The Center on Democracy and Technology has published a Policy Paper on the issues surrounding electronic health records. The paper, entitled “Privacy and Security Principles for Health Information Technology,” is broken down into three areas:

1. CDT Calls for the Adoption of a Comprehensive Privacy and Security Framework for Health Information Technology
2. Basics Required in any Health Information Technology Policy
3. CDT’s Suggested Implementation

As electronic health records continue to develop, expect to see more Think Tanks and organizations developing thoughts and positions as to how they should be handled.  ArsTechnica also has a good analysis of the paper.

MedlinePlus has released a multilingual feature, providing access to high quality health information in languages other than English and Spanish. This new service, linked from the MedlinePlus homepage and available directly at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/languages/languages.html, benefits people who prefer to read consumer health information in their native language. It also helps the information professionals and health care providers who serve them.

The new collection contains over 2,500 links to information in more than 40 languages and covers nearly 250 Health Topics.

Users can navigate the new collection of health information in multiple languages either by language or by topic. In addition, a languages box with a list of language names displays on the English Health Topic pages. The language names link to information on MedlinePlus in multiple languages for that topic

You can also use the MedlinePlus search tool to find these pages. A new collection called Multiple Languages appears in the MedlinePlus search results.  Look for an update to the MedlinePlus Search Tips in the near future.

In addition, an interactive world map teaches users about the number of people who speak nine of the languages in the MedlinePlus collection.

The MedlinePlus collection of health information in multiple languages is not meant to be comprehensive. Instead, as with our English and Spanish collections, MedlinePlus staff selects materials according to our quality guidelines. We also follow quality guidelines that are specific to the new collection.

NLM welcomes your comments and suggestions about MedlinePlus. A “Contact Us” link appears at the top of every MedlinePlus page.

The May issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research, is now online at http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/. In this issue of NIH News in Health:

Frightened of Food
Living with Food Allergies
Imagine what life would be like if you had to constantly check out the ingredients in your favorite foods to make sure your life wasn’t in danger after eating even a tiny bit. For some people with severe food allergies, that’s become their way of life.

Of Air and Asthma
Air Pollution’s Effects
A growing number of Americans are sniffling and suffering with allergies and asthma. If you’re 1 of the 23 million Americans who suffer from asthma, you might get some relief by taking steps to reduce indoor allergen levels and modifying your lifestyle to avoid the ill effects of air pollution.

Health Capsules:

• Keeping Off Lost Weight
• Older Corneas Can Make Good Transplants
• Featured Web Site: Gear Up!

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.

Subscribe to receive email alerts when new issues of NIH News in Health are posted by going to https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=nihnewsinhealth-l&A=1. 

HRSA’s free online course: Unified Health Communication 101:

Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency has now been approved for 5 MLA Continuing Education Contact Hours.

Additional information about the course can be found at:
http://www.hrsa.gov/healthliteracy/training.htm

Tox Town is now available in both English, http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov and en español, http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/espanol. Visitors can learn in English or in Spanish about environmental health concerns and over 30 toxic chemicals in these imaginary neighborhoods: a City, Farm, Town, US-Mexico Border, and Port.In either language, Tox Town uses neighborhood scenes along with color, graphics, sounds, and animation to add interest to learning about connections between chemicals, the environment, and the public’s health. Tox Town’s target audience is high school, college and graduate students, educators, and the interested public.

Tox Town en español identifies Spanish-language information in a subject area – environmental health and toxicology – that currently has few Web resources. To supplement the limited Web resources in Spanish, nearly 100 pages of background information describing environmental health concerns were translated and reviewed by a team of bilingual health information specialists.

Tox Town is ideal for supplementing classes in environmental science, earth science, forensics, and health. Also, students learning to read either English or Spanish may use Tox Town to improve language skills as they toggle back and forth between the Spanish and English text.

Tox Town joins three other Spanish-language Web resources from the National Library of Medicine. ToxMystery, for grades 2–6, features a bilingual talking cat that teaches about possible chemical hazards around the home, http://toxmystery.nlm.nih.gov. MedlinePlus (en español at http://medlineplus.gov/spanish ) directs users to hundreds of Spanish-language resources on health including drug information, news stories and interactive tutorials that read aloud in Spanish or in English. The AIDSinfo Web site, home for treatment guidelines, drug information and clinical trials related to HIV/AIDS, also has a Spanish version, infoSIDA, available at http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/infoSIDA.

Tox Town® is a project of the Specialized Information Services Division of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Promotional materials and Tox Town images for Web sites and publications are listed at http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/clipart.html. Please send your comments or questions on Tox Town to tehip@teh.nlm.nih.gov.

