National Library of Medicine Site Visit
October 22, 2008
Administrator's Session
Discussion questions:
How does the RML program relate to the University of Washington's institutional priorities?
What has been the impact of the RML program within the UW?
Background: The Regional Medical Library (RML) program, based at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library, is the regional headquarters for the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region (NN/LM PNR). Via contract with the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the Regional Medical Library (RML) collaborates with academic, hospital, and community libraries, and with health agencies and organizations, to ensure that quality health information is accessible to health care providers and consumers throughout Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Examples of how the RML relates to UW priorities, and its impact within the UW:
WWAMI
UW's Regional Medical Education Program (WWAMI),
provides medical school activities for the states of
Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. The
WWAMI program allows medical students to learn medicine
where it is practiced - in the community.
The NN/LM PNR program relates to WWAMI both in geographic scope and population focus. For example, one of the NN/LM goals is to contribute to the Healthy People 2010 goal of eliminating health disparities by providing access to quality health information by underserved and minority populations in the region and the health professionals who serve them. A large segment of the WWAMI region's population lives in rural, generally underserved areas that also lack adequate access to health information resources and services.
The NN/LM PNR program is run out of the Regional
Medical Library office at the UW Health Sciences Library.
The RML provides services around the region to support
the work of medical libraries in serving the information
needs of the health professionals they serve.
In addition, the RML funds small awards for project
partnerships by libraries and community organizations
that bring health information expertise, resources and
health literacy training to community programs and
services.
2007-2008 RML sponsored projects in WWAMI communities around the region:
Alaska
Funding was awarded to the University of Alaska Anchorage
for the Alaska Medical Library (AML) to
provide trainings and demonstrations for health
professionals and the public health workforce in Alaska.
AML staff exhibited web-based knowledge resources for
the annual conference of state public health nurses;
demonstrated public health (i.e. PHPartners) web
resources via satellite conference broadcast across the
state; and met with Anchorage School District Nurses on
four occasions about evidence-based practice. AML staff
also conducted several outreach activities at Providence
Alaska Medical Center. They attended new physician
orientations every month; were actively involved with the
Providence Nursing Research group; and gave
demonstrations on finding free medical resources to
parish nurses at the Medical Center.
Idaho
Progress continued, with RML funding, for the Idaho State
University, Pocatello, Idaho, to provide a training
program to the underserved speech-language pathologists
(SLPs) and audiologists in the southeast region of
Idaho.
Funding was also awarded to Idaho State University to exhibit web-based resources from the National Library of Medicine at the Annual Meeting of the Idaho Public Health Association held jointly with Idaho Conference on Health Care.
The RML co-sponsored a workshop to explore partner opportunities for library and community organizations in Idaho. Participants included representative from Idaho public libraries, medical libraries, community organizations, and staff from the RML and the Idaho Commission for Libraries. Community-based organizations in Idaho serving health needs of underserved audiences were invited presenters, including Centro de Comunidad y Justicia, a non-profit organization whose mission is to organize community-based efforts to improve the education, economic and social status of low to moderate income Latino families in Idaho who are in need of health, education, housing, employment and other types of social services.
Montana
A project funded by the RML successfully completed its
development of a web-based immunization information
resource library. The project created enhanced formats
for English and Spanish written vaccine information
statements (VIS) that cover most of the common children
and adult immunizations (Chickenpox, DPaT, Hepatitis A,
Hepatitis B, Hib, MMR, Inactivated Influenza,
Pneumococcal polysaccharide, Td, and Polio). The enhanced
formats include audio, multimedia, and web-based video.
In addition to the full content versions of the VIS
materials, shortened versions that cover key concepts
about each vaccine were developed. All materials (in
addition to the written format) were made available on
the web
(http://www.healthyroadsmedia.org/topics/immunization.htm).
The Great Falls Public Library continued a program, partnering with community-based health organizations, the Great Falls Clinic, and the local public health jurisdiction, to help citizens of Cascade County access quality information to make more informed health care decisions.
Progress was made on the Go Local Montana project that will link MedlinePlus.gov topics to local health services information.
RML staff continues to support The Montana Campaign (What's Your Story? Find it at the Library) a statewide, marketing and promotion partnership with Montana State library to increase libraries use by different population segments for information needs, including health.
Washington
The development of a community's capacity to meet the
health information needs of its people through both
information technology and training--are being tried with
Hispanic communities in the region. The RML funded
Community Choice Health Care Network to promote health
information resources and services (in Spanish and
English) for Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, Grant and Adams
Counties of Washington. Health information expertise at
public libraries and via resources of the NLM are offered
as referral sources for the Statewide Health Insurance
Benefit Advisors (SHIBA) HelpLine Program, which seeks to
develop citizens into more informed healthcare consumers
and improve their quality of life through healthier
lifestyles.
