For those of you who are familiar with the NN/LM SCR, you may be thinking, "Why a Special Populations focus? Hasn't the NN/LM SCR always supported outreach to minority, rural, and other underserved groups?"

Of course, we have been reaching out to special populations for a long time. But we want to step up the momentum! The NN/LM SCR has an excellent track record for outreach to specific groups, including subcontracts and projects for improving access to health information for non-English speaking populations, health professionals working in rural, isolated areas, HIV/AIDS community-based organizations, and American Indian health organizations.

Fulfilling Our Mission

The mission of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) is to advance the progress of medicine and improve public health by:

1. providing all U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information; and,
2. improving the public's access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health.

Unfortunately, access to appropriate, high-quality health information is still limited for many health professionals and healthcare consumers. This includes those health professionals serving immigrants from around the world, for whom reliable health information in their native language is scarce, and for whom cultural issues can impact their seeking and acquiring care. Telecommunications connectivity continues to lag behind in many rural, inner-city, and other traditionally underserved areas. Social, economic, and cultural factors all affect access to salient, reliable, authoritative health information on the internet.

Eliminating Disparities

Furthermore, racial and ethnic disparities exist for incidence and treatment of many diseases and conditions, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. A national, federally-sponsored, community-based initiative is underway to help eliminate these disparities. The NLM and the NN/LM are playing an important role in the initiative, Healthy People 2010, through the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, and by funding projects aimed at improving the health of target groups by empowering them with information on prevention and treatment of disease.

Defining "Special Populations"

Of course, racial and ethnic groups and rural constituents are not the only populations requiring more or better access to health information. We are also working with community-based organizations to reach others with specialized information needs. For example, two Internet Connectivity Projects were recently awarded to Houston homeless shelters, in order to improve access to health information for staff and residents. For our purposes, we are loosely defining special populations as traditionally underserved populations with specialized health information needs.

For More Information

National Center for Cultural Competence
http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/nccc/nccc.html

Healthy People 2010
http://www.healthypeople.gov

Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce
http://phpartners.org