DENVER, Colo. (May 22, 2012) — The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today released its first primary research funding announcements to support comparative clinical effectiveness research that will give patients and those who care for them the ability to make better-informed health care decisions.

PCORI will award $120 million this year for innovative projects that effectively incorporate patients and stakeholders in research teams and address the areas of focus of PCORI’s National Priorities for Research and Research Agenda. PCORI previously announced the approval of 50 Pilot Project Program awards, totaling $30 million over two years, to researchers in 24 states and the District of Columbia.

“Today marks a major milestone in our work as we build a portfolio of patient-centered research that will provide patients and those who care for them better information about health care decisions they face,” said PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby, M.D., M.P.H. “Our funding announcements reflect PCORI’s commitment to a patient-centered research agenda, emphasizing the inclusion of patients and caregivers at all stages of the research.”

The PCORI Funding Announcements (PFAs) make clear that successful applicants must have research teams with patients, caregivers, and practicing clinicians actively engaged throughout the process, from generating research questions to conducting research and using the results to understand and address patient needs. This requirement helps ensure that the research remains true to the interests of the patient populations that will be affected by it.

Applications will be evaluated for alignment with eight PCORI review criteria that arise from PCORI’s authorizing legislation. These include: impact or burden of the condition(s) being studied; innovativeness of the research proposal and its potential to impact care practices and improve outcomes; inclusiveness of different populations; patient-centeredness of the research question, choices of outcomes, and strategies for inclusion of patients and stakeholders in the research; potential for the research to improve the efficiency of health care; use of rigorous study design and analytic methods; composition and experience of the research team; and efficient use of research resources.

“Our priorities and agenda capture the broad areas where more research is needed,” said PCORI Board Chair Eugene Washington, M.D., M.Sc. “We look forward to continuing our work with patients and stakeholders to refine and define our areas of focus to make the agenda more specific over time.”

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About PCORI

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) is an independent, non-profit organization created by Congress in 2010. Its mission is to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions. PCORI is committed to continuously seeking input from a broad range of stakeholders to guide its work. More information is available at www.pcori.org.

The Limits Page has been replaced by an easy-to-use Filters Sidebar. Similar to the way Limits worked, Filters will remain in effect, once selected, until they are cleared. The Filters Sidebar will not be visible until the search results are displayed, so this will require a slight change in searching habits for some. A new tutorial about Filters has been published on YouTube.

Another recent change to PubMed is the ability to click on an author name in a citation to execute a more relevant search. PubMed will search for the same author by comparing metadata for more precise results.

Your feedback on these and other changes to PubMed is welcome! Please use the “Write to the Help Desk” link at the bottom of every PubMed screen.

This position brings me back from the Midwest to my favorite part of the country. I am a native Oregonian, going back six generations to Thomas Simpson Lebow who trekked on the Oregon Trail from Tennessee to Lane County, settling in 1850.  I’m excited to again be sandwiched between the Pacific and the Cascades. I enjoy both camping and surfing, so my recreational activities will be much improved upon from my time in a landlocked state.

Prior to obtaining my Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of British Columbia, I had a wide range of experiences from providing technology support to clinical work (including phlebotomy!) at Oregon Health and Science University. I am coming most recently from the University of Iowa where I was acting as a Data Manager.

For those of you I had the opportunity to meet before, hello again.  For everyone else, I hope I have a chance to meet you in person sometime soon.  In the meanwhile, please feel free to contact me via e-mail (mahria@uw.edu), skype (mahriatalksonhermac) or call me (206-221-3489).  I am here to support you and your endeavors as they relate to technologies (old and new) and improving health information access, so please feel free to introduce yourself!

“Ensuring that all Americans have access to reliable broadband is a key part of the Obama Administration’s effort to help create jobs and expand economic opportunities in rural areas,” Vilsack said. “These grants not only are critical for businesses and residents, they also help first responders, educators and health care professionals by providing them with access to broadband service.”

Information on available funding and application requirements are published on page 26241 of the May 3, 2012 Federal Register. More information on Community Connect Grants, including the application guide, can be viewed from the USDA Rural Development website. Applications must be received by June 18, 2012.

TOXNET® and Beyond

Do you know where to find toxicology information that just might help medical professionals save a life – or public officials protect a community from unnecessary chemical exposure? Most importantly, can you find it fast?

