President's Page
Welcome back, CAHSLA Colleagues! The CAHSLA year
officially kicked off last week with an excellent Membership Meeting at the
Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions. Thanks again
to our gracious hosts Doris Haag, Laura Laugle, and Mary Piper. Additionally, I want to thank Edith Starbuck,
Lisa McCormick, and the CAHSLA Programming Committee for organizing this very
interesting and informative meeting. Now
we all know that success in test taking is directly linked to a ‘decades’ old
tradition of rubbing the head of the Daniel Drake sculpture!
Since we’re still in “Membership Mode,” I’d also
like to take this opportunity to ask everyone to think of someone to invite to
join CAHSLA. Membership applications are available on the CAHSLA
website. The strength of the organization is directly
related to your commitment through renewing your membership and by your active
participation in leadership roles and on committees. The vitality of the organization was
demonstrated again to me by the diversity of ideas for future meeting topics presented
during the round table discussion at the end of this last meeting. With your
support, we will continue to promote excellence in health sciences
librarianship by providing our members with opportunities for networking,
professional growth, and communication among members. Thanks to everyone who shares their time and
knowledge with this organization. I am looking forward to another year!
Emily Kean
You are cordially invited to
CAHSLA’S ANNUAL
HOLIDAY
PARTY
Thursday, December 13
5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Hosted by Regina Hartman
8840 Falmouth Drive,
Cincinnati, OH 45231
Cincinnati, OH 45231
(513) 522-7886
Please bring
something savory or sweet to share as well as a children’s book suitable for a
boy whose first language is not English. Books this year are being donated to the Homework Club at Mi Casa, which
is an effort sponsored by Our Saviour Episcopal Church in Mt. Auburn. Some suggestions are adventure books, Richard
Scarry word books, or easy readers for ages 4 to 12. All read below grade level.
Please R.S.V.P. by December 11 to Edith Starbuck at edith.starbuck@uc.edu or call (513)
558-1433
Financial Report 2012-2013
Checking Account Balance
as of 6/19/2012 $2585.33
Deposits
Dues
(8 regular) $200.00
Withdrawals
Nov meeting, food &
water $167.81
Balance
as of 11/20/2012 $2617.52
Cash
Balance
as of 6/19/2012 $ 34.44
Withdrawals
Balance
as of 11/20/2012 $ 34.44
Total Assets $2651.96
Paid members
Regular 8
Student 0
Life members 11
Total 19
Submitted by:
Cathy Constance, Treasurer
11/20/2012
Meeting Minutes
Membership Meeting
November 15, 2012
Location: University of Cincinnati, Winkler Center for the
History of the Health Professions
Present: Emily Kean,
President; Regina Hartman, Past-President; Cathy Constance, Treasurer; Jane
Thompson, Archivist; Mike Douglas; Lisa McCormick; Val Purvis; Edith Starbuck;
Amy Koshoffer; Barbara Slavinski; Sandra Mason; Kathleen Dannemiller; Laura
Laugle; Mary Piper; Nonnie Klein.
Recorded by: L.
McCormick
President Emily Kean called the meeting to order at 6:16 pm.
Officers: E. Kean welcomed everyone to the membership
meeting. She began the meeting with an
update on the composition of the CAHSLA executive committee. Kean is continuing as president for 2012-2013
as no member volunteered to run for office in the spring of 2012. Without a
president elect, Kean will be supported by a program planning team composed of
Edith Starbuck, Regina Hartman, Val Purvis, and Lisa McCormick.
Chronicle: L.
McCormick was asked to provide a summary of the discussion the executive
committee had by email concerning the continuation of the Chronicle. In August, Co-Editor Barbarie Hill had posed
the question to the executive committee: Is the Chronicle still relevant and
meaningful to the membership? The
consensus of the email discussion was that the Chronicle is still useful as the
primary means of disseminating reports and updates about the organization. A discussion among those in attendance at the
membership meeting arrived at the same conclusion citing the Chronicle as a
valuable perk of CAHSLA membership. E.
Kean and A. Koshoffer are investigating the possibility of a new hosting site
for the CAHSLA webpage, and the change in hosting sites may provide an
opportunity to deliver the Chronicle in a new way.
Website: A. Koshoffer provided an update on the CAHSLA website. Due to changes at UC, we may no longer be able to have UC host our website. A. Koshoffer and E. Kean are investigating alternatives. It was suggested that they may wish to be in touch with Bette Sydellko at Wright State as she recently did extensive research to relocate the OHSLA website. More details to follow when they are available.
Website: A. Koshoffer provided an update on the CAHSLA website. Due to changes at UC, we may no longer be able to have UC host our website. A. Koshoffer and E. Kean are investigating alternatives. It was suggested that they may wish to be in touch with Bette Sydellko at Wright State as she recently did extensive research to relocate the OHSLA website. More details to follow when they are available.
