ACC Library Services Health Sciences Update

A Primer on Clinical Trials

2011-10-06T11:37:00.002-05:00

Judy Stone, MD, a guest blogger on the Scientific American website, is doing a series on clinical trials and how they work. This might be a useful series for ACC pharmacology and pharmacy technology students, but people in our health science programs might appreciate the explanation of concepts commonly found in health science literature searches, such as trial types.

The first entry in the series is:

Molecule to Medicine: Clinical Trials for Beginners

New STAT!Ref Interface Tutorial

2011-10-03T11:36:00.000-05:00

STAT!Ref has made a short video tutorial available for the new user interface they recently rolled out. It's only a few minutes long, but might be just the thing to introduce you to this excellent resource.

This and other STAT!Ref training and help materials can be found from the main STAT!Ref page after logging in, in the panel labeled Training Center. If you don't seen the training center, click on the STAT!Ref logo at the top of the page.

Micromedex Now Compatible with Firefox

2011-09-29T11:03:00.000-05:00

Until recently, our online drug resource, Micromedex, was not accessible via the Firefox browser. This has now changed, and you should be able to view Micromedex via Firefox. However, Micromedex still recommends using Internet Explorer.

As always, if you have any questions about accessing this or any other electronic resource, please contact Steve Self.

Health Data Tools & Statistics

2011-09-06T14:34:00.000-05:00

It can be tricky to track down health statistics on the web -- so many places to look. There are many good government health data websites such as the CDC Data & Statistics site, or its long-running publication, Health United States. The National Networks of Library of Medicine recently sent out an email making me aware of another useful source:

Health Data Tools and Statistics from the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, a collaboration between the federal government, public health organizations, and health science libraries.

Health Data Tools & Statistics has links to a wide range of data sources from local to global in scope, categorized into statistical reports, GIS data, training, data collection, and more.

There's a lot of useful information here, especially for those interested in public health.

Evidence-Based Practice Tutorial

2011-09-01T14:31:00.000-05:00

For those programs at ACC that are focusing on evidence-based practice (EBP), there is a self-paced tutorial available from the Health Sciences Library at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. It covers the basics of this concept, and might provide some ideas for introducing EBP to your students:

Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice

If you have any questions about this, or want to discuss ways to incorporate EBP into your curriculum, please let me know.

New Look for STAT!Ref

2011-08-26T13:38:00.004-05:00

STAT!Ref users will note that things are looking a bit different at STAT!Ref these days. On August 1st, STAT!Ref's user interface had a face lift. As you can see, things look a little different, but at core, it's still the same database.

A printable Quickguide is available to help you get started with the new interface.

If you have any questions about using STAT!Ref, or if you'd like to discuss ways to link to STAT!Ref resources or even integrate them into assignments, just let me know.

STAT!Ref Changes

2011-05-10T15:35:00.004-05:00

The TexShare program run by the Texas State Library recently announced the new lineup of titles that will be available through STAT!Ref. We get our STAT!Ref access via the state library, so those changes will be in effect for Austin Community College Library Services.

Small changes are made with every new contract, but this year, McGraw-Hill has decided to discontinue offering their titles through STAT!Ref. There are major titles that won't be available any longer through this platform, including Hurst's The Heart, Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment, Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, Williams' Obstetrics, and several others.

I am currently exploring avenues for purchasing access to these titles through other means. In the meantime, STAT!Ref is replacing these titles with similar ones from other publishers. Please consult the following spreadsheet for a complete list of the titles being dropped and those being added. You will need to be logged into your ACC Google Apps account in order for the link to work:

STAT!Ref Titles Changes from 2010 to 2011

If you point to any of these STAT!Ref titles in any of your course pages, please check to see if they will be available next year. I will try to obtain electronic access to some of these titles through another vendor -- but if you have any concerns or questions, please let me know.

Google Body

2011-04-12T14:06:00.005-05:00

I don't know if any of you are familiar with this service, but while digging around some of our options with Google, I came across a new service (still in beta) from Google -- Google Body. Be warned -- I tried this in both Firefox and Internet Explorer, but it didn't work in either browser. It requires a function only available through the Google Chrome browser.

Although I haven't explored it thoroughly, it is fairly simple to use. Users can choose the transparency or opaqueness of structures by system -- for instance, one might choose to view the musculoskeletal system while hiding the digestive system. The body is completely searchable, and structures can be pinned and higlighted. Images can be rotated in any direction, although it took a while for me to figure out how this works with my mouse.

Users might compare this to the Visible Body product. Visible Body was free several years ago, and then became a subscription product which we tested on trial, but didn't purchase. I think that this is a good alternative. In any case, the price is right. Anatomy & Physiology students might find this especially helpful.

Micromedex is Here!

2011-03-22T09:08:00.009-05:00

Based on the results of our trial during the fall semester, ACC Library Services has purchased a subscription to Micromedex, a comprehensive drug database that should be useful for students enrolled in pharmacology, medical laboratory and pharmacy-related courses throughout the Health Sciences division. Micromedex can be found in the Articles & More section of the ACC LS website, through a catalog search or, soon, from the library subject guides created for your areas.

Micromedex features standard drug information (dosing, contraindications, adverse affects, mechanism of action, etc.), as well as side-by-side comparison with similar drugs, comparative efficacy reports, images for drug identification, and more. Of particular interest are the patient education CareNotes for drugs that are translated in over a dozen languages.

In addition to drug information, Micromedex searches related medical databases such as Lab Advisor for information on over 500 lab tests and Poisindex, which provides detailed toxicology information.

Online training modules are also available for this product. They may help you think of ways you could use Micromedex in your classes. A mobile version of Micromedex is also available, which might be useful in the clinical environment.

If you want to include a link to Micromedex for your course in Blackboard or on another website, use the following link:

http://lsproxy.austincc.edu/login?url=http://www.thomsonhc.com/micromedex2/librarian

I'm very glad that we're able to offer this product through Library Services. If you have any questions about using Micromedex, please let me know!

Patient Handout Search

2011-03-21T11:40:00.002-05:00

After a visit with his primary care physician, David Rothman got the idea to create a custom Google Search that health care providers could use to access and distribute point of care patient information handouts. Search results can be limited by literacy levels, Spanish language materials, patient age, and print size.

Patient Handout Search

For more details of how he came up with the idea. See his blog post on the topic:
Patient Handouts at the Point of Care

Would something like be useful to you and your patients in clinical practice?

Evidence-Based Health

2011-03-10T11:53:00.005-06:00

An article in today's New York Times discusses how a lack of compliance with health provider's after-care directions can undo the best efforts of evidence-based medicine. The author describes a more integrative approach that provides follow-up support for patients once they're back home -- an concept called "evidence-based health."

When Doctor's Advice is Ignored at Home
by Pauline W. Chen, M.D.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/when-home-life-trumps-health-care/

DailyMed Mobile Now Availabe

2011-03-07T11:48:00.005-06:00

DailyMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides information from pharmaceutical package inserts for marketed drugs. This new mobile version is optimized for viewing on smartphones. This could be a handy tool for users in clinical environments.