TOXNET® and Beyond is a free six-hour, hands-on course to help information specialists quickly find authoritative resources on environmental health and toxicology as well as related health information.

The National Library of Medicine Training Center (NTC) will be offering this FREE class on June 22, 2012, at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, OR. Visit http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/schedule.html for more information and to register.

PubMed for Trainers Class at OHSU in Portland, OR

Would you like to gain new skills, brush up on existing PubMed skills and collaborate with colleagues to help create effective training strategies? The PubMed® for Trainers course is held in 4 sessions; 3 online and 1 in person session. This hands-on course consists of lectures, individual exercises, group work and discussions in four sessions, with approximately 2-3 hours of independent work.

The National Library of Medicine Training Center (NTC) will be offering this FREE course from May 30 – June 21, with the in-person session held at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, OR. Upon completion of all four sessions participants receive 15 hours of MLA CE credit.

The dates and times for the four class sessions are:

1. Wednesday, May 30, 10-12 PT (online via Adobe Connect)
2. Wednesday, June 6, 10-12 PT (online via Adobe Connect)
3. Thursday, June 14, 10-12 PT (online via Adobe Connect)
4. Thursday, June 21, 9-4 PT (in-person in Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, OR)

For more information and to register, visit http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/schedule.html

A PDF of the discussion paper is available free of charge.

The Washington State Coalition for Language Access (WASCLA) is a young organization that seeks to eliminate language barriers in all areas of public life in the state, through education and advocacy. WASCLA is currently an all-volunteer group with very limited resources, so members were excited to learn that the 2011 National Immigrant Integration Conference would be held in Seattle. Not many major national conferences are held here, let alone one so specific to our mission. Travel costs usually limit the possibilities for those of us in the helping professions and community services sector from being able to participate in such venues, as important as they are for our work. We soon realized however, that the registration fees for the NIIC were beyond the reach of our organization.

Fortunately, earlier in the year, WASCLA had become a member of the NNLM/PNR as part of our own capacity-building process. Language access services are vital to improving personal and community health, so it is critical that we have access to reliable health and health policy information. In addition, WASCLA helps to support the information needs of its members, many of whom are direct service providers as independent medical interpreters responsible for their own continuing education.

We applied for and were awarded a Professional Development grant, which allowed Abukar Ali, Kristi Cruz, Louise Morehead, and Joana Ramos of WASCLA to attend the October conference. For 3 days we had the opportunity not only to hear national experts opine on policy issues and challenges to immigrant integration today, but also to participate in topical workshops and discussion sessions with peers. Themes related to health and dissemination of health information included workshops on: the current status of immigrant access to health services; the need for more relevant work-oriented ESL programs like the Welcome Back Program for those who had been health workers in their homelands; the important role of community-based organizations in consumer education; the future of the safety net services; and health care reform. Especially valuable were networking sessions, including a Language Access Caucus, where health topics were a major focus and colleagues from across the country met for the first time.

Since the conference, we have utilized knowledge gained at NIIC into WASCLA’s ongoing program planning and development. A first step was the creation of the WASCLA Healthcare Committee in December, building on our Pharmacy Workgroup. In addition, facilitators of Health Track sessions continue to keep attendees informed of advocacy opportunities like the Region X HHS Listening Session on Essential Health Benefits, where several of us testified on the need for language access services. We are most appreciative that NNLM/PNR offers this kind of support for community groups like WASCLA.

So many physical objects have digital equivalents — the computer “desktop.” the email “inbox,” even the sticky note — so why not a digital pinboard? Pinterest is the latest tool for sharing web content, and it is geared specifically to images. Its popularity is growing quickly, and libraries and librarians are exploring ways to use Pinterest to engage users. On March 28, librarians and library staff at the University of Washington participated in a webinar titled “Pinterest for Museums & Libraries” presented by Joe Murphy.

So, what is Pinterest? Joe described it a number of ways: as “a social sharing and visual discovery tool,” “a way to connect people through shared tastes and interests,” “a platform for search and discovery,” and “a way to curate hopes and dreams.” That’s powerful stuff!