Holiday Meeting: Options for having a holiday meeting between now and the end of December were discussed. No date or location was definitively identified. J. Thompson suggested a recipient for the holiday book drive. An after-school program in Price Hill would benefit from a book donation. The children are aged (approximately) 4-12 years. They are mainly boys whose first language is Spanish. Jane suggested donating books that would appeal to this age group to help them with English. It was unanimous that this group be the recipient for our book collection. J. Thompson volunteered to deliver the books.
Recent SLA Events
I have attended two interesting SLA events in the
past months. The first event was one of
five SLA
Dinner Parties held in October and November. We gathered at Arnold’s Bar and Grill to
listen and learn from our host Holly Prochaska about her work as Head of Preservation
Services at the University of Cincinnati. There were seven guests, librarians including
our own Barbara Slavinski from Drake as well as UC Law library,
Cincinnati State,
Keating Muething &
Klekamp PLL and PG.
It was an intimate setting and gave people a real chance to talk to each member
of the group. I really enjoyed this
setting and felt that it was a very effective environment for networking. SLA paid for the dinner which was a great
perk. The preservation
lab is a collaboration between UC and the Public Library of
Cincinnati and Hamilton County. In Holly’s work the goal is to preserve valuable
but damaged or deteriorating works selected by libraries at UC and the Public
Library. The question is do we preserve
the book as is, or preserve the concept between the cover? In preserving items, choices are made as to
how best to freeze the work in time.
Depending on its state, containers are made to house material or a new
binding may be fashioned. The choices
made are dependent on the philosophy of the librarians and the condition of the
objects. I was intrigued of the blend of
librarianship and science that Holly uses in her work. Firstly the space she works in is called a
lab. She was very excited about a new
high powered microscope that she had recently acquired. And there are several tests that they use in
their work involving a good understanding of chemistry. Holly is an amazingly knowledgeable librarian,
wearing many hats in her work since she also serves as Head of the
Geo-Math-Phys library at UC. She
invited all of us to come and visit the preservation lab, and I plan to take
her up on it.
The second event of the Tech Blitz 2012 held at the
Cincinnati Health Foundation on November 8th. The presenter was Glen Horton,
formerly the SWON Technology coordinator and currently the Digital Services
Manager at the Campbell County
Public Library.
This year’s Tech Blitz built on the post PC idea introduced last year
and introduced upcoming trends. This
year’s theme was mobile devices and their transition to every day constant
companion devices. For example, Glen
mentioned that the North
Shore library system in Wisconsin is replacing
library PCs with ipad. Users can check
out the ipads for use in the library giving them mobility and the chance to
acquaint themselves with this technology.
Most of the talk dealt with trends happening outside
of the library. The latest news is that Microsoft
has just released the Surface
with its RT operating system. In
January, MS will have a tablet with Windows
8
costing approximately $1000. Trend in
the industry is that each vendor offers a larger size and a smaller size
device. Microsoft is aiming to have a
seamless experience as users move from the larger PC to midsize tablets to smaller
phones. The Windows 8 motif will appear
on each one of these devices, quite different from the OS on a MAC computer
compared the OS of an iphone. It seems
that the industry cannot give us just one device and just one size. Differing user wants and needs pushes the
design of the devices. A term reflecting
versatility in design of these devices is a phablet, blending tablet and
phone. And as users move from PC to
tablets to phones, they will want the content to transition and adapt to the
scale of the devices as well. This is
known as Progressive Enhancement and incorporates Responsive Web Design. Content displayed on a PC in three columns
will morph to display on a phone in a single column. The user is able to use any device with any
browser and have a quality experience regardless, similar to the goals of
Microsoft with the Windows 8 experience.
Consumers are carrying these devices everywhere, so
businesses are responding to how people shop.
Showrooming is when consumers check out items in person, but then will
purchase on-line. With the use of QR
codes, businesses are hoping to direct to their own websites as opposed to
competitors’ websites. Tools such as the square are also transforming the
shopping experience. This device turns
any phone into a cash register and any venue into a shop.
And with NFC, near field communication, phones with
a smartcard can be used as a payment device.
All one needs to do is tap the phone to the reader and transmit the
necessary payment information. With this
idea in mind, Google has created the Google wallet. You keep your credit card information and
payment history in the cloud, and use your phone to transmit payment
information. Soon your phone may do much
more. With Microsoft Smartglass, your
phone can become a gaming remote and remote for your TV. Companies are also using your phone as the
remote for your home security system. I
resist the thought to suggest the phone could become your new best friend, but
some iphone commercials I have seen make even that seem possible. As previously mentioned our phones and other
devices are becoming our constant companions.
Glen discussed several gadgets coming out such as
the streaming
projectors from 3M, the google
self-driving car, wearable computers as
sported by Sergey Brin of Google fame, and 3D printers. I found the 3D printer extremely interesting
especially imaging how it would take my childrens’ ideas from the page to a
plastic replica. Great for finishing
those school projects.
Technology is moving fast. Glen pointed out the first generation ipads
came out in April 2010. Two and a half
years later, Apple is coming out with the 4th generation. And soon they will not support the earlier
generation ipads. The talk was very
informative, and it will be interesting to review it when next year’s Blitz
occurs. The question will be what really
took off, and what fell by the wayside.