The March issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research, is now online at http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/. In this issue:

Making and Maintaining Muscle
How Much Protein Do You Need?
The idea of eating more protein has gained popularity in the past few years. Some people may think the way to build body muscle is to eat high-protein diets and use protein powders, supplements and shakes.
full story

Living with Crohn’s Disease
More Options for Treatment
Even when chickenpox is gone, the virus that causes it stays with you for life, hidden and inactive in your nerve cells. As you get older, the virus may make a second, unwelcome appearance and cause a painful disease called shingles.
full story

Health Capsules:

• Supplement Use and Cancer
• Why Be Shy About Incontinence?
• Featured Web Site: NIHSeniorHealth.gov—Exercise Stories

You can also click here to download a PDF version for printing.

ALA Annual Conference Wellness Fair 2008

Anaheim, California

The ALA Workplace Wellness Task Force will host a Wellness Fair at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA, June 26 - July 2, 2008. In conjunction with this event, we invite you to submit a poster session proposal relating to our theme, “Be Well at Work.” Posters will be displayed during the Wellness Fair on Sunday, June 29, 2008.

Please help us share examples of successful workplace wellness initiatives for library employees. We encourage proposals relating to initiatives on any wellness issue. Some suggested subjects for poster sessions are diet and nutrition, ergonomics, exercise incentives, health education, health screenings, sick building syndrome, and stress management.        

The ALA Workplace Wellness Task Force will select posters for the Wellness Fair on the basis of quality and to represent a variety of wellness program themes and library types.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: March 15, 2008. A brief description of the poster (250 words or less) should be submitted via e-mail to Lynne Ring, lring@fortbend.lib.tx.us. Please include your name, institution, phone, fax, e-mail address, and poster title.

Review of proposals will begin immediately and successful submitters will be notified by April 15, 2008.

Of interest to public libraries:

The American Library Association is pleased to announce that it is working with WGBH Boston on the upcoming national outreach campaign for the film The Truth About Cancer, which will air on PBS April 16th at 9 p.m. (check local listings). The 90-minute documentary film, followed by a 30-minute expert panel, hosted by news journalist and cancer survivor Linda Ellerbee will be the launching pad for events and projects across the country focused on creating community conversations around cancer survivorship.

ALA and WGBH encourage libraries to reach out to their local PBS stations to collaborate with them on events surrounding this film. In addition, WGBH encourages libraries to reach out to its national outreach partners on this project including the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, Lance Armstrong Foundation, YMCA of the USA and the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups. These collaborations will provide an excellent opportunity for libraries to develop new—or strengthen existing—community partnerships, while offering a valuable service to their communities.

To assist in these outreach efforts, WGBH will offer extensive online resources, including downloadable handouts, which will be available on www.pbs.org/takeonestep <http://www.pbs.org/takeonestep> starting in March 2008. In addition, a limited number of free Outreach Toolkits including two event posters and a DVD Screener that will include 30 minutes of the film and the full expert panel to libraries that request them. WGBH asks that libraries not hold public screenings using the DVD screener until one week prior to the premiere broadcast.

To order the Outreach Toolkit, please go to:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/takeonestep/request.html

Materials are limited and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

This collaborative project with WGBH is administered by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of ALA. Contact Barbara Macikas, RUSA, bmacikas@ala.org <mailto:bmacikas@ala.org> or 1-800-545-2433, ext. 4395.

health08.org

Health08 is a new web site from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation with information about health care issues addressed by the presidential candidates in the 2008 presidential election. It features news, video clips, analysis, poll results, and side-by-side comparisons of the candidates’ positions on health care issues, such as expansion of public programs, insurance premium subsidies, cost containment, and financing.

On October 11, 2007, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) released a new search engine for MedlinePlus, MedlinePlus en español and the NLM Web site. NLM selected search engine software from the Pittsburgh-based company Vivisimo®. Vivisimo is also the current search solution for the www.usa.gov site (formerly FirstGov).

The new search results feature enhanced relevance rankings and bold-face search words in context to help you select the best Web document for your query. An integrated spell checker suggests alternative search terms and spelling corrections. The new search engine also expands queries using synonyms specific to the sites and medical synonyms from the NLM Unified Medical Language System®.

MedlinePlus Searches

The default display for MedlinePlus searches is a comprehensive list of “All Results” from all areas of the site. Users can also focus their search on one part of MedlinePlus by navigating to these individual collections of results:

• Health Topics
• External Health Links
• Drugs and Supplements
• Medical Encyclopedia
• News
• Other Resources

For MedlinePlus searches that retrieve one of the 700+ English language health topics, the relevant topic is spotlighted at the top of the screen with an image, an excerpt of the health topic summary and links to the topic.

Read more about the new search engine:

*New Site Search Engine Allows Easier, More Efficient Navigation of MedlinePlus and NLM Web Site

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/searchengine_vivisimo.html

*NLM Technical Bulletin, Sep-Oct 2007, NLM Launches New Web Search Engine: NLM Web Site, MedlinePlus, MedlinePlus Español

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/so07/so07_nlm_search_engine.html