Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Noon – 1 pm

Where:  https://webmeeting.nih.gov/boostbox/

Presenter:  Siobhan Champ-Blackwell, Aquilent

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.

Please join MAR to 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.

• Log-in and allow Adobe Connect to call your phone, if possible.  But, just in case, the back-up phone number for is:

Conference Number(s):  1-888-450-5996
Participant Code:  888072

• If you have never attended an Adobe Connect meeting before, test your connection: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm.

If you missed our first sessions, we have made archives available. The archives include recordings, materials presented during each session, as well as transcripts:

• Lunch with the RML Archives
• Boost Box Archives

Please join us on Tuesday, July 10, 2012 for Disaster Situations in an International Context, a Medical Library Association (MLA) Disaster Information Continuing Education course, proudly hosted at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, IL.

The program will be held from 09:00 am -1:00 pm,  is FREE, and is worth 4 MLA CE Contact hours.

Course Description:  Natural disasters and other crises are often considered local events.  Yet even disasters occurring in other parts of the world can have important repercussions for U.S. communities and agencies, either because they now perceive a shared vulnerability and risk, because a large ethnic population exists in the U.S. that will demand information, or because Americans want to understand how they can help.

This four-hour course for information specialists, librarians and other related professionals looks at the international disaster community, their roles and responsibilities in pre- and post- disaster situations, and the type of information that they may offer or require to respond to real or perceived needs.  The course consists of three sections:

Part 1.  Who makes up the ‘International community’ in disaster situations?

Part 2.  Disaster Response:  Global Trends in a Changing Environment

Part 3.  What this means for information specialists and consumers in the U.S.

Instructors:  John Scott & Patricia Bittner from the Center for Public Service Communications in Arlington Virginia

John Scott

Mr. Scott founded and directs the Center for Public Service Communications (est. 1990) whose mission is to provide guidance and expertise to individuals, communities and public sector organizations in the specialized field of applying telecommunications and information technologies to reduce health disparities, to improve health services to underserved and disenfranchised individuals and communities and to improve the collection and sharing of scientific, technical and community knowledge to reduce human vulnerability to natural hazards.

Mr. Scott has worked for many years on disaster risk reduction programs internationally, with the United Nations, and within the United States. He has been a senior advisor on early warning and disaster health information to institutions, including the NLM.  Currently, he is writing a disaster risk reduction handbook for mayors on behalf of the U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and its “Making Cities Resilient” campaign.

Patricia Bittner

Ms. Bittner is a professional manager and specialist in the field of disaster preparedness and risk reduction, with a particular focus on health.   She was responsible for the development of a web-based information portal on Health and Disasters for the Pan American Health Organization/WHO, including preparation of original material, technical review and quality control of all material on preparedness, risk reduction and humanitarian relief, and consultation on the structure, design, navigation and use.  Ms Bittner has significant experience leading a high-performing team to identify and provide the resources and information needed by countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to improve readiness and reduce the impact of disasters on health.  Her team has maximized the impact of strategic partnerships, mobilized resources and engaged in advocacy for disaster preparedness, risk reduction and response.

For registration and information, please contact Rhona Kelley,  rkelley@siumed.edu or 217-545-2112, or Lynne Ferrell at ferrell.lynne@mhsil.com or 217-788-3331.

Breakfast snacks will be provided prior to class. Lunch will not be included but menus and directions to Springfield eateries will be available.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

1 – 4 pm

Where:  WNYLRC Training Center, Buffalo, NY

Presenter:  Kate Flewelling, Outreach Coordinator, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Middle Atlantic Region

Register:  Go to: www.wnylrc.org to register or cut and paste link below

http://www.wnylrc.org/index.asp?orgID=140&custom=reportoutput&reportID=46&sid=&outputStyle=workshopReport&workshopId=492857

Responding to questions involving topics on mental health is challenging even for the most experienced librarian.  In Caring for the Mind, participants will learn how to effectively provide mental health information at their libraries.  Participants will learn about the best electronic resources to consult as well as ways to improve their print collections.  Best approaches for handling interactions with emotional patrons will also be discussed. Other topics covered include: bibliotherapy; assessment/testing; and the future of mental health.  This class will increase participants’ skills for providing mental health information for care providers and the public.

Background:  Natural and manmade historical events such as Hurricane Katrina, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Tuskegee study have shaped present approaches to disaster ethics and law.  What are the ethical principles foundational to the development of disaster ethics guidance?  Where can librarians search for sources of ethics and legal information?

As part of MLA Disaster Information Specialization Program the Philadelphia Regional Chapter of the Medical Library Association will be hosting the course:  Ethical and Legal Aspects of Disaster Response

Description:  Incorporation of ethical principles and legal standards into all phases of the disaster cycle is fundamental to effective and fair disaster response, but the complex information landscape makes meeting this goal challenging.  This four hour class will provide an overview of the ethical principles and legal standards that have been applied to health care, public health and emergency management in disasters with recommendations for sources of this information.