Click
here
for a link to Glen’s Tech Blitz 2012 slides
Click
here
for a link to Glen’s Tech Blitz 2011 slides
Amy Koshoffer
CAHSLA
Colleagues
Retirement
Our best wishes are extended to Eva
Colligan, The Jewish Hospital Health Sciences Library, on her retirement. Eva has served TJH in many roles over the
years, including several years outside of the library in the public relations
department of the hospital. As library
coordinator, she made sure everything ran smoothly. Her assistance and support of the publication
efforts of the Jewish Hospital clinicians and residents was integral to the
residency programs. One of Jewish
Hospital’s researcher-authors was recently recognized for his outstanding
achievement- he just had his 700th article published. Eva certainly has the lit search, DOCLINE,
and in-house reprint statistics to attest to her vital role in supporting his
achievement! Most recently, Eva has
tackled organizing the many boxes of photographs the library received from
PR&Marketing when TJH was sold to Mercy. Eva will be greatly missed by both the
hospital and library staff. Eva is looking forward to spending more time with
her husband, son and daughter-in-law and her two amazing grandsons. Best of luck, Eva, and welcome to the ‘elite’
club of “Lifetime CAHSLA Membership.”
Congratulations
Congratulations to our friends and colleagues of the
Special Libraries Association on their 85th anniversary.
Kudos
Emily Kean (The Christ Hospital James N. Gamble Library) was recently profiled in the Midwest Chapter’s newsletter, MIDLINE. Here is Emily’s profile:
Emily Kean (The Christ Hospital James N. Gamble Library) was recently profiled in the Midwest Chapter’s newsletter, MIDLINE. Here is Emily’s profile:
Emily Kean is the Electronic Resources Librarian
at the James N. Gamble Library of The Christ Hospital, in Cincinnati, OH. Her
responsibilities include maintaining and updating the library’s electronic
resources: catalog, databases, e-journals, e-books, etc. She also designs and
oversees web-based tutorials, the library intranet page, its mobile website,
and its social media presence. Her professional interests include information
retrieval, bibliographic instruction/information literacy, and mobile
technologies/applications. Emily also conducts database instruction and
training for library patrons and analyzes usage statistics for collection
development. She received an undergraduate degree in English Literature from
Northern Kentucky University. She received her MSLS from the University of
Kentucky School of Library and Information Science in 2010. Emily is a native
of Bellevue, KY. She adds, “I’m very excited to have had my poster on embedded
librarianship in nurses’ online journal clubs accepted for MLA 2013. Hope to
see some Midwest Chapter members there!”
Travels
Amy Koshoffer and family will be spending the
Christmas holidays in Germany.
Lifetime
Member News
Barbarie
Hill (retired CCHMC) writes: We had a
lively Thanksgiving with six children and ten adults in our little house, but
all four families contributed food so no one had to do all the cooking.
Jason, Angela and Corinne couldn't come because they were moving to a new
apartment after hurricane Sandy flooded the building they lived in and the
resulting mold drove them out. At least they were on the second floor so
none of their stuff was lost. I had a
short but very sweet visit from Jane Thompson (retired UC HSL). She and
Michael were in Richmond for the day, so she drove over to see us.
Welcome
Kathleen
Pickens-French replaced Debbie Bogenschutz (retired) as Coordinator of
Information Services at Cincinnati State.
Farewell
John Borntrager, UC HSL Information Services and
Outreach, has accepted a new position outside of the university system.
Our
sympathies
It is with deep sadness that we report the passing
of our dear colleague Dorothy Gilroy, retired, CCDD, University Affiliated
Cincinnati Center for Developmental Disorders.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s Dorothy was the wise voice of reason and perspective
on the CAHSLA executive committee. She
guided the organization through many changes making sure we approached every
decision with all the information necessary to make a reasoned decision. She held too many leadership roles to list in
local, state and national library organizations. She
selflessly mentored numerous librarians in the Cincinnati area and across the
United States. Through her leadership in
the Medical Library Association, particularly, the Consumer and Patient Health
Information Section, Dorothy positively impacted the health sciences library
profession in a multitude of ways.
Dorothy was a visionary librarian seeing the value of providing
consumers, especially parents, with useable information for navigating the
health care system to find the best care for their children. Her innovative “Toy Library” was featured in
many publications, and Dorothy was frequently asked to speak locally and
nationally on this unique library.
Dorothy was very active volunteering in her new home
of Redmond, Washington where she and husband Maurice retired to be closer to
their children and grandchildren. Below
is a delightful picture of Dorothy from a 2008 article in the Redmond Reporter. A potential organization to make a donation
in Dorothy’s memory is the King
County Library System Foundation. Dorothy was a member of the Friends of the
King County Library System. You may send
a donation to the attention of Cindy
Sharek, Director of Major Gifts, 960 Newport Way NW, Issaquah, WA 98027 or make
a donation online through
their secure website.
