As part of the Staten Island University Hospital’s continuing mission to give the trainees in residency programs outstanding clinical and academic training, the Medical Library provides information literacy instruction to medical residents as a component of their curriculum.  For the last few years, two-hour training sessions have been given to the groups of residents on a regular basis. Hands-on instruction in searching PubMed, given by Yelena Friedman, Director of the Medical Library, is aimed at teaching residents the skills necessary to quickly, efficiently, and independently locate high-quality, evidence-based medical information, which can be applied in a point-of-care setting.

The teaching took place in the library office, which did not allow every trainee to actively participate in hands-on training. The library staff, along with administration and faculty, has been looking a long time for ways to improve this situation. The opportunity came with the relocation to the newly built Regina McGinn Education Center: in the process of planning the new library, the Library Director requested a separate room designated for collaborative studies and training sessions. This request was filled. It was decided to equip the new room with laptops and a wall TV to allow training to be conducted in an interactive mode.

The project has been funded mostly with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. NO1-LM-6-3501 with the New York University School of Medicine.

In February 2011 the first training sessions took place in the newly equipped library training center (seen in the above photo). In the evaluations filled by the trainees at the end of each session a question whether facilities (room and equipment) were adequate – the only question that had always received low grades  – finally got 5 of 5 on a grading scale. The project has not only enabled improved quality of PubMed instruction for residents, but has also enabled the library to extend training to other groups of users, including nurses, students, and attending physicians. The library also plans to use the new training center for lectures, webinars, and hand-on training sessions on a variety of topics, such as improving nursing research skills, advanced PubMed searching, evaluating web resources, and many others.

Yelena Friedman, Medical Library Director
Staten Island University Hospital
Staten Island, NY

If you think it’s hard communicating with your doctor, imagine the difficulties encountered by patients with limited English skills, who must depend on family, friends, and translation services. In recent years, the Belmont section of the Bronx has seen an influx of immigrants from Albania, Africa, and Latin America, many with limited English skills. In 2008, St. Barnabas Hospital provided 17,834 translation minutes; this jumped to 60,168 minutes in 2010. “What Did the Doctor Say?” offered Belmont residents with limited English skills the opportunity to acquire very basic health care vocabulary through free ESL classes at the New York Public Library’s Belmont branch.

The classes, which were 75 minutes in length, were held twice weekly for three consecutive weeks and were taught by an instructor experienced in the Rassias method, which emphasizes rapid response and play acting. Thirty-one people registered for the class. Before the first class, each registrant received a reminder call. Only two students attended the first class. Calls were made again, but produced no additional students at the second class. After that class, the instructor and I canvassed shops, laundromats, and eateries frequented by our target population. By the last class there were five committed students, who did acquire new health vocabulary, and who look forward to future classes.

Deborah Bonelli, Library Director
St. Barnabas Hospital
Bronx, NY

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

 As part of our Smart Content initiative, Elsevier Health Sciences is looking to hire a Taxonomy Product Manager. Based in Philadelphia, the Taxonomy Product Manager will oversee the strategic and implementation roadmap of the Elsevier Merged Medical Taxonomy (EMMeT). A link to the job profile and brief description follows.

Taxonomy Product Manager

https://reedelsevier.taleo.net/careersection/51/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=144807

The Elsevier Health Sciences (EHS) Taxonomy Product Manager is a mission critical position in our organization that will transform how we reach and interact with our customers by enhancing access and discoverability of our content across all channels. It is seen as vital in ensuring that EHS provides excellent products and services to its customers and business partners as we go forward into the new technologies and applications of Smart Content. The Taxonomy Product Manager will be accountable for the successful development and delivery of a new Elsevier medical taxonomy. We prefer someone with Medical Librarian, Medical Informatics, clinical expertise, or similar training and background, but we require someone who has a track record of success and the practical experience required to build a world-class taxonomy capability.

 Please feel free to share with potential candidates or to contact me directly with questions at h.moran@elsevier.com.

 Best Regards,

Helen Moran

————————–

Helen Parr Moran

Vice President Smart Content Strategy

Elsevier Health Sciences

360 Park Avenue South, 6th Floor

New York, NY 10010

office: 212-462-1976

mobile: 718-753-9690

fax: 212-633-3850

email: h.moran@elsevier.com

NLM Technical Bulletin, May-Jun 2011, UMLS 2011AA Release Available
Thu, 05 May 2011 14:42:04 -0500

The 2011AA release of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Knowledge Sources is available as of May 5, 2011 from the Downloads menu of the UMLS Terminology Services (UTS).

NLM Technical Bulletin, May-Jun 2011, NLM Co-Sponsors Clinical Trial Conference, June 6-7, 2011
Thu, 05 May 2011 10:58:09 -0500

The National Library of Medicine, the Friends of the National Library of Medicine, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science are co-sponsoring a conference exploring the future of clinical trials.

NLM Technical Bulletin, May-Jun 2011, NTCC Educational Clearinghouse Merges with the MLA Educational Clearinghouse
Thu, 05 May 2011 10:55:25 -0500

The Educational Clearinghouse database at the National Training Center and Clearinghouse (NTCC) was launched on June 17, 2002 as a new service of the Training Center.

