The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Outreach and Special Populations Branch has funded three innovative outreach projects in information dissemination for family and women’s health by public libraries and information centers. The NLM recognizes public libraries as strategic partners in increasing the awareness and utilization of NLM and National Institutes of Health (NIH) resources, and meeting NLM long range goals of health literacy, informing citizens, and reducing health disparities. All projects have a component on family health, and also target women as the main information gatherer and health decision influencer in the family.

Three libraries were funded, including one in the Pacific Southwest Region:

• Forsyth County Public Library, Winston-Salem, NC
• Petersburg Public Library system, Petersburg, VA
• Pima County Public Library, Tucson, AZ

The Pima County Public Library’s Heath Initiative Project aims to build capacity for women’s health literacy awareness, including self-health, family health, health care decision making, being the family health care giver; and resources, including those from the National Library of Medicine, for healthy living. The main objective is to support the library’s health literacy initiative and Health Information Literacy team in developing a toolkit that includes sustainable programming, partnerships, and resources for library community engagement.

Congratulations to all the awardees!

The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) and the National Library of Medicine partnered to fund a pilot program for information outreach dissemination projects to promote the NLM-ORWH Women’s Health Resources Web Portal, and to support the ORWH Strategic Goals. All projects focused on information dissemination, and information access or resource development for a university/college or community agency. Each project will promote the NLM-ORWH Women’s Health Resources portal, create a library guide on sex and gender differences/research information resources at the university/college, and promote The Science of Sex and Gender in Human Health online curriculum to students and faculty.

Nine sites were funded, including two in the Pacific Southwest Region:

• Arizona Health Sciences Library, University of Arizona
• Earl S. Richardson Library, Morgan State University
• Hardin Library for Health Sciences, University of Iowa
• Health Science Center Libraries, University of Florida
• Lamar Soutter Library, University of Massachusetts Medical School
• Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, University of Alabama
• Medical University of South Carolina Library
• Oviatt Library, California State University, Northridge
• Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah

Congratulations to all the awardees!

Research funded by the National Library of Medicine provides new insight into why patients stop taking drugs that lower their cholesterol, and what happens when patients try those drugs, known as statins, a second time. Researchers found that more than 90% of patients who stopped taking statins because of an adverse reaction could tolerate the medication when tried again. The study is published in the April 2, 2013, issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

NLM grantee Alexander Turchin MD, MS, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, notes that statins are commonly stopped even though their benefits are well documented. He and colleagues wanted to better understand why statins are discontinued and whether adverse reactions play a role. They conducted a retrospective study, analyzing clinical data in an electronic medical record (EMR) system. Researchers examined structured data as well as the narrative electronic notes of health providers. Those notes frequently are the only place in an EMR where adverse reactions to medications are documented. Using the NLM grant, researchers developed natural language processing software and scoured more than 5 million notes, on more than 107,000 patients, recorded over nearly a decade. The software generated data on a scale that could not have been done manually. Researchers say the next step would be to conduct a clinical trial to determine if outcomes are improved when statins are tried again, after an adverse event.

The National Library of Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health, conducts and funds research in biomedical informatics, which involves applying computers and communications technology to the field of health. This research was supported by NLM’s Division of Extramural Programs grant RC1-LM010460. This was an NIH Challenge Grant, supported by NLM with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For additional information, visit the Brigham and Women’s Hospital News Release.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Value Set Authority Center (VSAC), in collaboration with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), has published the annual update for the 2014 Eligible Hospital Clinical Quality Measure (CQM) Value Sets. The update includes revised value sets to address deleted and remapped codes in the latest terminology versions, as well as new codes for addressing CQM logic corrections and clarifications. The NLM update of the VSAC coincides with the CMS posting of the official updated 2014 Eligible Hospital CQMs.

The value sets provide lists of the numerical values and individual names from standard vocabularies used to define the clinical concepts (e.g. diabetes, clinical visit) used in the CQMs. The content of the VSAC will gradually expand to incorporate value sets for other use cases, as well as for new measures and updates to existing measures. The VSAC offers a Downloadable Resource Table (DRT), accessible from the “Download” tab on the VSAC Web page, that provides prepackaged downloads for the most recently updated and released 2014 CQM Value Sets, as well as to previously released versions. Access to the Value Set Authority Center requires a free Unified Medical Language System® Metathesaurus License. NLM also provides the Data Element Catalog that identifies data element names (value set names) required for capture in Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology, certified under the 2014 Edition of the ONC Standards and Certification Criteria.

The following resources are available to help health care providers and vendors navigate the 2014 CQMs:

• NLM: Value Set Authority Center (VSAC) Provides downloadable access to all official versions of vocabulary value sets contained in the 2014 Clinical Quality Measures.
• AHRQ: United States Healthcare Knowledge Database (USHIK) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s website with 2014 eCQMs and other health information technology resources. This site provides a number of formats for viewing, downloading, and comparing versions of eCQMs and their value sets.
• CMS: Clinical Quality eMeasure Logic and Implementation Guidance v1.3 Guidance for understanding and using the electronically specified Eligible Professional (EP) and Eligible Hospital (EH) Clinical Quality Measures.
• ONC: Clinical Quality Measure Feedback System ONC encourages the EHR technology developer and user communities to provide feedback regarding the implementation, structure, intent, and data elements pertaining to CQMs.
• Questions? Contact NLM Value Set Authority Center Help.