Progress continued on a project funded by the RML for Public Health - Seattle & King County to extend the Public Health Digital Library. The digital library provides library services, both free and fee-based, to underserved public health professionals in Western Washington.
CPHN was funded to expand on their 2006 funded project with the Seattle Public School District. CPHN will promote MedlinePlus through their Healthy Schools website and workshops to health professionals, administrators, librarians, health educators, and other stakeholders working with K-12 schools throughout the state. Due to the nature of their work, these professionals can individually benefit from the tools and information, disseminate the information to impact Washington's 1.1 million school age children and promote awareness and use of MedlinePlus to colleagues, community members, other health professionals, parents and students.
Other examples:
UW School of Public Health and Community
Medicine
On July 15, 2008, RMLstaff were invited presenters, for a
"Hot Topics" webconference, sponsored by the Northwest
Center for Public Health Practice (NWCPHP). The NWCPHP
coordinates workforce development activities as part of
the Department of Health Services at the University of
Washington School of Public Health and Community
Medicine.
For the "Hot Topic", Maryanne Blake and Gail Kouame shared a sampler of quality information resources relevant to the disaster planning and response workforce. Resources demonstrated included the Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER), and MedlinePlus, a consumer health portal site. The regionwide webconference reached local and state public health practitioners; and local and state emergency management staff.
On August 19, 2008, Alison Aldrich (MLS and MPH) presented "Searching the Public Health Literature: Reliable Sources for Busy People" at NWCPHP Summer Institute.
Scholarly Communications
Alison Aldrich, who is Technology Outreach Coordinator in
the NN/LM PNR developed a webpage about scholarly
communications issues-- especially for health science
libraries in clinical settings--i.e. small health
sciences libraries that are not part of large academic
and research institutions: http://nnlm.gov/rsdd/ejournals/nonacad.html.
The development of the toolkit fits into the NN/LM's goal
of promoting awareness of, access to and use of
biomedical information resources for health professionals
and the public. Alison applied and was accepted to
participate in the ACRL/ARL Institute on Scholarly
Communication December 1-3 in Portland, Oregon. Her
attendance at the institute will impact her continued
work to keep abreast of emerging publishing models, to
better understand and articulate the role of libraries in
this area, and to promote their roles in being
participants in the process so they can better inform
faculty researchers, health professionals and the
public.
Emergency Preparedness and
Response
To help mitigate the impact of disasters on healthcare
providers and their patients, the National Network of
Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) has developed and oversees
an emergency preparedness and response plan to help
Network members maintain their information services in
the event of a disaster.
In addition to providing suggested procedures for preparedness and response, the RML offices provide information and assistance to Network members in assistance with back-up library relationships, in training for service continuity planning, and, where necessary, developing emergency response plans. The primary resource for assistance in both preparedness and response is online at the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit, which is hosted by the NN/LM.
NN/LM Outreach Evaluation Resource Center
(OERC)
The OERC facilitates effective program planning and
evaluation through instruction, consulting, and
publications provided for network members and staff of
the National Network of Libraries of Medicine's eight
regions. Instruction and consulting, conducted in person
and via distance technologies, have addressed evaluation
of outreach projects, library services, and regional
programs. Publications are provided in print and in
open-access full text on the OERC web site.
The OERC is funded through the NN/LM PNR contract. Established in May 2001 to help meet the outreach evaluation needs of the NN/LM, the OERC is now in its second five-year contract. OERC staffing comprises Susan Barnes, Assistant Director of the OERC, and Dr. Cindy Olney, Evaluation Specialist. For more information refer to http://nnlm.gov/evaluation/.
During this contract, Susan Barnes has provided a regionwide Adobe Connect presentation about why evaluation; a presentation about logic models at the regional MLA chapter meeting; and a presentation about community assessment at the Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists meeting. The OERC class, Measuring Your Impact, has been taught at a regional MLA chapter.
The OERC has published booklets and a guide about
evaluation, which are requested by various groups
(including departments at the UW and organizations in
WWAMI).
Susan recently attended the Library Assessment conference
at UW and blogged about it on the OERC Blog.
More detail to be provided about all of these OERC
examples.
Ethnomed
Developed by Ellen Howard and partially funded by the RML
in previous 1995-2001NN/LM PNR contract.
Ellen Howard, medical librarian at Harborview Medical Center, is well known for her groundbreaking work in developing Ethnomed, which contains information about cultural beliefs, medical issues and other related issues pertinent to the health care of recent immigrants to Seattle or the US, many of whom are refugees fleeing war-torn parts of the world.
Some information is specific to groups in Seattle; most is applicable to other geographic areas. Users may browse the available materials by cultural group, disease or other general topic category, or they may elect to search the website in its entirety for specific topics. Profiles of cultures and health topics, and translated health information are available for Cambodian, Chinese, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Hispanic, Oromo, Somali, Tigrean, and Vietnamese patients and their care providers.