More information about DailyMed can be found on the service's website:

http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/about.cfm

Will Hospitals Stop Hiring Smokers?

2011-02-11T11:55:00.002-06:00

An article in today's New York Times highlights policies among some hospitals that not only ban smoking on their campuses, but will no longer hire employees who smoke.

Hospitals Shift Smoking Bans to Smoker Ban

Sulzberger, A. G. (2011, February 11). Hospitals Shift Smoking Bans to Smoker Ban [Electronic version]. New York Times.

STAT!Ref Mobile Available at ACC

2011-02-09T15:43:00.008-06:00

Have a smartphone? Use STAT!Ref? Things just go easier.

STAT!Ref, the searchable online collection of medical texts, is now available in a mobile, phone-optimized version. To access, just go to the ACC Libraries website at http://library.austincc.edu in your phone's browser. You should be redirected automatically to the ACC Libraries' mobile site, but if not, you can access it directly using http://library.austincc.edu/m.

If you've accessed the site through a college wireless network, you should get straight in. If you are accessing in any other way, you will be asked to authenticate yourself as an ACC user with your ACCeID and password.

Once you've reached the ACC Libraries' mobile site (pictured above), click the link for Articles & More, where you will see STAT!Ref listed with some of our other mobile-ready research tools.

Take it for a spin and let me know what you think. If you have any questions about using this or any other ACC Library resource, let me know.

A Prescription for Fear

2011-02-07T08:10:00.005-06:00

An interesting article appeared in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine. It compares the tone of information on WebMD and the Mayo Clinic Health Information site. As a teacher or student, you probably see WebMD used as a resource quite often. Take a look at this article, take a look at the two web sites, and decide for yourself which would make a better information source, or which one you might use for patient education.

Heffernan, V. (2011, February 4). A prescription for fear [Electronic version]. New York Times Magazine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/magazine/06FOB-Medium-t.html

If only the article had discussed MedlinePlus!

Updated Knowledge Path: Oral Health

2011-02-01T15:53:00.002-06:00

The Maternal and Child Health Library at Georgetown University provides a series of Knowledge Paths that direct users to quality resources and tools for a range of health topics. Recently, they have updated their knowledge path on Oral Health for Infants, Children, Adolescents, and Pregnant Women.

While this particular Knowledge Path might be of particular interest to dental hygiene and nursing students, there are several more at this site that are worth taking a look at -- excellent starting points for research on many health topics.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010

2011-01-31T14:34:00.004-06:00

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a new set of dietary guidelines today.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010

More details can be found at www.dietaryguidelines.gov

NYT Article on the Importance of Citing

2011-01-18T12:41:00.005-06:00

An article by Gina Kolata in the January 17, 2011 New York Times discusses how many randomized controlled trials are lax in their citation of previous studies and describes some of the problems this can cause. Those involved in studies and researching them might want to take a look:

Trial in a Vacuum: Study of Studies Shows Few Citations

The full study is available through EBSCO's Academic Search Complete database, available through Library Services:

Robinson, K. A., & Goodman, S. N. (2011). A Systematic Examination of the Citation of Prior Research in Reports of Randomized, Controlled Trials. Annals of Internal Medicine, 154(1), 50-W19. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

STAT!Ref Medical News Feeds

2010-11-11T11:03:00.002-06:00

STAT!Ref, one of our major health science e-book providers, is offering medical news feeds delivered via email. To get them, you must sign up for a free account with STAT!Ref. After doing so, you can subscribe to medical news feeds using the Preferences button. News feeds are delivered directly to your email, and can be set up for a wide range of disciplines.

Feeds follow professions (eg., Nursing, Radiology, Surgery) or specific groups, diseases or conditions (eg. African-American Health, Wound Care, Colon Cancer, Breast Cancer, Alzheimer's, etc.)

Micromedex Trial Underway

2010-10-05T13:56:00.003-05:00

Library Services periodically runs trials of new databases based on requests from librarians other faculty. This fall, we will be running a trial of Micromedex, which should be of interest to most health science programs. Give it a try! We are also trying out some other resources. See our fall trials page for a complete list.

After you've tried it out, let us know what you think on our review form. User input is a very important part of our evaluation process.

If you have any questions about or problems with access, let me know.

New EBSCOHost Enhancements

2010-09-21T11:42:00.002-05:00

This summer, EBSCOHost changed the interface for many of it's databases, including CINAHL and Health Source - Nursing/Academic Edition. Most of these changes can bee see on the results screen:

The limiting functions and the date slider are now in the left column with the other limiters.
To the right of the Result List are search/content expansion tools: Related Information, access to integrated search (EHIS) connectors, widgets.
You can now select multiple clusters and source types when managing results.
A "breadbox" tracks which limiters, expanders and source types have been selected and allows one-click removal.
Menu organization for page options and alert/save/share has been improved.

Take a look at any of our EBSCOHost databases and try these new features out. And let me know if you have any questions.

Health Science Animations & Videos

2010-07-16T10:11:00.004-05:00

A colleague recently pointed me to the Knowledge Weavers Project from the University of Utah Health Sciences Library. The project, the mission of which was to produce multimedia resources in support of the health sciences, concluded in 2001, but the animations, tutorials and interactive cases are still available on the web.

The collection is strongest in the areas of neuroanatomy, cardiology and nutritional biochemistry. You might find some of these helpful in illustrating concepts and skills that you teach -- the NeuroLogic video and quiz module looks especially helpful.

New Look for MedlinePlus

2010-07-14T10:35:00.002-05:00

MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine's excellent consumer health website, has been revamped with a new arrangement, color scheme, and some interesting new features:

[from the NLM]

A Videos & Cool Tools page that makes multimedia content easier to find and searchable.
A Share button on all health topic pages and interactive tutorials that allows you to share links to MedlinePlus through your favorite social networks. See the Diabetic Diet topic page as an example.
A medical dictionary search box on the English homepage for quick look-up of medical terms.
A search cloud widget on the homepage, and a widgets page where you can find options for embedding MedlinePlus content in your own blogs, personalized homepages, and other sites.

Keeping Up With Medical Phone Apps

2010-06-24T10:09:00.010-05:00

The Krafty Librarian has a post today about identifying good medical apps for smartphones. Some blogs she recommends for keeping up with the latest trends:

iMedicalApps -- Tends to lean toward apps for the iPhone, although it does cover others. A recent post you may find useful was titled Should medical professionals get an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android phone? It’s complicated.

