Of recent interest to medical librarians is an article that was published in BMJ regarding search results in PubMed and how evidence from randomized clinical trials is retrieved. Here is some updated information from the National Library of Medicine, Bibliographic Services Division:

Re: Wieland LS, Robinson KA, Dickersin K. Understanding why evidence from randomised clinical trials may not be retrieved from Medline: comparison of
indexed and non-indexed records. BMJ. 2012 Jan 3;344:d7501. doi: 10.1136/bmj.d7501. PubMed PMID: 22214757.

Readers of this article should recognize that the authors assumed no changes took place in the NLM indexing of Randomized Controlled Trial
[publication type]. In fact, NLM has made changes since 2005 that we think affect the conclusions and projections made in the article. These changes
are: (more…)

Subscribing to the NLM Technical Bulletin is an excellent way to keep up-to-date on changes to the National Library of Medicine systems, such as PubMed, MeSH, MyNCBI, LocatorPlus, and PubMed Health.

In PubMed the week, the Advanced Search page was updated. Terms entered in the Search Builder will automatically populate the search box, and MeSH term searching has been enhanced to include an autocomplete feature. See the full article for more details.

Another recent article announces new features for PubMed Health, NLM’s clinical effectiveness database. Change include enhanced information from the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query database, two new full-text books about understanding heathcare decisions and treatments, and an improved display of medical encyclopedia search results. With the inclusion of the Database of Reviews of Effects (DARE) from the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination in England, PubMed Health is getting close to comprehensive coverage of reliable systematic reviews on clinical effectiveness.

Read the article here, and stay current with  email updates or an RSS feed.

Edit: a recording is now available at https://webmeeting.nih.gov/p13016205/

Internally produced pocket guides, websites, posters, and intranets; all are used to disseminate institution-specific protocols and algorithms used in clinical practice.  Some information is unique to one format and some information is out-of-date, so where’s the authoritative source for finding this vital information?

Come join us on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 1pm Pacific time (Noon Alaska, 2pm Mountain) during our free monthly webcast at http://webmeeting.nih.gov/rendezvous to meet OCCAM (Online Clinical Care Algorithms & Messages), a web app designed specifically for UW Medicine that collects this information in a single, mobile-optimized format.  Amy Harper, Clinical Librarian at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library, will discuss how the idea for OCCAM first came about, how the web app and website were created and marketed, and future plans for OCCAM.

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This is an announcement from The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s listserv.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is pleased to announce the launch of its new website, HealthIT.gov . This website is designed to become the leading national resource on health information technology (health IT) for both consumers and health care professionals.

Health is personal. It’s personal for the parent who has a child with asthma. It’s personal for the patient with a new cancer diagnosis. And it’s personal for the doctor who is responsible for caring for them. At its core, HealthIT.gov is about patients, and it’s about helping them get the information they need, connecting them to resources that empower them to make changes, and ultimately, improving the nation’s health—one person at a time.

Whether you are a parent who is wondering how an electronic health record (EHR) will affect her family’s privacy or a provider who is overwhelmed by the idea of transitioning to EHRs, HealthIT.gov has the resources to help answer your questions.

Visit HealthIT.gov today!

Three of the National Library of Medicine’s free mobile applications are now available for Android devices. They are Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER), Radiation Emergency Medical Management (REMM), and LactMed.

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photo by erix! on flickr

Here at NN/LM PNR, our mission is to improve access to quality information for health professionals and health consumers in the Pacific Northwest. We need your help! If you work in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, or Washington and have a great idea for health information outreach or improving library services, we would love to provide the funds to set your project in motion. We’ve announced five new funding opportunities over the past few weeks, bringing our total number of available awards types to nine. To help you (and us!) keep it all straight, we are summarizing the possibilities for you here in one handy blog post. Here are our currently available awards listed in order of application deadline. Our funding page will be continuously updated with the latest information about available awards and descriptions of projects we’ve funded. (more…)