Friday,
02 Nov 2012
Redmond Reporter
Redmond
Dorothy (Eldridge),
Gilroy, age 82 - a 12 year resident of Redmond; died October
25, 2012 in the
Critical Care Unit of a Seattle hospital after apparently successful
Aortic valve
replacement surgery. She was an Iowa farm girl, the valedictorian of
her high school
class; an elementary school teacher, and a wife and mother. She
was also a medical
librarian who managed three small special libraries affiliated
with the University
of Cincinnati. She was the “local mother” to two daughters in
law (one from
India, one from Argentina). She was the grandmother of three granddaughters and
one grandson. She volunteered in the libraries of their elementary schools, and
in the Friends of the Redmond Library. She left three brothers, two sisters, a
husband of 60 years, two sons, two daughters in law, and four grandkids – to
cope with her unexpected death. Two memorial services are being planned. One at
Emerald Heights on November 17th; the other at St. Jude Church on November 18th.
Seniors discuss issues of 'The Absolutely True Diary of a
Part-Time Indian'
By MARY
STEVENS DECKER
Redmond
Reporter
September
22, 2008 · 2:33 PM
On Friday,
managing librarian Chris Livingston from the Redmond Regional Library led a
discussion of this summer’s featured novel, Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely
True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” at the Redmond Senior Center. Although it’s a sensitive subject, Alexie
has been very frank in discussing his family’s and his own past with alcohol
addiction.
The group at
the senior center discussed the causes and effects of the alcoholism that was
rampant on the Indian reservation in “The Absolutely True Diary ...,” a
semi-autobiographical account of Alexie’s life as a teen. Being poor, feeling
ostracized and hopeless sometimes lead people to think that drugs and alcohol
are the only ways to numb their pain, the group agreed.
Livingston
inquired, “Why the title mentioning ‘a part-time Indian?’ What do you think is
behind that?”
Discussion
participant Gen Cahoon speculated, “He separated himself, made that jump, that
giant leap ...” referring to the book’s hero, Arnold Spirit (nicknamed Junior)
who decided to leave his high school on an Indian reservation and go to a white
high school, because he wanted a better education and more opportunities.
The senior
group also talked about the reasons why the character of Junior draws so many
cartoons.
“It’s a release — it’s a way he can
communicate what he’s feeling,” said Dorothy Gilroy. “It’s very personal, but
his friends can understand it.”
Shirley
Breitenstein stated, “I think a lot of times we close ourselves off to young
people. We don’t want to go back and relive it or admit how much things hurt.
We all know we were young once and did crazy things. If we didn’t, it’s too
bad, because that was a good time to do crazy things.”
The group
laughed but Lee agreed, “Pictures can clearly demonstrate what words are hard
to say.”
Livingston
asked the group to think about Junior’s bonds with his two best friends in the
book — one an Indian like himself, the other white.
Speaking about his Indian friend, an
ill-mannered lug named Rowdy, Gilroy said, “They’re both outcasts and those
people seem to find each other.”
The object
of the “One Book, One Redmond, One Summer” campaign, now in its second year,
was to get all adults and teens in the city to read the same book, exchange
their opinions, and appreciate their differences and similarities.
In the Literature and on the 'Net
A recent item on the Capsule, Kaiser Health's news
website, warns
prospective medical school applicants that more admission committees’ are
checking Facebook and other social media sites for information about
applicants. The item refers to a recent
study published in Postgraduate Medical Journal by Carl Schulman, MD. Schulman states, “What people put online is really a part of
their history. … You have to be extremely careful on what you put out
there.” The study found that of the 600
admissions officers surveyed, 29% had used one or more forms of social media to
evaluate a prospective candidate.
Additionally, 53%
said they consider a candidate's online professionalism during the selection
process and 3% to 4% of surveyed admissions officers said they had rejected an
applicant because of social media postings.
Digital Doctor
A
special New York Times article, Redefining Medicine with Apps and
iPads provides an
overview of how technologies – iPad stethoscopes, EMR, drug interaction web
tools - are influencing the practice of medicine. One of the physicians interviewed for the
story repeats a caution echoed by more and more health professionals: “I tell them that their first reflex should
be to look at the patient, not the computer,” Dr. Heineken said. And he tells
the team to return to each patient’s bedside at day’s end. “I say, ‘Don’t go to
a computer; go back to the room, sit down and listen to them. And don’t look
like you’re in a hurry.’ ”
November 1, 2012 | By Dan Bowman
Published on FierceHealthIT
(http://www.fiercehealthit.com)
The disconnect between providers
who are too tethered to their computers and their patients takes centers stage
in a commentary published this week in The Atlantic by David Shaywitz, M.D.
co-founder of the Boston-based Center for Assessment Technology and Continuous
Health. Shaywitz argues that while many physicians are longing for technology
that enables both faster processes and a human connection, engineers and
developers are apt to let "the soft side of medicine" fall by the
wayside in the name of efficiency.
