Library and Information Science Commons^™

Making Women's Health Connections: Between Researchers And To Resources, Martha E. Meacham, Len L. Levin, Lisa A. Palmer, Elaine Martin

Lisa A. Palmer

The Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has recently completed the second year of a National Library of Medicine grant funded project; the Women’s Health Resources Dissemination Outreach Project. The goals include assisting women’s health researchers by providing them with access to information and making them more aware of opportunities and available resources. This, ultimately, enables both an improvement in women’s health and the advancement of women in academic medicine. Moreover, by supporting women’s health research and women researchers through the objectives of this project, women researchers build connections, knowledge, and skills. This facilitates meaningful contributions …

Clear: Conversations: A Collaborative Regional Project To Help Patients Improve Their Health Visits, Michelle L. Eberle, Margot Malachowski, Alberta Richetelle, Monina Lahoz, Linda Mcintosh, Bradley Moore, Jen Searl, Judy Kronick

Margot G Malachowski, MLS, AHIP

Objective: The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region’s Clear: Conversations project aimed to teach health literacy skills to help patients communicate better with their health care providers including how to: ask for simple language and slow down the provider, use teach-back, bring medications and supplements for a brown bag review, and get need-to-know information. Methods: Five organizations were awarded with Clear: Conversations materials that were adapted from a program created by Health Literacy Missouri. A highlight of the workshop was a role play between a health care provider and patient. Awardees were required to offer the workshop …

Let's Go: Participating In Community Health Initiatives, Margot G. Malachowski

Margot G Malachowski, MLS, AHIP

Core Resources Of International Health Researchers: An Analysis Of Citations In Major International Health Journals, Young-Joo Lee

Young-Joo Lee

Public Health Resources And Outreach: National Network Of Libraries Of Medicine, New England Region, E. Hatheway Simpson

E. Hatheway Simpson

Describes the work of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region, and Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce to provide outreach services and promote awareness of evidence-based information resources for public health practice.

National Library Of Medicine Health Information Resources, E. Hatheway Simpson

E. Hatheway Simpson

No abstract provided.

Evidence-Based Public Health: Identifying And Using Information Resources, E. Hatheway Simpson

E. Hatheway Simpson

Public health evidence-based practice involves using the best available evidence to make informed public health practice decisions. This webinar introduced the concepts of evidence-based public health (EBPH) and provided an overview of resources that are online and freely accessible to the public health workforce. Resources highlighted included evidence-based guidelines, systematic reviews, formulated literature searches, best and promising practices, and additional sources of evidence available from the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, PHPartners.org.

Evidence-Based Practice For Public Health Project: Final Report, E. Hatheway Simpson, Elaine R. Martin

E. Hatheway Simpson

There are numerous clinically based models for finding the “best evidence” for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. This process is called evidence-based medicine or EBM, which has been defined as "the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research”.¹ The need for improved access to high quality public health information has been echoed in various forums involving public health professionals, librarians, and information specialists since the mid 1990s. …

Public Health Information Access Project: Providing Information Access Through A Digital Library, E. Hatheway Simpson

E. Hatheway Simpson

Presentation on the Public Health Information Access Project, including objectives, description, challenges, and lessons learned.

Improving Access To Credible And Relevant Information For Public Health Professionals: A Qualitative Study Of Information Needs In Communicable Disease Control, Nancy R. Lapelle, E. Hatheway Simpson, Roger S. Luckmann, Elaine Russo Martin

E. Hatheway Simpson

In order to understand the information needs and the current and ideal approaches to information access in one major area of public health, semi-structured key informant interviews were conducted with 12 communicable disease control public health professionals in Massachusetts at their worksite. Examples of the types of information they commonly accessed and how it was accessed were solicited and/or observed where feasible. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed thematically. Information needs ranged from breaking news (e.g. epidemiology of emerging disease outbreaks) and untested programmatic ideas (e.g. how to handle prevention and treatment of West Nile Virus and SARS) to the …

Evidence-Based Public Health: Findings From A Research Project And Resources For Practice, E. Hatheway Simpson

E. Hatheway Simpson

This presentation to the University of Massachusetts Medical School Preventive Medicine Residency Program presents an introduction to evidence-based public health (EBPH), and overview of the Lamar Soutter Library’s Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health (EBPPH) project and research findings, and selected examples of EBPH information resources available from the project’s website, http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph.

Providing Evidence-Based Public Health Resources: The Librarian’S Role, E. Hatheway Simpson

E. Hatheway Simpson

This presentation introduces the concepts of evidence-based public health (EBPH) and provides examples of EBPH information resources available online from the Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health website, http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph and the Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce website, http://PHPartners.org. Health science librarians, as information specialists and knowledge managers, have the ability to search and find the best evidence to help public health practitioners make informed practice decisions. Presented at the North Atlantic Health Science Libraries Annual Meeting, Providence, RI, September 27, 2005.

Public Health Information Access -- Research And Services, E. Hatheway Simpson

E. Hatheway Simpson

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, New England Region, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School Library, is taking part in ongoing research on public health practitioners’ access and use of information resources with an emphasis on evidence-based public health. Ms. Simpson will report on the Public Health Information Access Project and also provide examples of library outreach projects relating to public health in the New England Region (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) and how collaborations between libraries and their public health communities, including the research community, can help expand the work and reach of …

Healthy People 2020 Structured Evidence Queries For Pubmed: Practice Informed By Research, E. Hatheway Simpson, Lisa A. Sedlar, Lisa A. Lang

E. Hatheway Simpson

Objective: Healthy People 2020 is a set of objectives with 10-year targets to guide national health promotion and disease prevention efforts. Public health professionals may have limited time to identify relevant research articles on public health strategies. NLM recognized the need to reduce the time and increase the precision of finding research to support evidence-based actions to achieve HP2020 objectives. Methods: NLM collaborated with the HHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion to develop pre-formulated search strategies ─ structured evidence queries (SEQs) ─ of PubMed to make research evidence related to HP2020 objectives easier to find. The queries were …

Enhancing Evidence-Based Information Access To Inform Public Health Practice, Nancy R. Lapelle, E. Hatheway Simpson, Roger S. Luckmann, Elaine Russo Martin

E. Hatheway Simpson

It is clear from the trend towards evidence-based practices in many fields that public health (PH) practice can be better informed if credible information about effective practices is accessible. Comparing sources of evidence-based information in clinical medicine to what is available for PH, we found fewer examples of readily accessible sources in PH. This project was conceived to identify enhancements to evidence-based information accessing needs of PH professionals. A qualitative study identified how PH professionals currently access information and what enhancements they need. Nineteen individual interviews were conducted across two state health department bureaus – communicable disease control and community …