I attended the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Health Disparity and Health Equity Conference in Los Angeles in September. It was a fascinating conference. I didn’t understand why this conference was being sponsored by the University of Michigan and being held in Los Angeles! I soon learned! (more…)

by Yamila El-Khayat, MALS
Outreach Services Librarian, Arizona Health Sciences Library
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

Kay Deeney and I recently had the opportunity to attend the 10th Annual Promotoras and Community Health Workers Conference, held December 7-8, 2012, in Los Angeles. This annual meeting is sponsored by the National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED). (more…)

By Sophia Prisco
Department of Information Studies student
UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

During the 2012 fall quarter, I had the opportunity to intern with the Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library. During the course of my internship, I worked on an NLM initiative to promote results in ClinicalTrials.gov. ClinicalTrials.gov is a freely available registry and results database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants conducted around the world. The National Library of Medicine believes that health sciences librarians are ideally placed to advocate to the clinical research community the importance of complying with registration and reporting requirements as mandated by the FDA. For the project, I reconfigured a Moodle class based on the framework created by Stephen Kiyoi, who recently completed his NLM Associate Fellowship at PSRML. I also created promotional materials to better equip health sciences librarians with the skills and knowledge to advocate for this resource at their institutions. (more…)

As we close out 2012, we are pleased to announce the seven new members who have joined the NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region since March 2012. Please join us in welcoming our new affiliate members! Other membership changes are also noted. (more…)

by Yamila El-Khayat, MALS
Outreach Services Librarian, Arizona Health Sciences Library
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

This year I had the pleasure of attending the 98th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), November 25-30, to represent the National Library of Medicine. This meeting is an international conference, which attracts radiologists, medical physicists, and other medical professionals. The conference hosts one of the largest medical meetings in the world, attracting more than 60,000 participants annually, and is held at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago. It offers educational resources, both in exhibits, and continuing education sessions that offer credits towards the physicians’ maintenance of certification. (more…)

by Adele Dobry, Health and Life Sciences Librarian, UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library
and Lori Tagawa, Community Outreach Coordinator, NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region

During October 10-12, 2012, the Los Angeles Convention Center hosted the 2012 American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) National Magnet Conference. Adele Dobry of UCLA and Lori Tagawa of NN/LM PSR attended the conference, alongside over 7,000 nurses and nursing executives. The ANCC Magnet Conference serves as both a celebration of accomplishment for newly designated Magnet organizations and a showcase of best nursing practices for the Magnet community. With four plenary sessions, 120 concurrent sessions, and 180 poster sessions, it was a busy three days! (more…)

by Erica Bass, BS, MLS, Library Director
Jerry L. Pettis VA Memorial Medical Center
Loma Linda, CA

On November 15, I attended the six-hour Medical Library Association Continuing Education class Diagnostic Error: Team Up and Tackle It! The course was offered in conjunction with the Diagnostic Error in Medicine: 5th International Conference held in Baltimore, MD, November 12-14, and sponosored by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Instructors for the course were Lorri Zipperer, Elaine Alligood, Linda Williams, and NN/LM MidContinental Region Library Advocacy Coordinator, Barb Jones. The overall goal of the course is to cover how multidisciplinary teams contribute to the reduction of diagnostic error, with a focus on evidence-based processes, and the impact of librarians. The course breaks down the diagnostic process into components, to reveal how medical misdiagnosis occurs. (more…)

by Yamila El-Khayat, Outreach Services Librarian, Arizona Health Sciences Library, University of Arizona and
Lori Tagawa, Community Outreach Coordinator, NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region

Having the opportunity to attend the 2nd National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) in Kansas City, MO, was an amazing experience. It was different; we were surrounded by a large diverse group, but with one similarity: librarianship! (more…)

by Yamila El-Khayat, MALS
Outreach Services Librarian,
Arizona Health Sciences Library
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region exhibited National Library of Medicine resources at the 69th Annual Convention & Marketplace of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in Sacramento, CA, October 23-25, 2012. Staffing was provided by Kay Deeney, NN/LM PSR Educational Services Coordinator, and Yamila El-Khayat, Outreach Services Librarian at the Arizona Health Sciences Library. They were ably assisted by several local Network volunteers; including Suzanne Beattie, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Roseville; Alison Clement, Marshall Medical Center Community Health Library, Placerville; Ana Macias, Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Valley Area; and Margaret (Peggy) Makie, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Sacramento. All volunteers did a wonderful job to disseminate the information about NLM’s health resources! The NCAI meeting was an important event, bringing together a large group of people, representing many different American Indian tribes from across the nation, along with Alaska Native tribes. (more…)

by Yamila El-Khayat, MALS
Outreach Services Librarian, Arizona Health Sciences Library
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

Tucson hosted its seventh annual “Vida” Conference on October 6, 2012, at Apollo Middle School, located in the southern part of Tucson, with a population consisting of roughly 83% Mexican-American and 10% Native American residents. This conference was held in this area because its primary goal is to provide bilingual breast cancer education to the minority community of southern Arizona. (more…)