"Indeed, many technologists view
doctors themselves as an outdated profession--like carriage drivers, or
librarians," Shaywitz writes. "In Silicon Valley, there seems to be a
palpable [though certainly not universal] disdain for physicians, who seem to
be regarded as healthcare's fundamental problem rather than potentially part of
an emerging solution."
In support of his argument,
Shaywitz cites a recent Wall Street Journal article in which Abraham Verghese,
a professor at Stanford University's School of Medicine, says that electronic
medical records, while great tools for improving health, aren't necessarily
built with compassion in mind.
"The electronic medical
record is a wonderful thing … but the downside is that we're spending too much
time on the [EMR] and not enough at the bedside," Verghese tells the
Journal.
Some medical schools already are
tailoring their curriculums to account for how technology can depersonalize
medical encounters. Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., for instance,
uses actors to portray patients who provide feedback on how well or poorly a
medical student integrates technology into their workflow.
Atlantic: Humanism in Digital Health: Do We Have to
Sacrifice Personal Connections as We Improve Efficiency?
OCT 31 2012, 12:07 PM ET
The human connection is
threatened by medicine's increasingly reductive focus on data collection,
algorithms, and information transaction.
If you follow digital health,
Rachel King's recent Wall Street Journal piece on Stanford physician Abraham
Verghese should be required reading, as it succinctly captures the way
compassionate, informed physicians wrestle with emerging technologies --
especially the electronic medical record.
For starters, Verghese
understands its appeal: "The electronic medical record is a wonderful
thing, in general, a huge improvement on finding paper charts and finding the
old records and trying to put them all together."
At the same, he accurately
captures the problem: "The downside is that we're spending too much time
on the electronic medical record and not enough at the bedside."
This tension is not unique to
digital health, and reflects a more general struggle between technologists who
emphasize the efficient communication of discrete data, and others (humanists?
Luddites?) who worry that in the reduction of complexity to data, something
vital may be lost.
Technologists, it seems, tend to
view activities like reading and medicine as fundamentally data transactions.
So it makes sense to receive reading information electronically on your Kindle
-- what could be more efficient?
At the same time, it's hard not
to resonate with humorist Joe Queenen, when he movingly writes, "People
who need to possess the physical copy of a book, not merely an electronic
version, believe that the objects themselves are sacred."
He adds, "Certain things are
perfect the way they are. The sky, the Pacific Ocean, procreation and the
Goldberg Variations all fit this bill, and so do books. Books are sublimely
visceral, emotionally evocative objects that constitute a perfect delivery system."
I read this, and on many levels,
agree. While I appreciate the convenience and immediacy of a Kindle, it doesn't
compare with reading a real book to my kids before bed. At the same time,
however, I'm sure that when the automobile first arrived, many swore never to
forsake their trusted horse and buggy.
Is there something deep and
emotional about books that Vulcan-like engineers are missing, or are they
better able to embrace the future, while others resist change and cling
atavistically to the past?
The issues in medicine, of
course, seem strikingly similar: Technologists (and others) tend to see
medicine as fundamentally a data exercise, where you seek to collect
information and make a rational decision.
This perspective was evident in a
notable dialog between Google's Eric Schmidt and the New Yorker's Atul Gawande,
and was also an important feature of VC Vinod Khosla's vision of an
algorithim-dominated healthcare future (here, here), a viewpoint that generated
a significant response (here , here, and here).
The electronic medical record has
been a particular nidus of tension, as it seems to perfectly capture the
transformation of medicine from a day when it was -- choose your descriptor --
[more personal/less robust] to a future when it will be [less human/more
effective].
While, like Verghese, I intend to
conclude that both technology and humanism are vital, I want to argue for
something stronger than a Solomonic, "split the difference"
compromise.
My sense is that most physicians,
like Verghese, are all too aware that traditional record-keeping is terrible,
and that vital patient information can be difficult to track down, much less
share in a timely fashion with other providers. They would love a better
approach, and would welcome intuitive technology -- although most would
emphatically not place the majority of current electronic medical record
options in this category.
I'm far less sanguine about the
ability of engineers to recognize, appreciate, or value the
"soft-side" of medicine, and fear most regard the patient-doctor
relationship as an inefficient and antiquated tradition whose time has passed.
Indeed, many technologists view
doctors themselves as an outdated profession -- like carriage drivers, or
librarians (apparently the exemplar of choice among technologists). In Silicon
Valley, there seems to be a palpable (though certainly not universal) disdain
for physicians, who seem to be regarded as healthcare's fundamental problem
rather than potentially part of an emerging solution.
For his part, Verghese embraces
new technology, or at least, tries to. King writes, "Just as he's found
ways to bring technology to the bedside and integrate it with patient care, he
would like to find a way to integrate inputting data into electronic medical records
more seamlessly with the actual exam."
"We have to find ways to not
separate the two processes so much, and I'm not sure what the answer is,"
Verghese says, capturing digital health's greatest challenge and most
significant opportunity.
I deeply believe medicine's value
far transcends data collection and evidence-based decision making; there is a
vital human connection that is threatened because it's so difficult to reduce
to zeros and ones.
