We at NN/LM PNR are saddened by the news of the explosions in Boston at the Marathon Finish Line.

The National Library of Medicine has released a People Locator where you can track the status of people in Boston.  The database is not exhaustive, and names continue to be added.  There is also the capacity for members of the public to update the database:

https://pl.nlm.nih.gov/marathon/search

If you want to know of someone’s status, or learn of someone’s status, please come back to the People Locator regularly.

By Christine Wilson Owens and Yetta Levine, Harborview Medical Center.

Made possible in part by a professional development award from the NNLM/PNR, two staff members from Harborview Medical Center’s EthnoMed program participated in the Eighth National Conference on Quality Health Care for Culturally Diverse Populations, March 11-14 in Oakland, CA.

The theme of this year’s conference was Achieving Equity in an Era of Innovation and Health System Transformation. It offered keynote speeches, workshops and roundtable discussions on issues related to cultural/linguistic competence and the reduction of health disparities. Sessions ranged from candid discussions about redressing the legacy of racism and bias in health care, to dialogues about interpreter training and community partnership models in tight fiscal times. Highlights included reports about national initiatives underway at the HHS Office for Civil Rights and opportunities for advancing health equity through the Affordable Care Act.

The conference presented a rich opportunity for EthnoMed to promote its work to a national audience and foster relationships with new partners. In particular, two new patient-education projects underway at EthnoMed were highlighted and generated a lot of interest. Yetta Levine networked with attendees from across the country during her poster session about a series of culturally-tailored, narrated diabetes education video slideshows regarding foods and their effect on blood sugar. Christine Wilson Owens shared about a project funded by NNLM/PNR in which HMC’s caseworker/ cultural mediators are using iPads to share health information with limited –English proficient (LEP) patients.  Christine also participated in an interactive discussion with stakeholders working in the area of eHealth Equity, and a workshop about plain language and high tech strategies to communicate across language barriers.

Many programs from across the country emphasized best practices and innovative projects in their communities. EthnoMed’s team attended the conference with a strong contingent from Seattle – including staff and providers from Harborview, Swedish, Seattle Children’s and the Cross Cultural Health Care Program – and was thrilled to have the chance to learn and share skills and knowledge among recognized leaders in the field of  health care and diversity.

April 23, 2013, 3pm – 4pm Eastern time

As part of National Preservation Week, the National Library of Medicine will sponsor a one-hour webinar for NN/LM Members on preserving personal digital photos, documents, and videos.  A panel of NLM staff including Walter Cybulski from the Preservation and Collection Management Section and Stephen Greenberg, Christie Moffat, and Ginny Roth from the History of Medicine Division will discuss h0ow to preserve personal digital information.

To access the webinar on the day of the event, visit: http://webmeeting.nih.gov/preservationweek2013/
The system is set up so that you can enter your phone number and have it call you.  However, you can also dial in at:

1-888-850-4523
Passcode: 825882

Sponsored by: National Network of Libraries of Medicine, National Network Office

Space is still available in this free WESTPAS workshop, but registration is required (see below).

Mark your calendar now and register for a free 2-part disaster preparedness and response workshop, “Protecting Cultural Collections”, sponsored by the Western States and Territories Preservation Assistance Service (WESTPAS). This workshop is part of a coordinated regional approach to raising awareness about disaster planning for collecting institutions throughout the Western United States.

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Posted on behalf of the National Library of Medicine Training Center (NTC)

Would you like to gain new skills, brush up on existing PubMed skills and collaborate with colleagues to help create effective training strategies?  The NTC, along with the University of Washington, is offering PubMed® for Trainers (PMT). PMT is held in 4 sessions; 3 online and 1 in person session (attendance in all is expected). The last of the four sessions will be in-person at the Health Sciences Library, University of Washington in Seattle. Upon completion, the class is eligible for 15 hours of Medical Library Association Continuing Education (MLA CE) hours.

The class runs from March 6 – March 27, 2014. 

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The National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Management Research Center, has a new resource guide for Information Sources on Ethics in Disaster Medicine and Public Health.

Resources include:

• Codes of Professional Conduct and Ethical Standards
• Ethical Considerations for Pandemic Influenza and Other Infectious Diseases
• Crisis (or Altered) Standards of Care
• Ethics, Disasters and Disabled and Vulnerable Populations
• Allocation of Scarce Resources and Triage
• Duty to Care, Willingness to Respond, Role Conflict and Role Abandonment

Access the guide: http://1.usa.gov/11c8Rhq