The Health Care Cost Institute is managing a database that the Washington Post reports “will allow researchers to slice and dice more than 3 billion medical claims for more than 33 million individuals in search of answers.  The previously confidential information, scrubbed of identifying details, is being provided by three of the nation’s largest insurance companies: Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare — whose combined customers account for about 20 percent of Americans under age 65 who are insured through an employer.”  A new report featuring initial findings from the data was released on Monday.
http://tinyurl.com/7wqehly
http://healthcostinstitute.org/

The Health Resources and Services Administration has released a 7 minute video:  “How Effective Healthcare Communication Contributes to Health Equity.”  This video offers a helpful introduction for all healthcare providers on how culture, language and health literacy support the elimination of disparities and promote health equity.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOZLf-RYvHk.

The MCH Library at Georgetown University has developed a new edition of the Community Services Locator, an online directory for finding services for children and families in the communities in which they live.  The locator can be used by service providers and families to find available child care and early childhood education programs; developmental assessment and learning services; family support; financial support; and health and wellness care.

View the locator online at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_community.html.

Sunday, May 20th

Bases Loaded, Patient at Bat: Genetics clinicians, Clinical Librarian and Consumer Librarian Collaborate to Enhance Patient Care
Susan Robishaw and Patricia Ulmer

This successful, collaborative project among genetics clinicians and librarians has had a positive impact on patient care for both clinicians and patients. The clinicians need less time to prepare for a patient encounter. They maximize the time they spend with the patients. They have more information about the patient’s potential diagnoses at the time of the initial visit. Having more information allows the clinician to spend more time reviewing the diagnosis with the patient and addressing his/her concerns and to selectively order tests. Patients receive trusted, accurate and up to date health they use to better understand their condition/treatment.

Covering the Bases: Running a Library-Based Bioinformatics Service at a Health Sciences University
Carrie L. Iwema and Ansuman Chattopadhyay

iPad Lending Library for On Call/Night Float Residents: Home Run or Foul Ball?
Catherine M. Boss and Chunwei Ma

A pilot study was conducted to determine the usefulness of an iPad for independent learning and direct patient care by on-call/night float residents. An iPad with WiFi would allow for connectivity to the medical center’s patient care portal with licensed patient-based and evidence-based databases, electronic books, and journals.

iPads as a Tool to Enhance Communications and Access to Emergency Preparedness Resources
Cristina A. Pope and Donna K. Sowles

Poster Sessions

Building a Farm Team: Ten Years of Developing New Academic Health Sciences Library Directors; The NLM/AAHSL Leadership Fellows Program
Carolyn E. Lipscomb, Barbara A. Epstein, Lynn Kasner Morgan, Julia F. Sollenberger and M.J. Tooey

In response to a documented need to build the next generation of leadership for academic health sciences libraries, the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, with co-sponsorship from the National Library of Medicine, initiated a program to identify, encourage and develop candidates for director. The poster measures program results and identifies factors of success.

Gray Literature Searching in Health Sciences Systematic Reviews: A Survey Study
Ahlam Saleh, Melissa A. Ratajeski and Marnie Bertolet

Using Quick Response (QR) Codes to Promote E-Books
Melissa A. Ratajeski

The Value of Health Libraries and Information Services for Clinical Decision Making and Patient Safety
Joanne Marshall and Julia Sollenberger

Monday, May 21st

Enhancing PubMed EBM Search Outcomes with Customized My NCBI Filters
Tanya Shkolnikov

The customized Levels of Evidence Filters (LEF) for PubMed searches provide medical residents with a much-needed tool for retrieving EBM information in accordance with the Levels of Evidence Pyramid. LEF allow users to locate materials with higher levels of evidence in one click, and to easily access articles with lower levels of evidence, if needed.

Tuesday, May 22nd

Partnering to Encourage Health Information Seeking at an Urban Minority Health Center: A Case Study
Prudence Dalrymple, Lenore Hardy, Lisl Zach, Michelle Rogers, Patricia Gerrity, Mary Green and Kathleen Turner

A multidisciplinary partnership of librarians, health professionals, and LIS faculty collaborated to encourage health information seeking by medically underserved patients at an urban health center. The objectives of the program were to 1) gain greater insight into the information behaviors of these patients and 2) test the effectiveness of sending tailored text messages to participants in a group prenatal class.

154 Results of the Value of Health Library and Information Services Study
Joanne Marshall and Julia Sollenberger

Free CE course offered at Penn State Hershey:

Public Health Information on the Web

Monday, June 4, 2012, 1:00 – 4:00 pm

George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library

Penn State Hershey

Hershey, PA

4 MLA CE credits

Instructor: Kate Flewelling, MAR Outreach Coordinator flewkate@pitt.edu

Registration information:

http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/class_details.html?class_id=27.

Older Americans Month is an opportunity to recognize the guiding wisdom and important contributions of our nation’s seniors.

Here are a few resources that seniors may find useful:

• Economic Security for Seniors — Learn about reverse mortgages and job training; and find benefit programs to help pay for medications and other essentials.
• Tips on Exercise and Healthy Eating — Get ideas for meal planning and safely increasing your level of physical activity.
• Facts about Older Americans — Did you know that more than 16% of older Americans are in the labor force or that the fastest growing age group in the older population is 85-94? Learn more interesting facts about America’s 65+ crowd.
• Senior Resources on USA.gov — Find a wide range of resources for seniors on topics that include health, money, housing, and more.

The HHS Secretary’s annual report on the nation’s health was released on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). “Health, United States, 2011″ is the 35th annual report and includes “a compilation of health data from a number of sources within the federal government and in the private sector. Trend data on virtually every health topic from all stages of life are presented in tables and charts, and this year’s report contains a special focus section on socioeconomic status and health.”
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the launch of a new web-based tool “that will make it easier for all Americans to monitor and measure how the nation’s health care system is performing.” According to HHS, the Health System Measurement Project “will allow policymakers, providers, and the public to develop consistent data-driven views of changes in critical U.S. health system indicators.”

https://healthmeasures.aspe.hhs.gov/

If any of you are planning to join us at MLA, we’d like to alert you that there will be 2 paper presentations and 1 poster presentation resulting from MAR funding.

Sunday, May 20, 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Section Programs 1
WSCC, Room 612, Level Six

The Value of Health Libraries and Information Services for Clinical Decision Making and Patient Safety
Joanne Marshall, AHIP, FMLA, and Julia Sollenberger, AHIP, FMLA
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Poster Session 3 │ Tuesday, May 22, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
WSCC, 4A/B, Level Four

154 Results of the Value of Health Library and Information Services Study
Joanne Marshall, AHIP, FMLA, and Julia Sollenberger, AHIP, FMLA
———————–

Sunday, May 20, 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Section Programs 1
WSCC, Room 608/609, Level Six

iPads as a Tool to Enhance Communications and Access to Emergency Preparedness Resources
Cristina A. Pope, AHIP, and Donna K. Sowles

MAR would like to know if anyone else within our region may be presenting at MLA.  After MLA, we would like to highlight and share details about what you’re doing.  If you are doing a paper presentation or a poster, please provide answers to the questions listed below to:  nnlmmar@pitt.edu by Thursday, May 24^th.

1. Title of the Presentation/Poster
2. Date of the Presentation/Poster
3. Names of the Presenters
4. Description/Abstract of the Presentation/Poster