Read more at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/current_issue.html

The May –June NLM Technical Bulletin article on the MLA Meeting has been updated to include the following:

Section-Sponsored Programming

NIH, NLM, and NN/LM staff will also be participating in the following MLA sessions:

Sunday, May 15 (4:30 pm – 6:00 pm)

Session Title: Next Steps: The Future (General Topic Session)
Topic: Rethinking Information Delivery: Using a Natural Language Processing Application for Point-of-care Data Discovery
Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Semantic MEDLINE, with a statistical algorithm called Combo, in identifying decision support information for disease prevention.
Authors: T. Elizabeth Workman, NLM Informatics Fellow and PhD Student, Biomedical Informatics and Joan M. Stoddart, Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Time: 5:39 pm – 5:55 pm
Location: 101J – Minneapolis Convention Center

Session Title: Rethinking Technical Services
Topic: Rethinking Book Acquisitions: An Analysis of Book Usage over Time
Objective: With a decline in overall usage of our book collection, we sought to understand the characteristics of the decline. Our objectives were (1) to describe the decline fully; (2) to classify books into usage categories; and (3) to understand the characteristics of the differences, such as the subject areas of the books, book selector, secular trends, and other externalities.
Authors: I. Diane Cooper and Karen G. Smith, NIH Library, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Time: 5:15 pm – 5:35 pm
Location: 101I – Minneapolis Convention Center

Session Title: The T-shaped Librarian
Topic: Model Template for a Health Care Knowledge Management Center
Objective: Not Available
Author: Mark Goldstein, NN/LM, New England Region, Medical School, University of Massachusetts, Shrewsbury, MA
Time: 4:55 pm – 5:15 pm
Location: 101F/G – Minneapolis Convention Center

See the full list of NLM events at MLA here

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 available! In this edition:

 When the Stakes Turn Toxic
Learn About Problem Gambling
Many people enjoy gambling without causing harm to themselves or others. Yet some people can’t control their impulse to gamble, even when it takes a terrible toll on their lives.
Read more about gambling.

Recognizing Schizophrenia
Seeking Clues to a Difficult Disorder
Unfortunately, most people with schizophrenia don’t see their symptoms as warning signs of a mental disorder. Their lives may be unraveling, yet they may believe that their experiences are normal. Or they may feel that they’re blessed or cursed with special insights others can’t see.
Read more about schizophrenia.

Health Capsules:

• Drug Helps Relieve Asthma in Young People
• Learn About Long-Term Care
• Featured Web Site: www.NIH.gov

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.

Visit our Facebook wall to suggest topics you’d like us to cover, or start a discussion about how you use the newsletter. We want to hear what you think!

Please pass the word on to your colleagues about NIH News in Health. We are happy to send a limited number of print copies free of charge for display in offices, libraries or clinics. Just email us or call 301-435-7489 for more information.

We are happy to announce two new trifold brochures, one explaining the use of MedlinePlus Connect and the other  a revised and updated guide to the new MyNCBI .

The MedlinePlus Connect trifold may be found at http://nnlm.gov/training/resources/mpconnect.pdf

The MyNCBI trifold is at http://nnlm.gov/training/resources/myncbitri.pdf

You may freely download, reproduce and distribute these brochures, along with the many other informational brochures from NNLM that can be found at http://nnlm.gov/training/pamphlets.html

A message from Dr. Donald Lindberg, Director, NLM:

 I am very pleased to announce that effective Sunday, May 8, 2011, Michael F. Huerta, Ph.D., will join the NLM as Associate Director for Health Information Programs Development. 

Dr. Huerta comes to us from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) where he serves as NIMH Associate Director for Scientific Technology Research.  Dr. Huerta has been a productive member of the NIH community since 1991, when he was appointed Chief of the Neural Systems Program, NIMH.  Since that time he has served in numerous leadership positions and roles to include Director, NIH National Database for Autism Research; Director, Office of Cross-Cutting Science and Scientific Technology, NIMH; and Associate Director, Division of Neuroscience and Basic Behavioral Science, NIMH.  Dr. Huerta led the NIMH extramural and intramural efforts related to research and development of technologies including biomedical informatics, and he played a key role in developing the field of neuroinformatics.  Throughout his tenure at NIH, Dr. Huerta’s expertise has been specifically sought by the Office of the Director, NIH for a variety of highly visible and important initiatives such as the Human Brain Project, the National Database for Autism Research, the NIH Blue Print for Neuroscience Research, Small Business Research, and the Human Connectome Project, among others.  Prior to joining the NIMH, Dr. Huerta served as Assistant Professor at various academic institutions where he also conducted neuroanatomical and neurophysiological research.  Dr. Huerta earned his Ph.D. in Anatomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Dr. Huerta’s expertise with many diverse research activities across NIH, informatics-related and otherwise, will be an asset to the NLM.

 Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D.

Director

National Library of Medicine

Posted on behalf of the MedlinePlus Team, NLM: 

Today we released the MedlinePlus Connect Web service, which complements the previously released Web application. The Web service will give EHRs more flexibility in how they return MedlinePlus information and links to patients and providers.  

Technical details for how to implement the service are available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/connect/service.html. To show how the service responds to requests, we created a Web service demonstration page, http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/services/servicedemo.cfm. You can continue to access overview and other information at http://medlineplus.com/connect.

 Also, we created a page that lists some of the health care organizations and electronic health record systems that are using MedlinePlus Connect. See http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/connect/users.html. This is not a comprehensive list.

 The groups on this list have told us they are using MedlinePlus Connect and agreed to appear on this page. Organizations or EHR systems who are using MedlinePlus Connect and want to be added to the list can send us a note through the Contact Us link at the top of any MedlinePlus page.

 Thank you,

Stephanie

Stephanie Narva Dennis

MedlinePlus Team, National Library of Medicine

301-435-4898  |  denniss@mail.nlm.nih.gov

http://medlineplus.gov

This Library Journal article captures some interesting presentations on libraries and copyright from the recent ACRL convention in Philadelphia, PA.

Kelley, Michael. “ACRL 2011: A Rallying Cry for Leadership and Risk Taking in the Copyright Wars,” Library Journal online, April 11, 2011.