pubmed pmc [sb] respectively. They will also remain available as My NCBI filters for PubMed.

 At the same time, the labels on the subsets menu (Journal Groups, Topics, and More Subsets) will be removed and the subsets will be listed in alphabetical order.

 Publication Types

Two new Publication Types will be added to the Limits menu, Type of Article, in preparation for changes to MeSH® vocabulary for 2011 (see upcoming article: What’s New for 2011 MeSH).

• Autobiography
• Video-Audio Media

 Header change

The header over the selections Male and Female will change from “Gender” to “Sex.”

By Annette M. Nahin
MEDLARS Management Section

There has been a lively discussion on the DOCLINE-L listserv as of late regarding the placement of library group codes within DOCLINE routing tables.  As a reminder, codes for large DOCLINE groups, such as FreeShare and BHSL, should be placed towards the middle of your routing table (cells 4-6) in their own cell, if possible. You can place individual LIBIDs of libraries from these groups in earlier cells.

Here are some other DOCLINE routing table tips:

• Remove libraries marked “Closed” and “Not a DOCLINE Library” from your table.
• Use the DOCLINE Institution search to find libraries in your state and region that belong to groups such as FreeShare and BHSL, if you are also a member, and consider placing them in your earlier cells (1-3).
• Place larger (than yours) libraries and resource libraries in higher cells (6-9).
• Run DOCLINE report 1-7, “Library Routing Table and M/A/N Map cells containing my LIBID,” periodically to see who has you in their routing table, and in which cell.  You can consider adding them to the same cell in yours to help balance the load.
• If you feel a library is unduly taxing your library’s ILL service, give them a call.  They may not be aware of the imbalance, or simply may not know how to change their routing table.

As always, please feel free to contact your regional DOCLINE coordinator in the MAR, Neil Romanosky, with your questions, training needs, or for assistance in working with another DOCLINE library: neil.romanosky@med.nyu.edu  212-263-4118.

Routing table help is also available through the DOCLINE FAQs.

News from the National Cancer Institute:

http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/NLSTresultsRelease

 Lung cancer trial results show mortality benefit with low-dose CT:

Twenty percent fewer lung cancer deaths seen among those who were screened with low-dose spiral CT than with chest X-ray

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is today releasing initial results from a large-scale test of screening methods to reduce deaths from lung cancer by detecting cancers at relatively early stages.

The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), a randomized national trial involving more than 53,000 current and former heavy smokers ages 55 to 74, compared the effects of two screening procedures for lung cancer — low-dose helical computed tomography (CT) and standard chest X-ray — on lung cancer mortality and found 20 percent fewer lung cancer deaths among trial participants screened with low-dose helical CT.  The NLST was sponsored by NCI, a part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted by the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) and the Lung Screening Study group.  A paper describing the design and protocol of the NLST, “The National Lung Screening Trial: Overview and Study Design” by the NLST research team, was published yesterday by the journal Radiology and is openly available at http://radiology.rsna.org/cgi/content/abstract/radiol.10091808.

“This large and well-designed study used rigorous scientific methods to test ways to prevent death from lung cancer by screening patients at especially high risk,” said Harold Varmus, M.D., NCI Director.  “Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in the U.S. and throughout the world, so a validated approach that can reduce lung cancer mortality by even 20 percent has the potential to spare very significant numbers of people from the ravages of this disease.  But these findings should in no way distract us from continued efforts to curtail the use of tobacco, which will remain the major causative factor for lung cancer and several other diseases…” (Read more)

The November issue<http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/> of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research, is now available at a new, improved website!

In this edition:

Features

• Feeling Out of Joint
• Herpes in Hiding

Health Capsules

• How Salmonella Bacteria Spread
• Older Adults and Alcohol Use
• Featured Web Site: Science Serving People

Have electronic resources led to a devaluation of the library?

The MAR Technology Committee invites you to attend a lunch-time roundtable discussion Thursday, November 18th 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm EST

The discussion will focus on the non-economic impacts of electronic resources on libraries — especially packaged resources.  Are libraries becoming too tied to vendors? Losing cognitive authority? Scaling back their academic missions? Spending so much time supporting vendor resources?

Shelly Warwick, Director of Touro Harlem Medical Library and MAR Technology committee member will be facilitating the discussion.

In an article in the Chronicle Review, Library, Inc. (Wednesday, October 20, 2010)  Daniel Goldstein wrote:

“By outsourcing ownership to mega-vendors, libraries have introduced the commercial interests of the journal providers into what had been an internal academic transaction between a library and its patrons.” He goes on to claim that “—the dominance of the customer-service model has led to a devaluation of both expert knowledge and systematic inquiry” which he views as diminishing the library’s academic mission.

http://chronicle.com/article/Library-Inc/124915/?sid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

What do you think? All viewpoints welcome. Join the conversation by RSVP’ing at http://nnlm.gov/mar/technology/discussionrsvp.html

Attendance details will follow a couple of days before the event.  This discussion is web-based and can be “attended” from any internet connected computer and telephone.