The National Library of Medicine and National Institute on Aging have released their redesigned version of NIHSeniorHealth, the National Institutes of Health website for older adults http://nihseniorhealth.gov.  The redesign improves usability and modernizes the appearance throughout the site. Changes incorporate user feedback about the site as well as results from usability testing of proposed designs with seniors.

Buttons in the new banner allow you to link directly to over 50 health topics and 150 videos.  Once you click on a health topic, the bar along the left side allows you to to go straight to a particular section of the health topic page (“In this topic”); find quizes and videos (“Learn More”), and go to related topics in NIHSeniorHealth (“Related Topics”) and in the National Institute on Aging’s website.

For more information, go to the NLM Technical Bulletin article about the redesign http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/ma12/ma12_seniorhealth.html.

Check out the March issue of NIH News in Health, http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Mar2012, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research. In this edition:

Features

Halt the Hurt! Dealing with Chronic Pains, http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Mar2012/Feature1
Dry Eyes and Mouth? You May Have Sjögren’s Syndrome, http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Mar2012/Feature2

Health Capsules:

How Often Should Women Have Bone Tests? http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Mar2012/Capsule1
Mobile App Helps Teens Quit Smoking, http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Mar2012/Capsule2
Featured Website: Easy-to-Read Drug Facts, http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Mar2012/Capsule3

Download a PDF version for printing: http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/files/Mar2012/NIHNiHMar2012.pdf

Visit our Facebook wall, https://www.facebook.com/newsinhealth, to suggest topics you’d like us to cover, or start a discussion about how you use the newsletter. We want to hear what you think!

“And there’s the humor of it” Shakespeare and the four humors

A special display, traveling banner exhibition, and online exhibition with education resources developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health

Curated by Gail Kern Paster, PhD and Theodore Brown, PhD
Exhibition design by Riggs Ward Design
www.nlm.nih.gov/shakespeare

Open at the National Library of Medicine January 30 2012 to August 17 2012

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) created characters that are among the richest and most humanly recognizable in all of literature. Yet Shakespeare understood human personality in the terms available to his age—that of the now-discarded theory of the four bodily humors –blood, bile, melancholy, and phlegm. These four humors were thought to define peoples’ physical and mental health, and determined their personalities, as well.

The language of the four humors pervades Shakespeare’s plays, and their influence is felt above all in a belief that emotional states are physically determined. Carried by the bloodstream, the four humors bred the core passions of anger, grief, hope, and fear—the emotions conveyed so powerfully in Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies.

“And there’s the humor of it” Shakespeare and the four humors explores these themes in a special display featuring rare books and incunables from the collection of the National Library of Medicine and the Folger Shakespeare Library. The display was translated into a traveling banner exhibition, which will be available to libraries across America free of charge. In addition, education resources for K-12 educators and students, and university professors and students are included in the online adaptation of the special display.

For a tour of the special display, please contact NLMExhibition@mail.nih.gov or call 301.594.1947.

For information about booking a traveling exhibition, please go to nlmtravelingexhibits@mail.nlm.nih.gov.

Check out the February issue of NIH News in Health http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Feb2012, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research. In this edition:

Features:

• Love Your Heart: Take Steps To Reduce Heart Risks http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Feb2012/Feature1
• Grumbling Guts?: Understanding Irritable Bowel Syndrome http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Feb2012/Feature2

Health Capsules:

• Body Forms “Industrial” Lubricant for Metal Hip Implants http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Feb2012/Capsule1
• Navigating Treatment Options for Addiction http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Feb2012/Capsule2
• Featured Website: NIH Radio http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Feb2012/Capsule3

Click here http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/files/Feb2012/NIHNiHFeb2012.pdf to download a PDF version for printing.
Visit our Facebook wall https://www.facebook.com/newsinhealth to suggest topics you’d like us to cover, or start a discussion about how you use the newsletter. We want to hear what you think!

The Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) recently launched a new web page titled “Disaster Apps and Mobile Optimized Web Page”: http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/disasterapps.html .

This page includes links to various mobile tools and apps that have been selected based upon utility in a disaster or emergency context and which adhere to the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM) Selection Guidelines for non-NLM resources. The page is organized into three sections based on the type of information provided by the app or web site:

1.  Disaster Medicine Tools – tools which provide medical or health information that might be useful in preparing for, responding to, or recovering from a disaster or emergency.
2. Disaster Resources: tools that provide information on resources that may be needed in a disaster (i.e., missing person connections, shelters, safety information).
3. Hazardous Events: tools providing information on large scale events, including weather events, that might be followed before or during a disaster.

Although NLM cannot link directly to other interesting and potentially useful apps that were developed by individuals and other organizations that do not fall within the NLM Selection Guide, if another library or organization created an external web page containing links to such apps, NLM could link to this summary page. Additionally, more suggestions for tools and apps are welcome.

The Government of the Philippines is leading a major emergency rescue, evacuation and response operation in southern Philippines following the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Washi, known locally as Sendong.