The danger is that if we don't
find a way to recognize, express, and capture the value of the human connection
in medicine, we are unlikely to preserve it, and it will become engineered out
of healthcare - at least until an entrepreneurial, humanistic developer
appreciates just how important and valued such connection can be.
One Stanford Doctor Wants to Focus on Real Patients, Not iPatients
Rachael King, Reporter
Electronic medical records don’t
always reflect what really happens during an examination. Physicians are so
busy checking off boxes and keying in vital signs that sometimes they spend
more time with the virtual patient than the real one.
“Many of us recognized that there
was a gap between what the medical record claimed was done on the patient, in a
sense, and the actual execution of the task,” Dr. Abraham Verghese, a professor
at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and best-selling novelist, said in
a Thursday Wall Street Journal article. “It reflects an increasing dependence
on technology and paying lip-service to the actual examination of the patient,”
he said.
Creators of electronic medical
records never envisioned that the technology might actually decrease the
quality of patient care. Instead, they saw a world where medical errors would
drop because charts could be easily accessed and read. They also hoped that
electronic records would result in fewer duplicated tests and lower costs. Yet,
the difficulty of using many of these systems means that, in some cases, it’s
encroaching upon the quality of patient care. It’s a lesson for CIOs — the very
technology they implement to solve a problem can actually make that problem
worse if they don’t think carefully about the people using it.
“The electronic medical record is
a wonderful thing, in general, a huge improvement on finding paper charts and
finding the old records and trying to put them all together, but the downside
is that we’re spending too much time on the electronic medical record and not
enough at the bedside,” Verghese told CIO Journal.
In examining rooms these days,
it’s common to find a doctor who sits at a computer for at least part of the
patient exam. In hospitals, the situation is worse, said Verghese, because
computers aren’t typically in patient rooms. So, doctors are spending quite a
bit of time in the computer room with the virtual patient that Verghese calls
the “iPatient”, while the actual patient is alone in the hospital room.
Verghese takes great pains to say
he’s not a luddite. “I love technology; I love the fact that we can image the
body in these wonderful ways.” In fact, he carries an iPad with him and uses
some sophisticated technology that he can bring to the bedside. He detailed
some of these devices in a recent blog post for The New York Times. There’s a
pocket ultrasound machine called a Vscan and a high-tech ophthalmoscope to look
at the retina, which can be hooked up to the iPhone to take pictures.
Just as he’s found ways to bring
technology to the bedside and integrate it with patient care, he would like to
find a way to integrate inputting data into electronic medical records more
seamlessly with the actual exam. “We have to find ways to not separate the two
processes so much, and I’m not sure what the answer is,” he said. Verghese
suggests that perhaps scribes could walk with physicians to enter medical
information.
“Having portable computers is a
bit of a help but I think even more, technology might come to a point where we
have scribes or automated ways in which the entire encounter is captured so you
don’t have to go back and recreate it digitally,” he said.
Superstorm
Sandy sadly destroyed the unique library research collection at NYU Langone
Medical Center in Manhattan according to a November 9, 2012 article in the New York
Times. Lower level research labs, animal
facilities, and the library were wiped out by flood waters. On Nov. 3, a memo sent to NYU Langone
researchers said the animal section, or vivarium, was “completely
unrecoverable.” The Chronicle of Higher
Education also published an article about the devastation to the library on
November 12, Storm Damage at NYU Library
Offers Lessons for Disaster Planning in the Stacks – this content is for
subscribers only.
Cleveland
Clinic's 7th Annual List of Top 10 Medical Innovations
Bariatric
surgery to control diabetes is the number 1 medical innovation for 2012
selected by 110 top clinicians at the Cleveland Clinic from among 150
nominations. To be selected, the
innovations had to have a high probability of commercial success. In a news release dated 10/31, Cleveland
Clinic released the following list of innovations:
1. Bariatric surgery for diabetes control;
2. Neuromodulation therapy, which
prevents cluster and migraine headaches when patients feel them coming;
3. Mass spectrometry for rapid
bacterial identification, which enables physicians to more quickly and
appropriately treat infections;
4. A handheld imaging device,
which can identify melanoma in less than a minute with 98% accuracy and without
cutting the skin;
5. Five new cancer drugs, which
block abnormal cell growth in patients with advanced prostate cancer;
6. Femtosecond laser cataract
surgery, which relies on a laser rather than a surgical blade to perform more
precise cataract surgery;
7. A lung washing system, which
cleans fluid, infected bacteria, and other damage from lungs, preparing them
for transplants that might otherwise be disposed;
8. A new aneurysm technology,
which enables physicians to treat complex aneurysms weeks earlier by relying on
a fabric graft that can be adapted to the leak, rather than waiting on a custom
endograft that can take weeks to make;
9. Breast tomosynthesis, 3D
mammography that improves accuracy of breast cancer diagnosis;
10. The Medicare Better Health
Rewards Program Act of 2012, bipartisan legislation that would incent patients
to proactively prevent various chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular
disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer.