MedicalSmartphones.com -- similar to the blog above, but this one does a better job of tagging which devices the apps work on

PC World App Guide - Medical -- this site for the magazine has reviews for apps of all kinds

Mobile Health News -- a site for keeping up with news related to the use of mobile devices in healthcare

Health Hotlines App

2010-06-17T10:26:00.007-05:00

The National Library Medicine has created an iPhone app for accessing toll-free hotlines and web pages of hundreds of health-related organizations -- Health Hotlines. This app is can be browsed by keyword, subject or state and covers hundreds of organizations. Derived from DIRLINE, the NLM's Directory of Health of Health Organizations, this can be a great way to get patients and other health consumers connected to specialized health information. This app will also work with the iPod Touch and iPad.

Nursing Author Search Option in CINAHL

2010-06-10T14:50:00.002-05:00

EBSCO has recently added two new author limiters to advanced searching in CINAHL. To see these options, got to CINAHL and click on the Advanced Search link right under the search box.

On the lower right, you will see limiters for First Author is Nurse and Any Author is Nurse. Not all articles in nursing journals are written by nurses, and because nurses don't always publish solely in nursing journals. These limiters can really help you fine tune a search when you're looking for professional literature written by nurses.

MedlinePlus Patient Handouts

2010-05-12T11:52:00.003-05:00

Medline Plus, the National Library of Medicine's authoritative resource for online health information, has added a new feature to its pages on diseases and conditions. Simply perform a search, and then look for the Patient Handouts link in the For You section.

Your and your students may find this a handy patient education tool.

PubMed Summary Display Enhancement

2010-04-07T08:55:00.005-05:00

Recently, the summary display in PubMed was changed to show free PubMed Central articles and other full-text articles that are offered by publishers for free. Previously, one had to change the display from Summary to Abstract to determine whether articles were available for free. Here are a few examples of where you can find this new information on a summary record:

Remember, there may be many other articles available to you as a user of the ACC Libraries. Be sure to use the filters on the right to narrow your search to articles available through ACC. You will need to change the display from Summary to Abstract to see these annotations

Library Technology Survey

2010-03-23T10:58:00.005-05:00

Library Services is conducting a survey of student technology use through mid-April. We are trying to determine which technologies ACC students use on a daily basis so that we can adapt our services accordingly.

Please encourage your students to take part -- they could be eligible to win $120!

Third-Party PubMed Tools

2010-03-22T14:25:00.004-05:00

A recent post at David Rothman's medical librarianship blog alerted me to two free online tools that can be used in conjunction with Pubmed to view publication trends on particular topics over time.

MEDLINE Trend shows in a tabular format how a topic (or topics) have been represented in the indexed medical literature over time. An example using a search for articles on intubation in emergency medical services is shown here. The three columns represent the number of articles published in a year, the year analyzed, and the number of articles per 100,000 articles published in that year.

MEDSUM provides similar information, but in a line graph showing the number of publications over time. Here's the same example search done in MEDSUM.

You might notice that the numbers of results vary between these two sources. So doing your own search might be the most accurate way to get counts like these. But it is interesting to see the overall trends.

Visible Body Trial

2010-03-11T09:02:00.005-06:00

ACC Library Services is demo-ing a 3-D anatomy product that we are considering for the library: Visible Body.

Visible Body features an online-accessible 3-D model of the human body. Body systems can be added by layers, and the entire body can be zoomed in on and rotated to display and enhance various structures. It's fairly easy to use, and could be quite useful for students studying Anatomy and Physiology, or those just needing a refresher.

Part of our decision-making process for our trials involves input from our users. It's very important to us. Your opinion can have a strong impact. If you check out Visible Body, please fill out a Review Form and let us know what you think.

For a complete list of trials during our Spring trial period, visit the Library Services Spring 2010 e-Resource Trails page. Please note that the trial window for this product is very brief. It's been available for a week or so, and the trial access period ends on March 15.

Access Issues for Some New Electronic Journals

2010-03-10T11:32:00.001-06:00

We recently switched our subscriptions to MCN: the American journal of Maternal Child Nursing and Nursing Management from print to electronic subscriptions. This grants wider access to these two journals (among many others) across the ACC community. However, there are a few issues you may need to be aware of when viewing articles from these journals.

Although they are indexed in EBSCO databases such as CINAHL and Academic Search premier, the full-text is linked through a different vendor, Ovid. Ovid requires the user to pass through the following screen in order to view the full text. You will need to click the button on the left, which reads OvidSP & Athens.

Also, these journals do have restrictions on how many concurrent users can access the journal at one time. If you have trouble getting through to either of these two titles, wait a bit, and then try again.

Cool Graphic: Scientific Evidence for Supplements

2010-02-25T13:34:00.006-06:00

An interesting and beautiful graphic at Information is Beautiful shows the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of various nutritional supplements. Size and color are used to indicate whether the evidence behind health claims for these supplements is stronger or weaker.

The supplements can be filtered by the types of conditions they are supposed to alleviate or the type of substance (vitamin, herb, mineral, etc.) And helpfully, the author created a Google Docs spreadsheet of the studies used as evidence.

Add Medical Terms to Spell Checker in Word

2010-02-22T08:55:00.002-06:00

David Rothman has an informative post about adding medical terms to your spell checker in Word. Rather than adding medical terms individually, you can populate your spell checker with thousands of medical terms from one file, hopefully lessening occurrences of that annoying red underline as you type. His instructions are easy to follow. But I would use the link at the bottom of the post for the quickest results. If you want to do this and are having trouble, contact me.

abdominis
abdominocardiac
abdominocentesis
abdominocystic
abdominogenital
abdominohysterectomy
abdominohysterotomy
abdominojugular
abdominopelvic
abdominoperineal....

OpenMedSpel, the maker of this file, also provides an add-on for Firefox, making it possible to add this same dictionary of words to that browser's spell-check function.

Davis' Drug Guide for Nurses Updated

2010-02-19T11:30:00.005-06:00

The latest edition (11th, 2009) of Davis' Drug Guide for Nurses has been updated in the STAT!Ref database and is available online. All of the drug monographs have been updated for content in this edition.

Like all of our e-books, this title is listed and can be linked from the ACC Library Services catalog.

Remember, as with all ACC Library Services e-resources, all off-campus user must authenticate themselves with the ACCeID and password. If you are a Blackboard user, it's the same login and password that you use for Blackboard.

The Health Tweeder

2010-02-03T10:59:00.006-06:00

Pixels and Pills, a social media collaboration from a couple of pharmaceutical marketing firms, have put together an interesting service called The Health Tweeder. It visually displays the number of Twitter tweets gathered under various health categories in petri dishes, with each cell in a dish representing a tweet.

Some of the tweets are from consumer, but many are from researchers and companies, pointing the way to yet further information. A really clever way to graphically display real-time interest and activity in a range of health topics.

Let me know if this is something you find useful.

(Originally discovered on David Rothman's blog.)

NCBI Bookshelf

2010-02-03T08:01:00.003-06:00

The National Library of Medicine has an online Bookshelf of searchable full-text biomedical books, many of them produced by various government departments and agencies.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=Books

Just a few of the titles that may be of particular interest to ACC health science faculty:

New England Journal of Medicine Full-Text

2010-01-20T10:59:00.005-06:00

ACC Library Services has recently converted our several print subscriptions of The New England Journal of Medicine to one online subscription, available on or off-campus at any time. We have access to all issues from 1993 to the present. Previously, our online coverage was spotty through several databases, so this is a great step forward in access to this important journal.