Read the initial Report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (covering the period of December 16 – 18, 2011):
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/fullreport_171.pdf

Several resources are available from the National Library of Medicine Disaster Information Management Resource Center about the health impacts of flooding, including disease risks and worker and responder safety information:
http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/floods.html .

The National Library of Medicine has also activated a People Locator: https://pl.nlm.nih.gov/sendong .

Google has created a Person Finder, available in English and Filipino:

Person Finder, English: http://www.google.org/personfinder/sendong?lang=en
Person Finder, Filipino: http://www.google.org/personfinder/sendong?lang=fil

[Photo credit: washingtonpost.com]

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) announces the expansion of the information available from PubMed Health (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/), which provides integrated access to clinical effectiveness reviews.

NLM’s National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), in partnership with England’s national Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, the Cochrane Collaboration, the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and other agencies in the US and abroad, now makes available more than 18,000 clinical effectiveness reviews via PubMed Health. PubMed Health organizes these clinical effectiveness research results, including full texts as well as summary information, for consumers and clinicians.

Effectiveness studies are essential for informed clinical and consumer decision making. Multiple studies are necessary over time, and interpreting their complex and often conflicting results is a challenge.

Systematic reviews of clinical effectiveness studies address this need with rigorous scientific methodology. However, they are scattered across the biomedical literature and the Web sites of public health agencies around the world that produce many of them. The National Library of Medicine is uniquely positioned to gather these critical clinical resources in one place.

Users of PubMed Health can:

• Access the whole comprehensive collection of resources in a single search, including cancer information for consumers and clinicians from the National Cancer Institute
• See the results of a simultaneous search for reviews in PubMed
• Refer to consumer medical encyclopedia search results also delivered simultaneously
• Follow RSS feeds of featured reviews and “Behind Headlines,” which looks at the research behind news stories
• Learn to make sense of research results in its “Understand clinical effectiveness” and “Behind Headlines” sections
• Share resources via e-mail and social media with “Add this”

NLM invites you to visit PubMed Health, learn more about the Web site (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/about/) or follow the project on Twitter @PubMedHealth to help you keep up with the evidence on healthcare effectiveness.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is pleased to announce the launch of its new YouTube channel, at http://www.youtube.com/nlmnih.

YouTube is a free video-sharing Web site, created in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos. Unregistered users may watch videos, and registered users may upload an unlimited number of videos.

The NLM YouTube channel will post videos of database training, NLM exhibitions (such as an overview of the new Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness), public service announcements, lectures and more. Interested parties can subscribe to be notified whenever new content is posted on the NLM channel. The NLM site also features links to NIH YouTube channels and other federal health resources.

The December issue http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/ of NIH News in Health, the monthly newsletter bringing you practical health news and tips based on the latest NIH research, is now available. In this edition:

Features

• Weighing in on Dietary Fats: Some Fats Are Healthier Than Others http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2011/Feature1
• You’re Never Too Old: Keep Active as You Age http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2011/Feature2

Health Capsules

• Yoga or Stretching Eases Low Back Pain http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2011/Capsule1
• Stroke Risk Linked to Thinking Problems http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2011/Capsule2
• Featured Website: Smokefree E-cards http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Dec2011/Capsule3

Click here http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/files/Dec2011/NIHNiHDec2011.pdf to download a PDF version for printing.
Visit our Facebook wall http://www.facebook.com/NewsInHealth to suggest topics you’d like us to cover, or start a discussion about how you use the newsletter. We want to hear what you think!

Please pass the word on to your colleagues about NIH News in Health. We are happy to send a limited number of print copies free of charge for display in offices, libraries or clinics. Just email us nihnewsinhealth@od.nih.gov or call 301-435-7489 for more information.

World AIDS Day on December 1 brings together people from around the world to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and demonstrate international solidarity in the face of the pandemic. The day is an opportunity for public and private partners to spread awareness about the status of the pandemic and encourage progress in HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care in high prevalence countries and around the world.

In advance of World AIDS Day 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke about her goal for an “AIDS Free Generation” – a goal which aligns with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Visit PEPFAR [http://www.pepfar.gov ] to view the November 8 speech.

AIDSinfo joins people and organizations worldwide in observing World AIDS Day. In keeping with this year’s theme—Leading with Science, Uniting for Action—AIDSinfo is pleased to release the redesigned AIDSinfo and infoSIDA (Spanish version) Web sites. These sites (services of the US Department of Health and Human Services and managed by the National Library of Medicine) offer federally-approved information on HIV research and treatment, including medical practice guidelines and treatment and prevention research studies, to health care providers, researchers, people affected by HIV/AIDS, and the general public.

Looking for more ways  take action around World AIDS Day? Here are a few simple, powerful, and engaging ways:

• Join the Facing AIDS Initiative: http://facing.aids.gov/
• Locate HIV Testing and Other HIV Services: http://aids.gov/locator/
• Posters and Tools: http://1.usa.gov/eibPZG
• Tweet Official hashtag #WAD2011