by Colette Hochstein, DMD, MLS, Division of Specialized Information Services, NLM

A new Web page that addresses emergency and disaster preparedness and special populations has been added to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Enviro-Health Links.

“Special Populations: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness” http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/outreach/specialpopulationsanddisasters.html provides links to selected Web sites featuring emergency preparedness for special populations. This includes people with disabilities, people with visual or hearing impairments, senior citizens, children, and women. Links to information in languages other than English are also provided.

NLM also offers other Enviro-Health Links on topics such as:

Arsenic: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/arsenicandhumanhealth.html
Biological Warfare: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/biologicalwarfare.html
Chemical Warfare: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/chemicalwarfare.html
Children’s Environmental Health: http://phpartners.org/cehir/sampler.html
Indoor Air Pollution: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/indoorairpollution.html
Lead: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/lead.html
Outdoor Air Pollution: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/outdoorairpollution.html
Pesticide Exposure: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/pesticides.html
NLM Enviro-Health Links: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/envirohealthlinks.html

By Mandy Meloy, community outreach coordinator

Most of us know that Medlineplus.gov is a reliable, up-to-date health information website for consumers created by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). But, did you know that Medlineplus.gov offers resources for health professionals, too?
These resources include:

• Patient Education Materials such as handouts, pictures, easy-to-read resources, and interactive tutorials in English and Spanish.
• Access to images, diagrams, surgical videos, directories, and the latest health news.
• Searches in Pubmed/MEDLINE
• Links to other NLM and National Institutes of Health (NIH) databases including ClinicalTrials.gov, NIHSeniorHealth.gov, DailyMed, Dietary Supplements Labels Database, and Genetics Home Reference
• Links to additional resources including professional organizations and popular topics such as genetic testing and health literacy.

To further help health professionals keep up-to-date, MedlinePlus offers email lists and RSS feeds on general or specific topics and a subscription to the NIH MedlinePlus Magazine. MedlinePlus can also assist health professionals with free materials to empower patients to look up quality information on their own health at www.informationrx.org.

For a MedlinePlus brochure for Health Professionals, please see http://nnlm.gov/training/resources/mp4hptri.doc. This brochure may be freely reproduced and was developed by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) staff.

by: Toni Yancey, outreach, exhibits coordinator, NN/LM SE/A

One of the many things that I look forward to at the beginning of each year is the new MeSH® descriptors. I remember being excited by the addition of skin care in 1994, perplexed by surgical procedures, operative in 1998, and tickled by African Continental Ancestry Group in 2004.

This year when I browsed the list, I came across two terms that made me think “finally”. Healthcare disparities and health status disparities have been added to the 2008 MeSH. After years of talking about it in classes and in outreach plans, I have official terms and definitions to use. The term, Health status disparities, is defined as “variation in rates of disease occurrence and disabilities between socioeconomic and/or geographically defined population groups”. Healthcare disparities are “differences in access to or availability of facilities and services.”

Seeing these two new terms might not have brought a smile to your face. Maybe when you looked at the list, you were thrilled to see consumer health information or saddened by Iraq War, 2003-. The one thing none of us can ever claim to be is bored by MeSH. The beauty of it is that it is constant and steady but always evolving.

The first Region-wide webconference of 2008 will feature a presentation on MeSH. Last year we saw the discontinuation of Black and White MeSH and the preservation of many popular subheadings. We would like to take some time to re-introduce MeSH to many of you, to talk about the difference between the browser and the database and answer any questions that you may have.

Please join us March 18, 2008 at 8:30 EST or at 2:30 EST for “MeSHing the right terms for results”.

http://www.hrsa.gov/healthliteracy/training.htm/

The Health Resources and Services Administration is offering a new, free, online course, “Unified Health Communication 101: Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency”. Those taking the course can receive five credits (CEU/CE, CHES, CME, CNE). The course does not offer MLA CE, but is valuable for librarians as they reach out to provide support and information to the public and health professionals and would provide them another option to obtain continuing education units. To take the course, you will need to register with TRAIN, the distance-learning resource for public health professionals sponsored by the Public Health Foundation with support from HRSA.

In addition, The Unified Health Communication course complements The Medical Library Association and National Institutes of Health/National Library of Medicine (NLM) work in literacy research, curriculum design and hospital outreach. Please, freely share this information with other colleagues.

1. AHRQ Podcast on Health Screenings and Medication Safety

   

   Mid-January’s Healthcare 411 podcast features AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D., offering consumers tips on medication safety. Colonoscopy screening trends for older Americans and the Task Force’s recommendation against screening for carotid artery stenosis in people with no symptoms also are featured. This podcast was distributed to our 221 partnership organizations, including the American Health Quality Association and the Chicago Patient Safety Forum. Shorter versions of these stories also air on 125 radio stations nationwide.