How does Pinterest work? Once you have an account (which is a quirky process — you actually have to invited by someone who already has an account!), you can create a board and then add images (or “pins”) to it. You can upload images from your own device or link to images on the web. You can create different boards for different topics or areas of interest — fountain pens, wildflowers, vacations, books — whatever you can imagine. At the same time, as a Pinterest user you can browse other people’s boards (and they can browse yours) and see what they find interesting. You can also choose to “follow” other boards — ones you find especially interesting or useful. When you choose to follow a board, it will appear in your list of boards so you don’t have to go searching for it again.

Here is an example of the main page of a Pinterest user–in this case, the Burlington Public Library in Burlington, WA:

And this is an example of one of the Burlington Public Library’s pinboards:

And, finally, this is one pin from the above pinboard:

Now for the million dollar question — what can libraries do with Pinterest? Joe Murphy believes that Pinterest can be an effective marketing tool for increasing the visibility of library services and extending the reach of content that a library already has online. It could be used to showcase new books, shine a spotlight on a particular collection or service, or create visual subject guides. Essentially it’s a way of using a snippet view to hook users and then lead them to the full “item” — whether that’s a reference source, event information, or a collection portal. People consume so much information visually, and visuals often attract people’s attention in a way that text doesn’t.

Another feature of Pinterest is that boards can be made collaborative, so that multiple people can contribute to them. This extends the social networking aspect of the tool and could be a rich area for libraries to explore.

We know how much libraries like metrics, and Pinterest offers some. You can see how many people have viewed, liked, commented on, or repinned a certain image (repining is similar to “retweeting” or to forwarding an email). You can also see how many followers a particular image or a particular collection has and what a particular Pinterest user has liked or looked at on your boards.

You may not be ready to jump in and create a Pinterest board for your library right away, but take a look at what other libraries are doing with this tool. I’ve included a list of links to library Pinterest boards below, and if anyone reading this post knows of interesting library Pinterest projects, please let us know.

Also, if you decide that you do want to create a Pinterest account, just request an invitation from Pinterest, or feel free to contact me. I just created an account myself, so I can invite others to join.

Let the visual discovery begin!

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A sampling of libraries using Pinterest:

Ashland University Library – Instruction Resource Center (Ohio)

Blair Memorial Library (Michigan)

Briggs Library (Ohio)

Burlington Public Library (Washington)

Lumen Christi College Library (Australia)

Newton Public Library (Kansas)

Oklahoma City Community College Library

University of Glasgow Library

For a long list of library and library-related pin boards, visit this Pinterest page – it shows all the boards being followed by the Mid Continent Public Library. You can tell which libraries are most active by the number of boards and number of pins each has. Happy browsing!

Edit: A recording is now available at https://webmeeting.nih.gov/p35281543/, and you may be interested in a link to NLM tools for EHR Certification and Meaningful Use.

Have you heard that the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is specifically mentioned in proposed objectives to help healthcare providers achieve Meaningful Use of electronic health records (EHRs) as part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act? Want to know more about MedlinePlus Connect and how the use of free high quality patient information from MedlinePlus via EHRs helps to achieve Meaningful Use?

Come join us on Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 1pm Pacific time (Noon Alaska, 2pm Mountain) during our free monthly webcast at http://webmeeting.nih.gov/rendezvous for a session presented by Nikki Dettmar, PNR Education and Assessment Coordinator where she will present more about this resource and do a live web demonstration of how it works.

If you are unable to join us then, we invite you to view a recording of the webcast at the Rendezvous website later.

As part of our Federal agency services regarding electronic and information technology resources being accessible to people with disabilities, closed captioning is available on this and future RML Rendezvous webcasts.

For more information please visit How do I connect to the Rendezvous? to test your computer connection as a Flash update may be needed. We look forward to seeing you at the webcast!

We are very pleased to announce that Mahria Lebow has been appointed Regional Technology Coordinator for the NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region, effective May 7, 2012. Mahria will support librarians and information professionals in the Pacific Northwest Region with training and other opportunities to help them engage more fully in Health IT and emerging technologies.

Mahria, who received her Master of Librarianship from the University of British Columbia, is currently working at the University of Iowa as a Data Manager. She has previous experience working in research laboratories and universities on research teams including UBC and OHSU. She is the recipient of the 2011 MLA Rittenhouse Award, which is presented annually for the best unpublished student paper on health sciences librarianship or medical informatics. Please join us in congratulating Mahria!