Direct access to NEJM online is available through the library catalog:
(http://alicat.austincc.edu/record=b1215262).

You can also access it through results appearing in databases that index NEJM, including, CINAHL Plus and Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition. We're currently working on getting these links active through our PubMed LinkOut records.

As always, let me know if I can help you with access to this or any of our other online resources available through Library Services.

Mobile MedlinePlus

2010-01-14T13:54:00.002-06:00

The National Library of Medicine's health information website, MedlinePlus, is now available in a version optimized for web-enabled phones, starting today.

Just point your phone's browser to:

m.medlineplus.gov or m.medlineplus.gov/spanish

Top 100 Health Websites You Can Trust

2010-01-13T16:40:00.002-06:00

The Consumer and Patient Health Information Section (CAPHIS) of the Medical Library Association has recently updated their list of the top 100 health websites you can trust. The list is divided into categories such as Women's Health, Men's Health, Parenting and Kids, Drug Information Sources, Senior Health, and more.

http://caphis.mlanet.org/consumer/index.html

There is also a PDF version of the entire list which can be accessed here.

Updated Titles in STAT!Ref

2010-01-12T16:18:00.004-06:00

STAT!Ref has updated some of the titles in our medical e-book collection with new editions. Just wanted to give the ACC Health Sciences faculty a heads up. Recently updated titles include resources of interest to surgical technology, medical coding, and medical laboratory technology. These titles will be available via the ACC library catalog shortly. However, they are available by going directly to STAT!Ref now.

Schwartz's Principles of Surgery, 9th edition (2010)

"Written by the world’s foremost practitioners and instructors, this landmark reference logically progresses from basic science principles, including topics such as cells, genomics and molecular surgery, to clinical areas such as pancreas. From cover to cover, the title reflects a distinctly modern approach in the dissemination of surgical knowledge, providing current coverage of all key surgical areas, from trauma and transplantation, to neurosurgery. In each chapter, this content is supported by a skill-building format that includes boxed key points, detailed anatomical figures, diagnostic and management algorithms, an abundance of informative tables and key references."

HCPCS Level II (2010)

"HCPCS - Level II is the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System, established by CMS's Alpha-Numeric Editorial Panel. HCPCS primarily represents items, supplies, non-physician services not covered by the AMA's CPT-4 codes. Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers use HCPCS procedures and modifier codes for claims processing."

Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment, 49th ed. (2010)

"Written by clincians renowned in their respective fields, CMDT offers the most current insights into symptoms, signs, epidemiology and treatment for more than 1,000 diseases and disorders. For each topic you'll find concise, evidence-based answers to questions regarding both hospital and ambulatory medicine. This streamlined reference is the fastest and easiest way to keep abreast of the latest medical advances, prevention strategies, cost-effective treatments and more. New chapters on anti-infective chemotherapeutic and antibiotic agents, diagnostic testing and medical decision making, basic genetics and information technology in patient care are also included in STAT!Ref online."

CPT® with RVUs Data Files, INGENIX ® (2010)

Note new edition and title change.

"As per STAT!Ref subscribers requests, the title of this book is now listed as "CPT WITH RVUs DATA FILE, INGENIX® (2010)" Therefore it will appear in the "C" letter on the main Table of Contents

Important Information: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Deadlines: CMS no longer allows a 90-day grace period for using discontinued codes! You must use valid CPT codes for services performed on or after January 1, 2010. "

Delmar's Guide to Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests, 2nd ed. (2010)

"Now in its second edition, Delmar’s Guide of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests adds over 50 new entries to its compilation of over 600 lab and diagnostic tests. The most current information is provided in an easy-to-use format ideal for both students and practitioners of nursing, medicine and medical technology. The exceptionally straightforward and concise presentation of information allows you to focus on providing comprehensive care to your client having laboratory and diagnostic tests and procedures."

Patient Instructions added to MedlinePlus Encyclopedia

2009-11-05T15:03:00.002-06:00

The A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia, available through MedlinePlus, has recently added Patient Instructions to several of its entries. Students working on patient education projects may find this information useful.

Take a look at some of these entries for some examples. The patient instructions can be found in a box on the right:

JAMA Full-Text Coverage from 1998

2009-09-23T08:39:00.006-05:00

Although the ACC libraries have had multiple print subscription to the Journal of the American Medical Association at several campuses for decades, our full-text online coverage has been spotty. Some of our databases have covered it partially, but we've never had comprehensive full-text access to JAMA -- until now.

Largely through the efforts of Adrian Erb our E-Resources Librarian, we now have access to the full text of JAMA back to 1998. You can access these issues several ways:

Searching for JAMA in the library catalog
Linking to JAMA articles from search results in the following databases:
Searching PubMed via the ACC links and clicking the blue full-text buttons on JAMA results to click through to some of the databases above

Let me know if you have any questions. Library Services will continue to its efforts to connect you with the journals you need. Stay tuned!

STAT!Ref Evidence Alerts

2009-09-17T09:36:00.003-05:00

STAT!Ref, one of our databases for full text medical books, is offering a new Evidence Alerts service that you may find useful. Evidence Alerts, working with McMaster University's McMaster Plus system for rating evidence based articles. The Evidence Alert system allows you to setup e-mail delivery of alerts for 130 of the top medical journals. See STAT!Ref's page about the Evidence Alert's system for more information on how to sign up, along with a list of the journals covered.

The system is free to any users of STAT!Ref through the ACC Library Services subscription -- you just have to create an account at the STAT!Ref site, linked from the ACC Library Services website.

Although the focus is on core medical journals, there are some nursing journals covered. This can be an easy, pain-free way to learn about evidence-based research in your discipline. Alerts are sent by email, with links to records in PubMed. You can then check to see if we have access through our print our online subscriptions.

Please let me know if you have any questions or would like assistance in setting up these alerts.

Article: Web 2.0 for Physical Therapy

2009-04-15T08:26:00.002-05:00

A recent issue of Physiotherapy Canada has a brief editorial article on web tools useful for professionals in physical therapy.

Barsky, E., & Giustini, D. (2008). Guest editorial: Web 2.0 in physical therapy: a practical overview. Physiotherapy Canada, 60(3), 207-210.

New PubMed Advanced Search

2009-04-03T08:25:00.003-05:00

PubMed Searchers will have noticed that the Advanced Search page changed recently. Melissa Rethlefsen, Librarian at the Mayo Medical School, has created this webcast that gives an overview of some of the features:

This originally appeared in the following post on Liblog: Newsletter of the Mayo Clinic Libraries:

PubMed Advanced Search: An Introduction

MedCalc3000 in STAT!Ref

2009-03-13T09:47:00.003-05:00

I've posted several times about our STAT!Ref database and the useful electronic medical titles it provides, but there are also non-book tools available through STAT!Ref that many of you might not know about and find useful.