A recent
post on MEDLIB-L alerts readers to an ALA article of possible interest:
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2012 11:48:23 -0500
From:
Mindy Robinson-Paquette <Mindy.Robinson-Paquette@SANOFI.COM>
Subject:
Personal Branding for Librarians: Hucksterism, or crucial career skill? LinkedIn
Groups
In her
new American Libraries magazine article, "Personal Branding for Librarians:
Distinguishing yourself from the professional herd," Karen G. Schneider
dissects the pros and cons of the latest job search and career advice for what
might have been known in the past as simply "image" or
"reputation management." Schneider notes, "Unsurprisingly, personal
branding has also caught on with librarians, notoriously preoccupied as we are
with our professional image, both as we appear to fellow librarians and as we
appear to others." In interviews
with librarians whose views on this trend run the gamut-is it a key to standing
out in a difficult job market, or just "a fool's errand"?- this
article helps to define the nebulous concept, and shares pointers for those who
embrace the idea. Well worth the read,
you can find this article online for free at http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/11062012/personal-branding-librarians, or in the November/December
issue of American Libraries magazine, hitting mailboxes now!
The BBC looked at the popularity of
medical dramas both in the UK and the USA in this recent post. According to Prof George Ikkos, president of
the Royal Society of Medicine's psychiatry section, the draw of these programs
has more to do with learning about ourselves from other people. "It's not like watching something about
nuclear physics or stamp collecting," states Ikkos, taking the high
road. There is a certain level of
“voyeurism” according to Ikkos. The BBC story
also describes a recent book, Circulation, by Thomas Wright. Circulation
is the biography of the 17th century physician William Harvey and is the winner
of the Wellcome Trust Book Prize. Author Wright hopes his book will appeal to
the viewers of medical dramas
And Now, From the Other Side of
the Pond
The American Medical Association
Newsletter
coincidentally has an article on TV doctors, “TV doctors’ portrayal evolves
from saintly to human.” Some highlights
of the AMA article: Today’s fictional
medical dramas feature more minority and female physicians; the focus is away
from the patient and on the doctor; doctors are not put on a pedestal - they are have more flaws than their counterparts of 50
years ago. If you want to dig deeper
into this subject, Joseph Turow, PhD has
written a book, Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling and Medical Power. Do you remember these characters: Dr. MacArthur St. Clair; Dr. Hawkeye Pierce;
Marcus Welby, MD; Ben Casey; Dr. Philip Chandler?
The editors
of NEJM decided to poll readers to identify "the most important article in
NEJM history" as part of its 200th anniversary celebration. NEJM readers agree that an 1846 report on the
discovery of ether anesthesia titled "Insensibility
during Surgical Operations Produced by Inhalation" deserves this
title. In the article, Bigelow details "a number
of experiments" that he conducted on his patients. [Henry Jacob Bigelow, M.D. Boston Med Surg J
1846; 35:309-317]
NOAH ‘Sinks’
NOAH,
New York Onine Access to Health, was a pioneer in delivering web-based consumer
health information. A recent MEDLIB-L
post announces the close of the website.
As
posted on MEDLIB-L
Date:
Fri, 2 Nov 2012 10:08:23 -0400
From:
Skye Bickett <skyebi@PCOM.EDU>
Subject:
NOAH
It is with
deep regret that the editorial staff of NOAH announce that the website will
close by the end of the year. As many of you know, NOAH has been completely run
by a volunteer staff for two years. This has proved to be both worthwhile and
difficult. We are finding that we are unable, due to work and personal issues,
to maintain NOAH at a level appropriate to the needs of the community we serve.
Rather than make available a less-than-excellent website, we will, instead, end
the project. Thank you for your support
for these many years, especially to the volunteers who gave their time, their
heart and their soul to the project. If you have questions, please contact
Patricia Gallagher (hwest112@gmail.com)--
Skye Bickett, MLIS, AHIP
Reference and Education Librarian
Georgia Campus - PCOM
625 Old Peachtree Road NW
November 05, 2012
Source: advisoryboard.com
IBM's Watson supercomputer—of
Jeopardy! Fame—is heading to the Cleveland Clinic, where it will work with
medical students to enhance its medical knowledge and learn to think like a
physician.
Neil Mehta—director of education
technology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and a leader of
the initiative—says that there is a three-year plan for the project and that
pilot testing likely will begin in early 2013.
During the pilot testing phase,
Watson will learn new techniques that IBM calls TeachWatson to improve its deep
question answering ability on health care subjects. Specifically, the process
aims to help the supercomputer:
·
Think
analytically;
·
Refine
its ability to create hypotheses;
·
Rank
its hypotheses; and
·
Suggest
strategies for addressing the case studies.
As part of the initiative, a test
group of Cleveland Clinic students will work with Watson on medical case
studies, while a control group that will work on case studies without the
supercomputer.
IBM has predicted that the
students studying with Watson will make better care decisions than the control
group. According to Mehta, Watson will be "a good sidekick" for
physicians, adding, "It will be there to help us make sure that we're not
missing possibilities, that we're doing a more complete search (of the
research) and presenting it in an easy-to-understand manner."
