by Judith Kammerer, MLIS, MA, AHIP
Medical Librarian/Manager
UCSF Fresno and Community Regional Medical Center
Fresno, CA

The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) has organized an annual summit on translational bioinformatics (TBI) since 2008. I was fortunate to attend the 2013 Summit, which took place in San Francisco, CA, on March 18-20, 2013. This was made possible by an NN/LM PSR Professional Development Award, that supports hospital librarians in attending continuing education workshops and conferences. (more…)

On Wednesday, March 27, 2013, a meeting of the NN/LM PSR Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) was convened at the UCLA Faculty Center. The committee had not met as a large group for several years, so the membership was completely reconstituted and revitalized! Fifteen committee members, representing the constituencies served by the RML, attended the meeting, along with RML staff. Composition of the committee includes health professionals, hospital librarians, academic librarians, school and public librarians, community college librarians, community health librarians, and community-based organization representatives. A complete list of RAC members, along with minutes and presentation slides of the 3/27/13 meeting, are available on the NN/LM PSR web site. (more…)

We extend our thanks and appreciation to everyone who participated in the recent RML questionnaire! We received nearly 140 responses, with information and valuable feedback that will enable us to continue to improve our programs and services to meet the needs of Network members. Overall, we were encouraged to see results suggesting that our work does make a difference for health sciences librarians and information centers in the region. Two illustrative examples include over 91% of respondents agreeing that the RML helped them obtain access to information resources, and more than 97% agreed that the RML makes them aware of relevant regional activities. (more…)

Six excellent applications were received in response to the 2012/13 Request for Proposals: Express Outreach/Training/Technology Awards; five of which were funded for a period of 12 months, beginning May 1, 2012. Funding amounts are all approximately $12,000. The projects strive to improve access to health information for health professionals and health consumers and to promote the awareness and use of products and services available from the NLM and the NN/LM. Target groups include K-12 instructors and students, health sciences librarians partnering with researchers, public libraries desiring emergency preparedness mini-conferences, community college health services and students, and clinical faculty involved with a Patient-Centered Family Health Clinic model of care. (more…)

On December 16, 2011, in celebration of the end of NLM’s 175th anniversary, Clifford Lynch, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information, gave the presentation Biomedical Libraries in the Next Decades: Open, Diffuse, and Very Personal, at the National Library of Medicine. Overriding themes of his presentation included the implications surrounding the convergence of the increasingly data intensive nature of the biological sciences with traditional journal publications, and the possibilities for large scale computational scholarship. Another key topic was how developments in the broader economic, social, and regulatory climate will affect the evolution of medical knowledgebases. He emphasized the importance to the life sciences community of having an institution such as NLM, as a focal point for aggregating the staggering amount of information and data generated in the life sciences. There’s nothing analogous to NLM in other areas of scholarship. (more…)

by Naomi C. Broering, MLS, MA, AHIP
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, San Diego, CA

I highly recommend viewing this inspiring and provocative presentation about the future role of medical libraries. In addition to the summary submitted by Alan Carr, NN/LM PSR, I wish to note my personal observations. (more…)

Introduction

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) recently announced MedlinePlus Connect (http://medlineplus.gov/connect), a free service that allows electronic health records (EHR) systems to link patients and consumers to MedlinePlus (http://medlineplus.gov), NLM’s authoritative up-to-date health information resource for patients, families and health care providers. MedlinePlus provides information about conditions and disorders, medications, and health and wellness. (more…)

“Meaningful use” is a phrase that is gaining national momentum as national healthcare reform moves forward. But what is meaningful use, anyway? No, it’s not evidence based health care, although there is a logical tone to that analogy. Instead, meaningful use refers to using electronic health records (EHRs) to achieve improvements in health care. (more…)