One of those tools is MedCalc3000. If you're familiar with the STAT!Ref database, you can find the MedCalc3000 tool by clicking on the Resources tab at the top of the main STAT!Ref page.

As described on its web pages, "MedCalc 3000 encompasses a wide array of pertinent medical formulae, clinical criteria sets and decision tree analysis tools used every day by clinicians, medical educators, nurses and health care students of all types."

Tools and formulas can be grouped by specialties -- the tool groupings for emergency medicine, geriatrics, hematology, nursing, nutrition, pharmacology and physical medicine/rehabilitation might be especially useful for students and faculty here at ACC.

Pharmacy Technology ResearchGuide

2009-02-26T13:26:00.004-06:00

All of the healths science programs at ACC should now be represented by ResearchGuides on the library's website with the completion of the latest guide for Pharmacy Technology.

ResearchGuides are easily-customizable pages that guide users to library and internet resources. Library Services' goal is to create guides for each of ACC's departments. In addition, guides can be created for specific assignments or projects. For a complete list of health science ResearchGuides, go to the main ResearchGuides page and scroll down to Health / Medicine.

Please take a look at these guides, recommend them to your students, and send suggestion for additions and changes.

New Ovid E-Books

2009-02-17T14:05:00.004-06:00

Library Services has recently added some books to our Ovid e-book collection, increasing our titles from 12 to 67! Previously, the collection only featured nursing books, and while it's focus is still on nursing there are also a few titles available here for sonography, radiology, and occupational therapy.

Of special note is the addition of the very popular "Made Incredibly Easy" nursing series from Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Most of these titles are available at ACC online for the first time.

The link currently reads "Nursing Books @Ovid," but this is likely to change soon due to the shift in emphasis. It will have @Ovid in the title, though.

Database Trial: Proquest Nursing & Allied Health Source

2009-02-06T08:42:00.002-06:00

We are demo-ing some new databases this spring, and Library Services would like to get your input on:

ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source

In the database box, be sure to use the pull-down menu to choose Medical Sciences -- Nursing & Allied Health Source. This is a full-text database, somewhat similar to CINAHL, but with more full-text, and access to some full-text journals that CINAHL doesn't offer, including the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT). We won't be canceling our CINAHL subscription. We're just looking at this new database as a supplement.

ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source features Medcom Video Training Programs on a wide range of nursing and nursing assistant skills. These show up in regular searches. In addition, the collection offers access to Evidence Summaries from the Joanna Briggs Institute.

Once you've tried this database, let us know what you think. You can fill out a brief review form online. Your comments are essential in our decision-making process

We will be reviewing this resource throughout the month of February, so all comments need to be in before March 1, 2009.

Article on Drug Information in Wikipedia

2009-01-22T08:38:00.002-06:00

Medical librarian David Rothman has a post on his blog today pointing readers to the following article, which is free online:

Clauson, K. A., Polen, H. H., Kamel Boulos, M. N., & Dzenowagis, J. H. (2008). Scope, completeness, and accuracy of drug information in Wikipedia [Electronic version]. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 42(12), 1814-1821.

The study compared searches for answers to drug-related questions in Wikipedia and the Medscape Drug Reference. Medscape Drug Reference fared much better in providing correct up-to-date information. The article's conclusion:

...health professionals should not use user-edited sites as authoritative sources in their clinical practice, nor should they recommend them to patients without knowing the limitations and providing sufficient additional information and counsel. If these sites are recommended, it should be in the form of a permanent link pointing to the specific recommended version of an entry. Finally, the issues raised in Web 2.0 are not novel, nor are the approaches; consumer education, watchful editors, alert health professionals, and ethical online behavior remain, as ever, the foundation for the safety of Internet health information.

NCLEX-RN Podcasts

2009-01-12T09:09:00.002-06:00

Stat!Ref, one of our database vendors, is providing 10 free podcasts to accompany Sally Lagerquist's Davis's NCLEX-RN Success. The podcasts range from 6 to 24 minutes in length and cover test taking techniques and the various sections of the exam. Although the book is not available online through ACC, we do have a copy available at EVC and at the CEC at Brackenridge.

Evidence-Based Care Sheets in CINAHL

2008-12-08T08:40:00.003-06:00

The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) database, available through the ACC libraries, features over 130 Evidence-Based Care Sheets on a wide range of medical issues. The sheets are typically two pages long and are divided into sections on What We Know and What We Can Do.

Here are a just a few of the most recent Evicence-Based Care Sheets available:

Dental Caries in Children and Adolescents
Breast Cancer in Older Women
Breast Cancer Screening: Minority, Low-Income, and Inner-City Women
Breast Cancer: Delay in Diagnosis and Treatment
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1: Prevention

This link will take you to a complete list of the CINAHL Evidence-Based Care Sheets.

One of the best features of these care sheets is the Coding Matrix for the evidence provided. Each source listed in the references is given a code as to it's strength of evidence. The matrix ranks the various types of evidence from strongest to weakest.

Embeddable Health Videos

2008-11-21T10:03:00.003-06:00

Here are several web sites that provide health information videos on a wide variety of topics. In most cases, you can copy coding to embed this videos on your own web page -- or even on a Blackboard page.

Insidermedicine
Medical Videos
eMedTV
CDC-TV
icyou

Thanks to David Rothman, who posted this information on his blog several months ago.

2009 MeSH Changes

2008-11-21T09:16:00.004-06:00

The National Library of Medicine has announced changes to the the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for the upcoming year. It's always interesting to peruse these changes. For instance, Earthquakes is a descriptor for the first time, the descriptor Adhesions has changed to Tissue Adhesions, and Myelofibrosis and Myeloid Metaplasia have both been replaced by Primary Myelofibrosis . Now, you may be thinking that this is the sort of information that only a librarian would obsess about, but taking a look at these lists might save you some frustration when searching PubMed.

For more details, see the full NLM technical bulletin.

The LISTEN Project

2008-05-06T08:41:00.002-05:00

The LISTEN project, a 3-year study funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration, seeks to "to improve information literacy competencies among student and professional nurses by using individualized learning strategies." When complete, it will present a series of online learning modules, the goal of which is improve and encourage evidence-based practice. You might want to bookmark this site or subscribe to its RSS feed to watch the site develop.

For an introduction to the importance of evidence based practice in nursing, see this short video from the site:

http://listenuphealth.org/home/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=77

The LISTEN Project has also posted a list of the articles from which they pulled the statistics in the video:

http://listenuphealth.org/home/images/docs/dyk1referencelistforwebsite.pdf

Although this is aimed specifically at nurses, I think most of our health science programs might want to follow the development of this site and think about how evidence based practice can be introduced to your students.

