The National Library of Medicine (NLM) announces a funding opportunity for small projects to improve access to disaster medicine and public health information for health care professionals, first responders and others that play a role in health-related disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

NLM is soliciting proposals from partnerships that include at least one library and at least one non-library organization that has disaster-related responsibilities, such as health departments, public safety departments, emergency management departments, prehospital and emergency medical services, fire/rescue, or other local, regional, or state agencies with disaster health responsibilities; hospitals; faith-based and voluntary organizations active in disaster; and others.

NLM is looking for submission of innovative proposals that enhance mutually beneficial collaboration among libraries and disaster-related agencies. For example, projects may increase awareness of health information resources, demonstrate how libraries and librarians can assist planners and responders with disaster-related information needs, show ways in which disaster workers can educate librarians about disaster management, and/or include collaboration among partners in developing information resources that support planning and response to public health emergencies.  Summaries of the projects  funded in 2011 and 2012 can be viewed at http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/disasterinfofunding.html.

Contract awards will be offered for a minimum of $15,000 to a maximum of $30,000 each for a one-year project.

The deadline for responses is Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 2 pm ET. Responses are limited to six pages plus supplemental materials such as resumes, letters of support, and a budget.

The solicitation notice can be found on FedBizOpps: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=bce51d2baaeac33d108448c146128771&tab=core&_cview=0

For more information and instructions about the “Disaster Health Information Outreach and Collaboration Project 2013”, please visit http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/2013disasteroutreachrfq.html.

The National Library of Medicine (http://www.nlm.nih.gov) is the world’s largest biomedical library and provides extensive online health information resources. Visit the NLM Disaster Information Management Research Center site (http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov ) to learn more about disaster-related health information from WISER (hazardous materials information for emergency responders), REMM-Radiation Emergency Medical Management, CHEMM-Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management, and other resources.

Elizabeth Norton

Librarian

Disaster Information Management Research Center

Specialized Information Services

National Library of Medicine

6707 Democracy Blvd Suite 510

Bethesda, MD 20892

301-443-9420

nortone@nlm.nih.gov

New article from JMLA:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3634377/

The web adaptation of the traveling exhibition, “A Voyage to Health,” is now online! “A Voyage to Health” explores how the revival of Native Hawaiian sea voyaging traditions spurred on a cultural renaissance and helped heal the soul of the community. The website is augmented by education resources, including K-12 lesson plans, higher education modules, online activities, and more. To visit “A Voyage to Health” online, follow the link: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/avoyagetohealth/

Check out the May issue of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research. In this edition:

A Bang to the Brain
What We Know About Concussions
Concussions are a type of mild brain injury, but they need to be taken seriously. Learn to recognize the causes and symptoms of concussion, and take steps to prevent head injuries.

On Sound Footing
The Health of Your Feet
Your feet are pretty small, considering they have to support the entire height and weight of your body. But they can cause big problems. So take steps to keep your feet healthy!

Health Capsules:

• Ex-Smokers Gain Health Benefits Despite Added Pounds
• Allergies and Complementary Medicine
• Featured Website: NIH BRAIN Initiative

Click here to download a PDF version for printing.

Visit our Facebook page to suggest topics you’d like us to cover, or let us know what you find helpful about 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.

Free Printed Summaries of AHRQ’s “Closing the Quality Gap” Evidence Report Series Available

The federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed a free resource to help health care providers learn more about the evidence supporting eight quality improvement strategies. “Closing the Quality Gap: Revisiting the State of the Science” offers Executive Summaries of eight evidence reports that focus on various aspects of health care quality. AHRQ’s evidence reports offer an unbiased analysis of available research on specific health care topics. The individual reports are:

• “Bundled Payment: Effects on Health Care Spending and Quality” 12-E007-1
• “The Patient-Centered Medical Home” 12-E008-1
• “Quality Improvement Interventions to Address Health Disparities” 12-E009-1
• “Medication Adherence Interventions: Comparative Effectiveness” 12-E010-1
• “Public Reporting as a Quality Improvement Strategy” 12-E011-1
• “Prevention of Healthcare–Associated Infections” 12(13)-E012-1
• “Quality Improvement Measurement of Outcomes for People With Disabilities” 12(13)-E013-1
• “Improving Health Care and Palliative Care for Advanced and Serious Illness” 12(13)-E014-1

To order the set, request publication OM 13-0014 from the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse at 1-800-358-9295 or ahrqpubs@ahrq.gov.

To order individual reports, please order by title and publication number:

For online copies, go to http://www.ahrq.gov/research/findings/evidence-based-reports/.

NLM’s spring lecture series continues. The fourth lecture is coming up on Monday, April 29th from 3:30-5:00 pm.  Dr. Brad Hesse, Chief of the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute, will be joining us on the NIH campus in the Natcher Conference Center, Balcony B.  The title of his talk is: “Quantifying the Health Information Revolution: Triangulation in an Era of Big Data.”

More information about Dr. Hesse can be found at: http://staffprofiles.cancer.gov/brp/prgmStaffProfile.do?contactId=1546&bioType=stf

This event will be videocast live and archived at:  http://videocast.nih.gov.

Thank you to Dr. Andrew Pleasant for the exciting lecture he gave on April 10^th.  If you missed any of the first three lectures, they are available under “Past Events” on videocast.nih.gov.  Past lectures are listed by date (starting with the most recent).