Instructors

• Barbara Folb, Public Health Informationist, Health Sciences Library System, University of Pittsburgh
• Patti Reynolds, Director, Bishopric Medical Library, Sarasota Memorial Hospital

Location and Time

• Drexel University’s Hagerty Library
• August 21^st, 2012
• 1-4 pm

Continuing Education Credit

This class provides 4 MLA CE credits and is one of the required elements for the MLA Disaster Specialization certification.  There are no prerequisites for the class.  For more information regarding the specialization and a link to the free on demand course, Disaster Health Information Sources: The Basics see http://www.mlanet.org/education/dis/  (Classes can be taken in any order)

Registration:  http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=231507

In the annals of medicine, Joseph J. Kinyoun, M.D., is a key figure, but one whose name many people have never heard.  In 1887, as a physician in the Marine-Hospital Service (MHS) — the precursor to today’s U.S. Public Health Service — Dr. Kinyoun founded the Hygienic Laboratory on Staten Island, N. Y., to diagnose cholera, plague, smallpox and other diseases that posed significant threats to public health at the time.  In this one-man, one-room laboratory Dr. Kinyoun laid the foundation for what today are 27 institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health.  However, few people recognize Dr. Kinyoun’s legendary contributions or the hardships he endured as a result of his work.  In a review published in the current issue of the journal mBio, two NIH researchers aim to change that.

“Dr. Joseph Kinyoun was a central character in shaping the medical research enterprise of today,” said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., co-author and director of NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).  “Before disciplines such as microbiology and epidemiology emerged, Kinyoun used his ingenuity to discover creative ways to save lives and improve health. His advances against infectious diseases of his era; his collaborations with and mentoring of other leading scientists; and his design of new laboratory equipment and techniques all helped spark national support for U.S. investment in biomedical research.”

Co-author David M. Morens, M.D., an epidemiologist and senior adviser to Dr. Fauci, led the effort to dig deep into the historical record to uncover previously untold stories that enrich Dr. Kinyoun’s legacy.

Part of this legacy involves an 1899 MHS assignment that took Dr. Kinyoun to San Francisco to prepare for the anticipated emergence of plague in the United States.  Instead, he became a scapegoat. Plague, at that time the most feared pandemic disease, had been spreading across the world, and health authorities believed it would enter the United States by ship, with San Francisco as a likely entry point.  From the start, Dr. Kinyoun met resistance in San Francisco from business leaders and California politicians, all concerned that federal interference would hurt the economy and stir up public fear.  For two years, Dr. Kinyoun headed efforts to improve city sanitation, prepare quarantines and minimize the potential for the spread of plague when and if it was introduced in the United States.  When he confirmed the first U.S. case of plague in California in March 1900, the governor of California alleged that Dr. Kinyoun fabricated the information, California legislators called for his hanging, and local residents fought against quarantines. Two months later, with 11 plague cases confirmed and many more suspected, Dr. Kinyoun, with the support of President William McKinley, declared an epidemic. Opponents of the MHS rebelled by placing a $7,000 bounty on Dr. Kinyoun’s life, forcing him to carry a loaded pistol for his own protection.  Later, the governor accused Dr. Kinyoun of starting the plague epidemic by planting the bacterium on cadavers.

Dr. Kinyoun had many opportunities to fight his detractors and clear his name, but instead he remained patient, continued his work — sometimes under an alias — and eventually was exonerated. By 1904, 121 people in San Francisco had been diagnosed with plague, and nearly all of them had died.

“He liked to be a behind-the-scenes guy and a team player,” said Dr. Morens, explaining why Dr. Kinyoun willingly accepted blame. “He loved the give-and-take and collegiality of team efforts and did not have a need to take charge. That role made him the perfect scapegoat — a fact he understood and accepted.”

One of Dr. Kinyoun’s greatest accomplishments, helping to refine and distribute a diphtheria antitoxin in the United States in 1894, also came with great hardship. In 1883, the first patient Dr. Kinyoun lost as a physician died of diphtheria, an event that led him to consider quitting his practice. Five years later, his first child, Bettie, died of diphtheria at age 3. Although he never fully recovered emotionally from these losses, Dr. Kinyoun poured himself into his work against the disease.

“We should never forget the perspective that Dr. Kinyoun brought to the role of scientist: a sense of wonder and the pursuit of substantive answers,” said Dr. Morens.

NIAID conducts and supports research — at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide — to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

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REFERENCE: D. Morens et al. The Forgotten Forefather: Joseph James Kinyoun and the Founding of the National Institutes of Health. mBio. DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00139-12 (2012).

From the NLM Technical Bulletin:

The Division of Specialized Information Services released redesigned Web and mobile versions of Haz-Map.  The new design adapts to browsers on desktop computers, laptops, and tablets, as well as mobile browsers on smart phones, such as iPhones, Android and Blackberry phones.

Haz-Map is an occupational health database designed for health and safety professionals and for consumers seeking information about the health effects of exposure to chemicals and biologicals at work. Haz-Map links jobs and hazardous tasks with occupational diseases and their symptoms.  It currently covers over 5,997 chemical and biological agents and 235 occupational diseases.