NIH News in Health is a monthly newsletter from the National Institutes of Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) plays a major role in finding better ways to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent diseases. The practical health information in NIH News in Health is reviewed by NIH’s medical experts and based on research conducted either by NIH’s own scientists, or by grantees at universities and medical schools around the country. This issue features:

• The Benefits of Slumber: Why You Need a Good Night’s Sleep
• Sleep On It: How Snoozing Strengthens Memories
• Brain Scans Give Clues to Antidepressant’s Effects
• Living with Low Vision
• Featured Website: Inside Life Science

NIH News in Health is available online in both HTML and PDF formats. Print copies are available free of charge for offices, clinics, community centers and libraries within the U.S.

Question: How do I get an email notification when Lend requests route to my library?
Answer: Libraries can be alerted by email when new DOCLINE or Loansome Doc requests route to them. Users choose to be alerted for all DOCLINE requests, or only certain service levels (Normal, Rush, or Urgent Patient Care) and Loansome Doc requests.

To set up your alerts, do the following:

1. From the DOCLINE main menu, select Institutions.
2. Select Update [LIBID].
3. Click DOCLINE Options.
4. Choose “Lending Preferences.”
5. Select the type(s) of incoming requests to receive alerts.
6. Input recipient email address (use shared library account, if available).
7. Click SAVE.

Note: Some organizations’ email system security rejects incoming emails which are generated by an automated system such as DOCLINE. If your library does not receive the email alerts after turning then on, please work with your institution’s email administrators to ‘white list’ the address “docline@mail.nlm.nih.gov” or otherwise accommodate DOCLINE-generated emails.

For more information, go to the DOCLINE FAQ page. If you have any questions or need assistance, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-338-7657 or e-mail us at psr-nnlm@library.ucla.edu!

The National Library of Medicine’s WISER for iOS 3.1, a universal app for Apple iOS devices, is now available. It can be downloaded and installed directly from the Apple App Store. Here’s a look at what’s new in this release:

• WISER now fully integrates content from the Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management (CHEMM) website. This integration includes:
  • New hospital provider and preparedness planner profiles
  • Acute care guidelines for 6 known mass casualty agents/agent classes
  • The addition of a wealth of CHEMM reference material
  • The new CHEMM Intelligent Syndrome Tool (CHEMM-IST), a help identify tool designed to diagnose the type of chemical exposure after a mass casualty incident
• Emergency Response Guidebook data is now updated to the ERG 2012; WISER for the iPhone includes a custom ERG 2012 tool

In addition, look for these exciting developments in the coming months:

• WISER for Android 1.1, which includes the same CHEMM integration and ERG 2012 updates detailed above
• Updates to the Windows and WebWISER platforms to include CHEMM integration, ERG 2012 data, and more
• WISER for Android 3.1, which adds Help Identify Chemical and protective distance mapping to this popular platform

WISER is a system designed to assist first responders in hazardous material incidents. It provides a wide range of information on hazardous substances; including substance identification support, physical characteristics, human health information, and containment and suppression advice.

On February 23, 2013, the Board of Directors of the National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) awarded the title of Honorary Fellow of the Federation to Sheldon Kotzin, the former Associate Director for Library Operations at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), who retired in June, 2012. This honor was conferred upon him at the recent 55th NFAIS Annual Conference in Philadelphia. NFAIS Honorary Fellows are individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Federation, and who are currently not on the staff of a member organization. Honorary Fellows are given lifetime membership in NFAIS, and are entitled to the privileges accorded staff of member organizations.

Mr. Kotzin was very active in NFAIS on behalf of NLM. He served as the NLM Assembly representative (1989-2005), served on the NFAIS Board (1994-2002), and served as NFAIS treasurer (1996) and secretary (1998). He also participated in NFAIS committees and task forces, was a regular attendee of the NFAIS annual conference, and a strong supporter of the Federation. His contributions and activities benefited both NLM and NFAIS enormously!

The inaugural Science Boot Camp for Librarians (West) will be held at the University of Colorado in Boulder June 19-21, 2013. Science Boot Camps for Librarians are immersive, 2 1/2 day events featuring educational presentations delivered by scientists. Based on the successful annual New England Science Boot Camp in Massachusetts, the Western version follows a similar format and will cover three science topics; Bioinformatics, Environmental Science & GIS, and Physics. In addition, three librarians will teach a Data Management Workshop. There will be interesting keynote speakers, a panel on women in science, and plenty of time to network with fellow “campers!”

The cost for (dorm) lodging, meals, and instructional content is $250.00. Registration opens April 15, 2013. Target audiences include science librarians, medical librarians, data management specialists, and LIS students. For further information on the program, travel to Boulder, and upcoming registration, visit the Science Boot Camp West 2013 web site. You can also follow Twitter feed #BootCampWest13! Primary sponsors of the event are the Greater Western Library Alliance and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region. Additional sponsors are listed on the web site.

NIH News in Health is a monthly newsletter from the National Institutes of Health, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) plays a major role in finding better ways to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent diseases. The practical health information in NIH News in Health is reviewed by NIH’s medical experts and based on research conducted either by NIH’s own scientists or by grantees at universities and medical schools around the country. This issue features:

• Keep Your Kidneys Healthy: Catch Kidney Disease Early
• Soothing a Sore Throat: What To Do When Your Throat Hurts
• Many Doctors Don’t Ask Teens About Alcohol
• Listen to Health Information from NIH
• Featured Website: Herbs at a Glance

NIH News in Health is available online in both HTML and PDF formats. Print copies are available free of charge for offices, clinics, community centers and libraries within the U.S.