Clinical Trials.gov has a new user interface. Learn more about it in the NLM Technical Bulletin.

This article describes the new features, including highlighted search terms, more display options, and additional capabilities for viewing studies and search results by topic. Improvements were also made to “Advanced Search” and the display by location on the world map.

On Wednesday, October 24th, the Middle Atlantic Region sent over 340 hospital librarians an e-mail message encouraging them to talk with their hospital administrators about MLA’s Health Information Literacy Survey for Hospital Administrators and Health Care.

The Medical Library Association (MLA) in cooperation with the American Hospital Association (AHA) Society for Health Care Advocacy (SHCA) has distributed a Web-based Health Information Literacy Survey to hospital administrators and health care providers throughout the country. The survey will help ascertain administrators’ and health care providers’ awareness and understanding of health information literacy, its value in support of patient care, and the role that librarians and libraries can play in promoting health information literacy. The survey was developed in collaboration with the National Library of Medicine, TAP Consulting, an outside research firm, and MLA’s Health Information Literacy Project Coordinator, Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi.

A non-active copy of the survey is available for review at <http://www.zhost.com/mla/adminLong1.html>

The overall goal of the MLA research project is to increase awareness of health care providers’ knowledge of health information literacy issues as well as the NLM tools and resources for increasing health literacy levels that are available to them and their patients. For an overview of the full project, visit <http://www.mlanet.org/resources/healthlit/hil_project_overview.html>.

If you have questions or need further information, please contact project coordinator Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi, sabrina_kurtz-rossi@comcast.net.

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

The October 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:

Feature Stories:

• The Perils of Peers — How Social Networks Affect Your Health
• Giving Germs the Slip — Soap and Shots Can Protect Your Health

Health Capsules:

• Early Childhood Program Shows Benefits

• Seeking Health Information

Featured Web Site:

• Household Products Database

If you’re an editor who wishes to use NIH News in Health material in your publication, please see http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/about.htm for information.

Toxie, the ToxMystery guide cat, has gone back to school and can now speak Spanish. ToxMystery gamers can now move between English and Spanish as they explore the ToxMystery “house of hazards.”

The new ToxMystery en español has a “Para los padres” page giving parents more detailed information about potential household hazards. The “Para maestros” page is for teachers and has lesson plans and downloadable classroom activity pages in Spanish. ToxMystery can be used in science, health, and even for teaching in Spanish and English language classes.

ToxMystery (http://toxmystery.nlm.nih.gov) is purrfect for 7-11 year olds (and fun for all ages) to learn about possible chemical hazards around the home. ToxMystery is an e-learning game that uses animation, sound effects and positive reinforcement to teach students about environmental health hazards around the home.

Come play with Toxie and see if you can find the hazards in English and en español!

Today NLM released the “What’s New on MedlinePlus” page, available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/whatsnew.html. Visit the page to stay up to date on new MedlinePlus topics, podcasts, featured sites, and new issues of the NIH MedlinePlus Magazine. The “What’s New” items will display for three weeks and are also available through an RSS feed. The “What’s New on MedlinePlus” page and corresponding RSS feed are available in both English and Spanish.

This page and RSS feed compliment the already-available MedlinePlus Health News RSS, which delivers press announcements and HealthDay news stories. The News RSS is available in both English and Spanish. You can access the “What’s New on MedlinePlus” RSS and the MedlinePlus Health News RSS from the E-mail Lists and RSS Feeds page at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/listserv.html.

The September 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:

Feature Stories:

• Is Baby Babbling on Schedule? — Milestones in Speech and Language
• Spotting Autism Spectrum Disorders — Early Detection Important for Outcome

Health Capsules:

• Can You Listen to Two Things at Once?
• Mourning the Death of a Spouse

Featured Web Site:

• Cancer Risk: Understanding the Puzzle

Search Clinic: Chemicals & Drugs in PubMed®

Learn how to find articles about a chemical or drug of interest. On August 23 the U.S. National Library of Medicine hosted a 45-minute online clinic on how the NLM MeSH vocabulary is used to describe substance concepts and how to search PubMed for relevant articles.

The search clinic recording is now available online:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/clinics/chem.html

You may view the clinic recording, read the transcript, view the slides, and evaluate the clinic.

A new version of TOXMAP (http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov) was released August 7. This version includes:
More search options: Users can now search TOXMAP by Chemical Abstracts Service/Registry Number (CAS/RN), Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) facility name/ID, release medium, release year ranges, release amount, Superfund (NPL) site name/ID, and Hazard Ranking System (HRS) score.

Geographic regions: Users can create their own geographic region, or select a pre-defined region from a menu. Setting a geographic region limits search results to those inside the specified region. Regions can be saved for future access.

Regional TRI summary tables: Users can view summary (aggregate) TRI release amounts for their geographic region.
Updated and expanded glossary and FAQs.

TOXMAP is a Geographic Information System (GIS) from the Division of Specialized Information Services (http://sis.nlm.nih.gov) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) that uses maps of the United States to help users visually explore data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Toxics Release Inventory and Superfund Program.

A message from Stuart J. Nelson, MD, Head, Medical Subject Headings Section, National Library of Medicine:

The National Library of Medicine has decided to discontinue the printing of the Index Medicus Supplement, sometimes known as the Black and White MeSH. We have received a great number of comments on this proposal, and are grateful for the input. Overall, it appears that our impression that few would be inconvenienced by the discontinuation of the printed edition was correct. Given the high cost of printing even a few copies of the book, we do not see the benefit as justifying the expense. For those wishing a souvenir copy, the 2007 MeSH will continue to be available from the Government Printing Office for another 14 months.

In response to concerns expressed by several individuals, we plan to make available a set of PDF files containing the various hierarchies.

These will be formatted in such a way as to make printing them on 81/2 by 11 inch paper feasible, enabling a user to print out and review an entire tree easily.

We encourage all to avail themselves of the resources available at www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh. There is a considerable amount of printable introductory material, information about how we update MEDLINE, as well as links to downloadable files and the MeSH browser. The PDF files of the trees will also be available there.

The current MeSH files are available for download, in one of three different formats. Furthermore, the browser at the MeSH website provides ready access to the current version of MeSH. The browser supports partial word searches of three letters or more, and provides many links between related terms. As is our practice, all of these services and files will remain free of charge.

Once again, we wish to express our gratitude for the many comments received.

Stuart J. Nelson, MD

Head, Medical Subject Headings Section