Removing Old Videos from the Library

2008-04-28T16:27:00.002-05:00

ACC Health Sciences Faculty --

Recently, some faculty members recommended the removal of some audiovisual materials from the Eastview Library. I really appreciate this help in making sure our collection reflect your needs -- and making sure they keep you in good standing with your various accrediting bodies. However, I don't want to remove anything from our collections that is still well-used. I realize that may different disciplines use these materials, and many of you may not be aware that faculty in other departments are using the same materials you are.

Please take a look at the following web page, and let me know if you think we should keep any of the items on the list.

http://irtstaff.austincc.edu/ses/VideoWeeding.htm

For your convenience, the list is sorted by call number, but there are links to re-sort the link by the number of total checkouts, the number of checkouts this year, and by the date these titles were added to our collections. The links on the page should take you to the record in the catalog in case you need some more information.

You can let me know by email. The deadline is the end of the semester -- May 9, 2008. If I haven't heard otherwise, I will be removing these titles from the library's collections early in the summer semester. In the meantime, they will be in my office.

I look forward to your input.

Creating Written Patient Education Materials

2008-04-09T15:07:00.002-05:00

The nursing and allied health librarians email list to which I subscribe recently had a post about a free article that may be of interest to you, especially if you are working with patient education. The citation and link follow:

Ivnik, M., & Jett, M. Y. (2008). Creating written patient education materials. Chest, 133(4), 1038-1040. Retrieved April 9, 2008, from http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/reprint/133/4/1038.pdf

This three-page article outlines various aspects of producing educational materials, including collaboration with other professionals, considering the intended purpose of the materials, developing content, addressing design issues and creating a "take-home message." The end of the article lists a few web sites and books that might also be of use.

NLM Drug Information Portal

2008-02-13T14:50:00.002-06:00

The National Library of Medicine has recently created an online gateway to drug information from the NLM and other government agencies. The link address for this resource is http://druginfo.nlm.nih.gov/drugportal/.

You can search for drugs by either their generic or proprietary names. Search results provide the drug name, a brief description of the drug, and the categories the drug falls under. The information sources retrieved can include consumer health information, the drug's effect on breastfeeding, references to the drug in the scientific literature, and information about clinical trials. Results of searches are pulled from such data sources as MedlinePlus, LactMed, PubMed, TOXLINE, ClinicalTrials.gov and others.

All of this information has been available on the web in various formats for a while, but it's convenient to have a single starting point for searching federal drug information.

GoldMiner Radiology Image Finder

2008-01-30T08:45:00.000-06:00

I just ran across a medical library blog entry for a search engine called GoldMiner, (http://goldminer.arrs.org/) produced by the American Roentgen Ray Society (ARRS). This search engine searches over 200 journals for images related to radiology. There are also quite a few sonography images Although the search interface is simple, the database is quite robust in its keyword searching. The results are presented in an easy-to-read format, with a small thumbnail of the image, a sentece or two from the image caption, and a link to the article from which it came. Results can be filtered by modality, age, and sex.

Some sample searches I tried, included knee sonog*, which produced 84 images, metatarsal CT, which produced 15 images, and bezoar, which resulted in 43 images.

There's an advanced search in the planning stages.

Searching for Controlled Trials in PubMed

2008-01-17T10:41:00.000-06:00

I ran across a blog entry recently about a search strategy in PubMed to limit your search to controlled trials. This might be useful for those of you interested in searching the evidence-based literature in PubMed.

It's always been possible to use the Limits tab in PubMed to limit to Clinical Trials and Randomized Controlled Trials, but this blogger writes about a search strategy you can enter that does a much more thorough search of systematic reviews. Just copy and paste the following into the PubMed search box:

(randomized controlled trial[pt] OR controlled clinical trial[pt] OR randomized controlled trials[mh] OR random allocation[mh] OR double-blind method[mh] OR single-blind method[mh] OR clinical trial[pt] OR clinical trials[mh] OR ("clinical trial"[tw]) OR ((singl*[tw] OR doubl*[tw] OR trebl*[tw] OR tripl*[tw]) AND (mask*[tw] OR blind*[tw])) OR ("latin square"[tw]) OR placebos[mh] OR placebo*[tw] OR random*[tw] OR research design[mh:noexp] OR comparative study[pt] OR evaluation studies[pt] OR follow-up studies[mh] OR prospective studies[mh] OR cross-over studies[mh] OR control*[tw] OR prospectiv*[tw] OR volunteer*[tw]) NOT (animal[mh] NOT human[mh])

If you put the ACC holding filter in front of this, you'll get a pretty good subset of systematic reviews available through the ACC print periodicals and full-text database. As of today, that's 475,263 systematic reviews available through ACC.

No filter like this is perfect, but by adding your search topic to the search above you can get a good start on an evidence-based literature search. Good luck searching, and please let me know if I can be of any help.

The Visible Body

2007-11-20T14:48:00.001-06:00

A new free anatomy tool will be made available soon. It's The Visible Body (http://www.visiblebody.com/) by Argosy. Here's some information from the website:

The Visible Body features a 360 degree, whole-body, 3D model that allows unparalleled investigation and study of human anatomy and physiology. Available on the Web, the Visible Body runs in Internet Explorer on any PC connected to the Internet. A free, fully interactive release is scheduled for mid-November 2007.

With the Visible Body, users can:

View highly detailed models of all body systems
Search for and locate anatomical structures by name
Click on anatomical structures to reveal names
Rotate and explore anatomy in a virtual space
Peel away layers to view relative placement of the components of all body systems
See placement of specific organs relative to other anatomical structures
View anatomical structures with or without surrounding anatomy
Investigate anatomy virtually, without the costly cadaver lab

12/10/07 Update: This is now available as of today.

Netting the Evidence

2007-10-30T15:55:00.000-05:00

A lot of information specialists are doing interesting things with user-created Google Custom Search Engines. Netting the Evidence (http://snipr.com/1sxey) was created by the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield in the UK to search 107 websites "associated with methodology of evidence-based practice." I know that several of you are involved in teaching the concept of evidence-based practice, and might find this specialized Google search engine useful.

Frontline Health & Healthcare Workforce Report

2007-05-31T14:25:00.000-05:00

I just heard about an interesting report on a librarians' email list. It is a November 2006 report from the Robert Wood Johnson foundation entitled Workers Who Care: A Graphical Profile of the Frontline Health and Health Care Workforce.

http://www.rwjf.org/files/publications/other/workers_who_care.pdf

This report highlights trends and statistics surrounding several of the frontline health care professions taught at ACC, including Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics, Medical and Clinical Laboratory Technicians, Pharmacy Technicians, Radiologic Technologists and Technicians, Surgical Technologists, Licensed Practical and Licensed Vocational Nurses, Occupational Therapist Assistants, and Physical Therapist Assistants.

Using a combination of federal and state statistical sources, each profession is profiled by numbers of practitioners, per capita distribution by state, growth and replacement needs, and average wage and wage outlook -- all done with easily understood maps and graphs. The data are available either by profession or by state.