Background

There are more and increasingly diverse ways for health information to reach the public. The interest among Americans to receive health information also remains high compared to most other topics. To maximize the impact of health information on the nation’s well-being and empower consumers, communicators need to know whether their messages are reaching the right audience, whether the information is understood, and whether the materials make a difference in decision-making and health outcomes. As a result, evaluation is an integral and crucial part of health communication.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) will host a spring lecture series to highlight innovative approaches and best practices in evaluating health communication. As the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NLM diversify their use of mass communication channels to dispatch health information, a fresh consideration of evaluation’s cutting edge is timely and important.

NLM and NIH employees are encouraged to attend this series, as are members of the public, other governmental agencies, as well as faculty and students from area universities. The lectures will feature discussion and participation by audience members.

Lecture 4 – April 29^th, 3:30-5:00 pm, Balcony B, Natcher Building 45, National Institutes of Health

“Quantifying the Health Information Revolution: Triangulation in an Era of Big Data.”

Brad Hesse, Ph.D., Chief, Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch, National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Hesse directs several of NCI’s cancer communication research initiatives, including the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) and the Centers of Excellence in Cancer Communication (CECCR).

Gary Kreps, Ph.D., discussant

The U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) launched the Genetics Home Reference (GHR) Web site on April 25, 2003 as a new consumer health information resource focused on human genetics. The creation of GHR coincided with the completion of the Human Genome Project, a 13-year international effort to map the entire human genome:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ma13/ma13_ghr.html

This video helps NIH-funded scientists link funding to their citations and manage compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYODIOD_YYE

The Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA) will be held May 3-8, 2013 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA. Attendees are invited to visit the NLM exhibit booth #226 (May 4-7) to meet NLM staff and see NLM Web products and services. The NLM Theater at the booth will feature demonstrations and tutorials on a wide variety of topics.

Check out all the events that include presentations/posters by your friends from MAR, as well as NLM:  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ma13/ma13_mla_invite.html

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Job opportunities at NLM, NIH
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/jobs/jobs.html

NISO Publishes Recommended Practice PIE-J: Presentation & Identification of E-Journals

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

NLM-Funded Study Offers New Insight into Statin Discontinuation

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

NLM Mourns Loss of Sheldon G. Cohen, MD

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

NLM Releases Extensible Markup Language (XML) for IndexCat™ Data

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

NLM Value Set Authority Center Publishes Annual Update for 2014 Eligible Hospital Clinical Quality Measure Value Sets

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

NLM DIRECTOR’S PODCASTS

Aspirin Associated with Reduced Melanoma Risk

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/podcast/transcript040113.html

Folic Acid Reduces Autistic Disorder?

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/podcast/transcript040813.html

Promising Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) Diagnostic Tool

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/podcast/transcript041513.html

NLM IN THE NEWS

Apps from Uncle Sam to Keep You Healthy

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/03/26/apps-from-uncle-sam-to-keep-healthy/

AT YOUR LIBRARY: World Health Day

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20130403-LIFE-304030315

Bethesda resource speaks volumes on health and healing

http://www.gazette.net/article/20130305/NEWS/130309678/1123/bethesda-resource-speaks-volumes-on-health-and-healing&template=gazette

Careers that Combine Biology and Mathematics

http://aliciac.hubpages.com/hub/Careers-that-Combine-Biology-and-Mathematics

‘Could you poison your child?’: images from a century of medical propaganda

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/12/4214262/national-library-of-medicine-online-image-archive-health-psa-posters

Download a Free Copy of Hidden Treasure: The National Library of Medicine

http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2013/02/08/download-a-free-copy-of-hidden-treasure-the-national-library-of-medicine/

Genomics Pioneers: Mardis and Church Welcome Apps that Impact Patients

http://nygenome.org/blog/genomics-pioneers-mardis-and-church-welcome-apps-impact-patients

Glossary of Genomics Terms

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1677346

Henkel Physicians

http://events.detroitnews.com/ann_arbor_mi/events/show/310870163-henkel-physicians

Mutating Gonorrhea and ‘Superbugs’ Coming Soon to a Town Near You?

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/04/mutating-gonorrhea-superbugs-coming-soon-to-a-town-near-you.html

National Library of Medicine: A valuable outing, and not just for MDs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/national-library-of-medicine-a-valuable-outing-and-not-just-for-mds/2013/03/05/ad118674-851e-11e2-999e-5f8e0410cb9d_story.html

Objects of Our Affliction

http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/issues/2013/winter/features/reznick.html

Objects of our afflictions

http://esciencecommons.blogspot.com/2013/02/objects-of-our-afflictions.html

Spring allergies could hit hard

http://www.waow.com/story/21813070/2013/03/27/doctors-say-spring-allergies-could-hit-hard#at_pco=cfd-1.0

Stopping a Statin May Not Be a Forever Thing

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Dyslipidemia/38207

Top 10 Weirdest Prescription Drug Side Effects

http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/medication/10-weird-prescription-drug-side-effect.htm/printable

Understanding Statin Discontinuation

http://www.biocompare.com/Life-Science-News/134092-Understanding-Statin-Discontinuation/

University of Saint Mary [Leavenworth, Kansas] hosts traveling exhibit on Civil War medicine

http://www.kcnursingnews.com/briefs/article_1a7d4c07-155a-552b-b04b-096b46b598e1.html

Wealth of medical information can be found—for free—at PlaneTree

http://www.mercurynews.com/sunnyvale/ci_22958062/wealth-medical-information-can-be-found-free-at

What We Learn From Clinical Trials

http://catalyst.phrma.org/what-we-learn-from-clinical-trials/

NEW OR UPDATED MEDLINEPLUS TOPICS

­English:

Blood Sugar

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/bloodsugar.html

Hyperglycemia

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/hyperglycemia.html

Español:

Hiperglucemia

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/hyperglycemia.html