For more information see the Haz-Map Fact Sheet:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj12/brief/mj12_hazmap.html

A one page, double sided handout about the Health People 2020 Structured Evidence Queries (HP2020 SEQs) is now available on the HP2020 SEQs page on PHPartners.org linked from Handout at the top of the page, http://wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/phpartners/pdf/HP2020_SEQ_Handout_05_2012.pdf.

The handout is also available on the NN/LM NER Materials to Support Training on NLM Databases page at http://nnlm.gov/ner/training/material/hp2020seqhandout0512.pdf.

The 2011 State Snapshots on state specific health care quality information is now available on the AHRQ website.  Follow the link:  http://statesnapshots.ahrq.gov/snaps11/

Call for papers

The advent of both digital content and new forms of communication has made radical changes in the expectations of health science library users for access to information.   At the same time, in response to concerns over the increasing cost of health care, government funding agencies have changed their expectations for how health-related research is conducted.  Funding agencies look for translational medicine and dispersion of information across disciplines and institutions.   Researchers and clinicians expect information at their desktop, 24 x 7, in a format that can be easily digested and used.

Responding to the opportunities provided by these changes, some librarians and libraries have changed their focus, no longer emphasizing libraries as keepers of the information universe but instead stressing their ability to provide expertise in support of those who work in the health information universe.  A number of new paradigms have been reported at conferences and in the media:  embedded librarians, e-science experts, support for translational medicine, and data curation and management.  To help us gain a better understanding of these new paradigms, the Journal of the Medical Library Association is planning to devote our October 2013 issue to papers that focus on the outcomes experienced by those who have taken on these new roles.

This issue will include invited papers summarizing the current state of the field.  We also encourage submissions from those with new roles who are willing to share their successes, or failures, with their peers.   To be considered for this issue, papers must be submitted by February 15, 2013.

We particularly welcome submission of:

• Brief Communications that describe evaluations of either the need for, or success of, new roles.  Papers should provide a brief literature review and then describe the new role, the method used to assess the need for the role or to evaluate its success, such as a small scale survey, focus groups, or measures of user participation in services provided; and the results of that evaluation or assessment.  Papers describing evaluations of education and training programs relevant to new roles are also welcome.  Brief Communications are 1800 words or less.
• Case studies that describe, in depth, new or innovative roles for librarians such as embedded librarians, e-science experts, support for translational medicine or data curation.  Papers submitted in this category should provide a brief literature review; describe the components of the new role and relate, if relevant, the institutional factors that supported the creation of this new paradigm; followed by an evaluation of the success or failure of the initiative and any lessons learned.   Papers submitted as Case Studies must include evidence that allows the reader to judge the value of the contribution of the librarian in this new role independent of the author’s opinion.  Examples of evidence include results of a user survey, inclusion of the librarian in papers authored by a research team, improvements or changes in an open access journal attributed to a librarian, or continued financial support from, or additional responsibilities assigned by, the institution.  Case studies are 3500 words or less.
• Full-length research papers investigating a research question related to new roles for health sciences libraries or librarians.   Research papers should use a standard quantitative or qualitative research design; quantitative studies should employ a sampling methodology that allows extrapolation to the larger population.  Examples in this category would be qualitative or quantitative studies evaluating faculty or clinicians reactions to embedded librarians or illuminating the features of digital libraries that contribute to their success, or a benchmarking study of librarian roles in CTSA grant funded projects.  There is a 5000 word limit for research papers.

To appear in this issue papers should be received no later than February 15, 2013.

If you would like to discuss an idea for a paper, please contact Susan Starr, Editor, JMLA at jmlaeditorbox@gmail.com.  Further details on procedures for JMLA submissions and requirements for brief communications, case studies and full-length papers can be found on the JMLA Information for Authors page, http://www.mlanet.org/publications/jmla/jmlainfo.html.  All papers should be submitted online at http://www.editorialmanager.com/jmla/.

An essay in the New York Times discussed the shared medical maladies of humans and other animals.  The authors, one of whom is a cardiology professor at UCLA, wrote, “Most physicians see animals and their illnesses as somehow ‘different.’  Humans have their diseases.  Animals have theirs.  The human medical establishment has an undeniable, though unspoken, bias against veterinary medicine…My medical education included stern warnings against the tantalizing pull to anthropomorphize…But scientific advancements of the past two decades suggest that we should adopt an updated perspective.  Seeing too much of ourselves in other animals might not be the problem we think it is.  Underappreciating our own animal natures may be the greater limitation.”
http://tinyurl.com/89w4dok

Letters commenting on the above essay…One came from the co-founders of the “One Health Initiative,” a global effort to increase communication and collaboration between physicians and veterinarians.  They wrote, “Animals share our homes and serve as sentinels for environmental toxic exposures, yet we do not include them in epidemiologic or biomedical studies in areas of research such as asthma, cancer or infectious diseases, even though they suffer from these diseases.  Imagine the benefits to both human and animal health if we integrated our research efforts, using the ‘One Health’ approach, to study disease processes across species.”  The AAMC is a supporter of the initiative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/18/opinion/humans-and-animals-shared-maladies.html
http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/