   Listen to the podcast at http://www.healthcare411.ahrq.gov/podcast.aspx?id=313
   or read the transcript at http://www.healthcare411.ahrq.gov/transcript.aspx?id=313

2. AHRQ Director Helps Consumers Navigate the Health Care System in a New Advice Column on the Web
   AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D., offers advice to consumers in new, brief, easy-to-understand columns. The biweekly columns help consumers better navigate the health care system. To read Dr. Clancy’s advice columns see: http://ahrq.gov/consumer/cc.htm. This week’s column focuses on “What to Ask Before Surgery.”

https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=healthypeople&A=1
E-mail notices of Healthy People-related news publications, grants, events, Web sites, and more.

Healthy People 2020 will be released in two-phases. The framework (the vision, mission, goals, focus areas, and criteria for selecting and prioritizing objectives) will be released in late 2008 - early 2009. A year later, in January 2010, the Healthy People 2020 objectives will be released along with guidance for achieving the new 10-year targets.

Key Dates

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) will offer their Field Guide to GenBank and NCBI Molecular Biology Resources course at UNC-Chapel Hill on March 12 and 13 (UNC Spring Break week). This lecture and hands-on computer workshop on GenBank and related databases will cover effective use of the Entrez databases and search service, the BLAST similarity search engine, genome data and related resources. Registration opens in early February. For more information and registration, see:
http://www.hsl.unc.edu/Collections/Bioinformatics/BBTForum-NCBIFieldGuide-Mar2008.cfm

Kathy Cravedi has been promoted to Director of the Office of Communications and Public Liaison (OCPL), a position vacated by Robert Mehnert this past June after more than 40 years of public service. Ms. Cravedi has served as the Deputy Director of OCPL since 1996 and as NLM’s first Public Liaison Officer. She brings a wonderful range of communications experience to her new position.

From 1975 to 1994, Ms. Cravedi worked on health care policy on Capitol Hill. As the Staff Director for the House Select Committee on Aging’s Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care, she assisted the Chairman in developing legislation that resulted in the establishment of the National Institute on Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, and the NLM’s National Center for Biotechnology Information. She is a graduate of the University of Montana and received her Masters of Science degree from American University.
Dianne Babski will be the new Head of MEDLARS Management Section. Dianne has been part of MMS since 2005 where she has been involved in nearly all aspects of MMS work. In addition to being part of the PubMed customer service and training team, Dianne has been the back coordinator for the annual year end processing work. She has played a key role in the OLDMEDLINE keyword conversion process that has been mapping OLDMEDLINE keywords to current MeSH vocabulary. She has also been heavily involved in the UMLS mapping file generation and review process; the mapping file is used by PubMed and the Gateway for searching purposes.
Dianne has also developed an MS Access database system for the NLM data licensing program, and has been actively involved in the development of the online UMLS data licensing system. Prior to working at NLM, Dianne worked at NIAID as part of the Scientific Review program, providing detailed presentations and overviews of new peer review tools and outside database resources to staff and senior management. Dianne will begin her new position on Feb. 3, 2008.

Email: PublicAccess@nih.gov

Quick Facts

• All peer reviewed articles arising from NIH funds are required to be submitted to PubMed Central.
• Submitting a manuscript usually takes less than 10 minutes.
• Many journals submit articles on behalf of authors

All peer reviewed articles arising from NIH funds are required to be submitted to PubMed Central effective April 7, 2008.

Information about the requirement is available on NIH Public Access:

• How to comply when you publish in a journal that does not submit
  http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#c1
• Copyright agreement additional language example from NIH http://publicaccess.nih.gov/FAQ.htm#c3
• Journals that submit articles on behalf of authors http://publicaccess.nih.gov/submit_process_journals.htm

See also:

Author Manuscripts in PMC:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/about/authorms.html

Directory of Open Access Journals:
http://www.doaj.org/

Next Open Access Date of Note: May 25, 2008

As of May 25, 2008, NIH applications, proposals, and progress reports must include the PubMed Central reference number when citing an article that falls under the policy and is authored or co-authored by the investigator, or arose from the investigator’s NIH award.

Participating in Clinical Trials

Table of Contents

• What is Clinical Trial?
• Finding a Clinical Trial
• Informed Consent
• Should I Join a Clinical Trial?
• Frequently Asked Questions
• MedlinePlus - more information on Participating in Clinical Trials

The new clinical trials topic on NIHSeniorHealth will help older adults understand this vital area of medical research. Older adults who log on to NIHSeniorHealth.gov will find information to help them make informed decisions, including questions they should ask and the answers they should look for if they are thinking of joining a trial. The new topic explains basic terms, the types and phases of trials, the informed consent process and the benefits, risks, and built-in safeguards for trial participants.

Developed by the National Library of Medicine, Participating in Clinical Trials is the latest addition to NIHSeniorHealth’s roster of 33 topics targeting the health interests of older adults.