This could be an invaluable resource for trends in your disciplines.

IME Video Library

2007-04-12T08:44:00.000-05:00

For those of you looking for free video resources online, Margaret recently pointed me to a new resource, the Innovations in Medical Education Video Library, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

http://videos.med.wisc.edu/

These are videos of presentations given at the school on various medical topics. Although the focus is on information for MDs, there is plenty here for other health professionals, health consumers and those with public health interests. Topics range from Neurology, Nutrition and Infectious Diseases to Homelessness, Urban Health, and Cultural Diversity.

Registration is required, but it is free. You can also set up an RSS feed to get notified as new videos are added.

MedlinePlus Improves Health Topic Pages

2007-03-29T08:51:00.001-05:00

The Health Topics pages at MedlinePlus have just undergone a renovation. To see the new pages, visit:

MedlinePlus Health Topics
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics.html)

Now each entry starts with an overview of each topic, with a few Start Here links to get readers up to speed with background information. Entries are now illustrated with graphics from Adam, and links are broken out into categories such as Basics, Mulitmedia and Reference.

All in all, this is an excellent re-working of an already excellent resource. Although geared toward the consumer, health science students will find this site is an excellent starting point for patient education resources.

For details about the redesign, see:

Medline Health Topics Redesign FAQs
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/faq/healthtopicredesign.html)

MedlinePlus Improves Health Topic Pages

2007-03-29T08:51:00.000-05:00

The Health Topics pages at MedlinePlus have just undergone a rennovation. To see the new pages, visit:

MedlinePlus Health Topics
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthtopics.html)

Now each entry starts with an overview of each topic, with a few Start Here links to get readers up to speed with background information. Entries are now illustrated with graphics from Adam, and links are broken out into categories such as Basics, Mulitmedia and Reference.

All in all, this is an excellent re-working of an already excellent resource. Although geared toward the consumer, health science students will find this site is an excellent starting point for patient education resources.

For details about the redesign, see:

Medline Health Topics Redesign FAQs
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/faq/healthtopicredesign.html)

OT & PT Evidence Databases

2007-01-19T15:31:00.000-06:00

Welcome back to the new semester!

Recently, I've learned about two evidence based practice databases for both occupational therapy and physical therapy, OT Seeker and PEDro. Both of these sites are maintained by professional organizations in Australia, and contain abstracts of original research related to their respective fields, including information on methodology and a scoring system for rating the validity of the research.

While neither of these databases contains the full-text of the articles, they do provide citation information which can then be run against the library's journal databases.Of course, our databases can be searched for evidence based practice information on their own, but these two databases offer good discipline-specific starting points.

Members (including students members) of APTA can use their evidence database, called Hooked on Evidence for free. AOTA members can use that organization's evidence database, called OT Search, at a reduced rate. Library Services does not maintain subscriptions to either of these resources.

PICO Searching in PubMed

2006-11-16T15:16:00.000-06:00

I want to share something with you today that I learned at the medical librarians' conference I attended last month. PubMed, the national medical citation database, has a search in PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) format.

http://pubmedhh.nlm.nih.gov/nlm/pico/piconew.html

This can be an excellent way to search PubMed for information with an emphasis on evidence. You can enter a medical condition, limit it to a specific age or gender group, enter an intervention and a comparison, and an option outcome. For instance, you could do a search on adults (Patient) with carpal tunnel syndrome and whether splints (Intevention) or surgery (Comparison) provide the best outcome. The list of resulting citations could then be checked against our ACC PubMed holdings to see which are available.

The PICO search can be hard to find on the PubMed pages, as the National Library of Medicine only has this set up for PubMed for handhelds right now -- the site is designed for PDAs. But it will work on your PC. Try and see how it works!

Maternal & Child Health Library Knowledge Paths

2006-05-30T10:58:00.000-05:00

The Maternal and Child Health Library, part of the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health at Georgetown University, provides a series of Knowledge Paths on various health topics. These pages provide links to web-based information from a range of authoritative sources, geared toward the health researcher, educators, and consumers. These can be a great place to begin for researching maternal/child health topics.

Maternal and Child Health Library Knowledge Paths
http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_infmort.html

New NLM Database: LactMed

2006-04-12T13:08:00.000-05:00

The National Library of Medicine has created a new online database of information about drugs and lacatation -- LactMed. It contains information on over 450 drugs and how they effect nursing mothers and breastfed infants. The press release states that it "includes information such as maternal levels in breast milk, infant levels in blood, potential effects in breastfeeding infants and on lactation itself, the American Academy of Pediatrics category indicating the level of compatibility of the drug with breastfeeding, and alternate drugs to consider." This database might be of special interest to students in the nursing and pharmacy technician programs.

LactMed (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT)

New Online Health Video Clips Available

2006-02-01T08:05:00.000-06:00

One of our databases, Health & Wellness Resource Center, has added over 700 health-related videos from the health media company Healthology. New videos are being added on a weekly basis. The videos, which last 3-4 minutes, are aimed at consumers and could be useful for patient education projects.

To view the videos, go to the link for Health & Wellness Resource Center on the Library Services A-Z List of Resources page. You can search by keyword or general category in the Healthology search section in the lower right-hand corner of the page.

WebWISER Info for First Responders

2005-12-06T16:07:00.000-06:00

The National Library of Medicine has recently released a web version of its Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER). This system connects to various government databases of information on hazardous substances. Previously only available as a downloadable program, it is now available for PDAs and on the web:

http://webwiser.nlm.nih.gov

Users can set their profile for 1st Responder, Hazmat Specialist or EMS, and then search for various substances either alphabetically or by keyword. Information is divided into categories such as Protective Distance and Treatment Overview. There are also links to other databases with toxic substance information, such as ToxNet and PubMed.

Overall, a handy tool for health professionals responding to hazardous materials incidents.

Healthline Search Engine

2005-12-05T10:55:00.000-06:00

A colleague recently introduced me to Healthline, a fairly new search engine for consumer health information. It points to physician-vetted web information and uses a unique Healthmaps features to graphically categorize results. For instance, a search on rabies retrieves a Healthmap categorizing sites into those dealing with Symptoms, Causes, Risk Factors, Prevention, Diagnosis and Follow Up. Links are also provided to help broaden or narrow a topic. Popular topics are organized into Health Channels. Take a look!

http://www.healthline.com

New LS Surgery Site and Online Surgery Videos

2005-11-08T13:53:00.000-06:00

As part of my ongoing project to create link pages for all of the health science programs at ACC, I've recently added a page for the surgical technology program. Although it is focused on information that might be of use to faculty and students in surgical technology, other health science practitioners might find items of interest here.

http://library.austincc.edu/w3/SURG/

One resource on this page that I find particularly fascinating, is the list of free online surgical videos offered by OR-Live.com via MedlinePlus. The link is on the page listed above, or you can go directly there by following this link:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/surgeryvideos.html

Faculty Input on Health Science Resources

2005-10-03T14:23:00.000-05:00

The ACC librarians have been given the go-ahead to start ordering materials for this fiscal year, and I need your help!

As the person who orders health science books, periodicals and videorecordings for the libraries, I need your input. Don't wait until the spring to request items -- there's no time like the present. Feel free to send me an email, forward items in catalogs, or just give me a call.

Remember -- your input makes our library collections stronger and relevant to our users.

Article on Evidence-Based Practice

2005-09-12T09:17:00.000-05:00

I recently learned from a medical librarians email list that the September 2005 issue of the American Journal of Nursing has an interesting article on the education of nurses for evidence-based practice. It is currently available free as a CE offering from nursingcenter.com.

Pravikoff, D.S., A.B. Tanner, and S.T. Pierce (2005). Readiness of U.S. nurses for evidence-based practice: Many don’t understand or value research and have had little or no training to help them find evidence on which to base their practice. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 105 (9), 40-51.

(http://www.nursingcenter.com/library/JournalArticle.asp?Article_ID=599256)

This study asks the question: are RNs in the U.S. prepared to engage in evidence-based practice? Implications for nursing education are also considered.

Thanks to Margaret Peloquin for forwarding this to me.

New Look for CINAHL

2005-08-26T14:28:00.000-05:00

Long-time users of the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) through Ovid will notice that its format has changed recently. More search options are available on the main page, and new functions have been added such as searching for similar articles and finding citing articles. Since CINAHL is the premier database for nursing and allied health science literature, it's worth becoming familiar with its new look.

CINAHL is linked from several places on the Library Services website, but the easiest place to find it is on our A-Z List of Resources (http://library.austincc.edu/eresources/AtoZ.htm).

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding this valuable resource or its use.

MLA Top 10 Consumer Health Websites

2005-06-06T11:15:00.000-05:00

The Medical Library Association maintains a list of the top 10 health websites that it recommends to consumers of health information. You are probably familiar with many of them already. If your students are involved in patient education assignments, this might be a good place to direct them.

http://www.mlanet.org/resources/medspeak/topten.html

PubMed Customized to ACC Holdings

2005-04-22T11:07:00.000-05:00

PubMed is the nation's premier index for access to biomedical health literature. If you've ever searched it, you know how extensive it is. However, a search can be frustrating -- so many citations, but how to tell which ones you can get your hands on quickly?

The following link (available from our Health & Life Sciences Web Page), allows you to limit to items available through ACC Library Services:

PubMed Link

After choosing this link, simply click in the search box and type AND, plus your keywords (for example, AND palliative care or AND leukemia AND nursing). Be sure to leave the text that is already in the box there, or the filtering won't work.

Using this link, you will only see results that are available through ACC Library Services. Click on some of the titles and you will see customized ACC icons. Articles that are available online through one of our databases will have a blue ACC icon, and those available in print in the library will have a peach ACC icon. Note that some of the newest articles may not be quite available yet -- some publishers have waiting periods before newer articles are available through databases.

We hope this makes identifying Library Services journal holdings easier for you. Have fun searching!

Consumer Health Info for Asian Language Speakers

2005-04-11T08:13:00.000-05:00

The Health Sciences Library at Tufts University has just made available a website of consumer health information called SPIRAL -- Select Patient Information Resources in Asian Languages.

http://spiral.tufts.edu/

Brochures can be searched by language or by topic and each item is also available in translation so that an English-speaking health care provider can follow along with patients. Items are gathered from various sources, including American hospitals and government health agencies in Australia and Canada. This might be a handy resource for students in clinicals who are helping Asian patients.

BBC Interactive Body

2005-03-21T10:49:00.000-06:00

I'd like to draw your attention to a website that I think your students will find useful. It's the BBC Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind Interactive Body. Users can choose whether to study the organs, muscles, skeleton or the nervous system. Then, after choosing the gender of the body they want to work with, users can rotate various parts and drag them into place. A "Did You Know" window gives short facts for each of the parts. This would be a good study aide for those having trouble with anatomy or just wanting to brush up.

Does the Library Have This Journal?

2005-02-25T09:19:00.000-06:00

If you are looking for a access to a particular health science journal, there are four main approaches you can try:

Check the catalog
In the catalog there is a search option labeled "Periodical Locations at ACC". A search under this option will retrieve holdings information for print journals in the library , as well as some journals that are accessible online. Keep in mind that this search only provides access to the titles, i.e. whether we have the journal not. It does not generally provide access to articles within the journals.

Use the TD Net service
TD Net is a tool that provides journal title access to most of our full-text databases. Just enter a journal title, and you will be provided with a list of links to the databases that cover this particular journal. Please note that TD Net will not show journals available in CINAHL (see below)...
Check the Nursing Journals at Ovid database
Because of the way these are acquired by ACC, these are not searchable by the TD Net option above.

Contact a librarian
We'll always be happy to try and track down particular journals for you and discuss options for accessing them.

Health Sciences Materials Lists

2005-02-14T08:30:00.000-06:00

Every month, ACC Library Services posts a list of new books and videos purchased in support of health science programs. It usually is posted during the first week of each month. The list is available at the following link:

http://library.austincc.edu/eresources/newbooks/newbooks.htm

Just use the pulldown menu to select a month. The materials are listed in call number order so that all the materials on the various topics or disciplines display together. The list is linked to our catalog so that you can click on titles to see more information.

Remember, our collections are for the use of you and your students. By suggesting materials for purchase, you ensure that our collections continue to be relevant and useful.

Health & Life Sciences Subject Guide

2005-01-21T10:40:00.000-06:00

The best online starting place for research in the ACC libraries are the subject guides. We have created several for broad categories of interest to the ACC community. The Health Sciences subject guide is available here:

http://library.austincc.edu/eresources/subj-health.htm

It offers links to the catalog, suggested periodical databases from which to start, online reference sources, useful web sites, and search strategies for health science information -- a kind of one-stop shopping approach to library information. Most of the resources can be accessed from your office or off-campus, as well as in the library. It's not a comprehensive list, but it does provide a jumping-off point for the researcher. Be sure to take a look when you have a chance, and point this site out to your students.

New Health Sciences Update

2005-01-19T09:12:00.000-06:00

This is the first posting in a new Library Services initiative to keep health sciences faculty updated on library resources and services. I hope that this project will expand the dialog between librarians and the ACC Health Sciences community. Now that the departments (and the library materials!) are all back together again, this seems like a good time to start such an initiative.

Every other week or so, I plan to post a short update which Jenease Friske will forward to her email list of Health Sciences faculty. The posts will also be included in a blog, for those who are into that sort of thing. To see what it will look like, go to:

http://acc-ls-hs-update.blogspot.com/

This blog will allow for archiving all previous posts so that you can refer back to them at your leisure. You can also post your own comments and view others' comments as you wish.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is any way that Library Services can help you and your students. Look for the first real posting later this week!

Steve Self