IBM hopes the collaboration will
lead to the development of a reference tool that could be sold to health care
providers (Suchetka, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 10/30; Magaw, Crain’s Cleveland
Business, 10/30).
Marketplace for Monday, August 6,
2012
Source: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/education/economy-squeezes-harvard
-spending
by Amy Scott
Transcript
Kai Ryssdal: We saw a story the
other day about Harvard University and how even with a $32 billion endowment,
it's looking to cut back on expenses. Which is fine. Even the wealthy do have
to be prudent.
What made us sit up and take
notice was one particular cost the university wants to trim -- academic
journals. Subscriptions, specifically, to things like "Nature" or
"The Journal of Comparative Neurology," which can apparently run as
much as $40,000 a year.
From the Education Desk at WYPR,
Marketplace's Amy Scott is on it.
Amy Scott: When my family tries
to save money we look at dropping subscriptions, too. But we're talking maybe
$29.95.
Robert Darnton: "The Journal
of Comparative Neurology" now costs $29,113 for a year's subscription,
"Biochimica" about $20,000. I could go on and on.
Robert Darnton is university
librarian at Harvard. He says bundled subscriptions of several journals costs
as much as $40,000. Earlier this year, a council Darnton leads warned faculty
those prices aren't sustainable.
Darnton: We the scholars do the
research, write the articles, referee the articles, serve on the editorial
boards -- all of this for free -- then we have to buy back the product of our
own labor at a ruinous price.
Publishers say universities often
pay far less than list price. Kent Anderson is CEO and publisher of the
"Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery." He says his most expensive
bundled subscription costs just over $1,000. But he says publishing for a small
audience is expensive.
Kent Anderson: Unlike consumer
publishing, where you can spread the costs over a couple of million readers or
a few hundred thousand readers, you're spreading the costs over a few hundred
readers. And that drives up the price. And when you factor in the number of
researchers and students who access a library subscription, Anderson says the
per-use price is much lower.
Rick Anderson is the acting dean
of the Marriott Library at the University of Utah.
Rick Anderson: What we're getting
in return is access to a lot of really great content at a very good price, but
just because it's a good value doesn't mean you can afford it. Anderson says on average science journals are
going up 8-10 percent a year. Library budgets are often flat or shrinking.
Harvard wants more faculty to publish in free online journals, but few of them
have the prestige of traditional publication -- and prestige can make or break
a young academic's career.
Survey
Reveals Librarians Second Only to Doctors in Public’s Trust
Source:
http://www.goscl.com/su=rvey-reveals-librarians-second-only-to-doctors-in-publics-trust/
Public Libraries Information
Offer survey reveals that internet users trust library staff more than most
other providers of online support and information. Internet users trust library staff more than
most other providers of online support and information, and public library
staff are second only to doctors in terms of the trust placed in them by
seekers of information, according to an evaluation commissioned by the UK
Society of Chief Librarians and supported and funded by Arts Council England. 80% of the users surveyed through the Public
Libraries Information Offer said that the support provided in libraries
improved their level of understanding of online information and 70% said that
it had improved their online knowledge and skills. Users said they would
overwhelmingly recommend their public library’s online information to other
people.
In the more than 3500 libraries
housing over 30,000 computers, public library staff are helping new and
unconfident users navigate the worldwide web, and libraries have helped more
than 2.5 million people to go online since the Government’s Race Online scheme
began in autumn of 2010.
As part of the Government’s shift
to “digital by default” online services, SCL launched the Public Libraries
Information Offer to assess and demonstrate the capability of libraries to help
people use online services, especially those vital government services which
are increasingly accessed online. The Public Libraries Information Offer
completed a six-month pilot phase in May 2012.
Janene Cox, President of SCL,
said: “The Government is shifting services online and we want to make sure that
people understand how much they can do online in libraries, from paying their
council tax to doing a health check. This information offer is helping us knock
down barriers to online information, especially for those who are uncomfortable
with using the web.”
Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts
Council England, said: “Public libraries are not just places to borrow books.
They are centres of knowledge and information that are rooted in their
communities, trusted by those who use them. This research proves how valuable
libraries are in helping citizens access information online in a digital age.”
The Public Libraries Information
Offer evaluation clearly demonstrated the level of trust that citizens put in
information accessed in libraries and mediated by library staff. The SCL
National Information Offer is now in its second phase and will work with
partners to publicise the role that libraries play in providing online
information; identify what additional technology is required to ensure
customers can navigate from national online resources to local information
providers; ensure the quality of content at all public libraries in the UK; and
ensure that the expertise and support given by staff to customers is uniformly
excellent.
Getting
to Know Medical Apps
Source: http://mhsla.wordpress.com/
So, Ebscohost has an app. So does
VisualDx. FirstConsult has an app, but MD Consult has a mobile web
version. I’m just trying to make sense of this, so I can sound like I know what I’m talking about as I roll this mobile stuff out to my customers. So far, not working!
But here’s a blog that might help: iMedicalApps. The site bills itself as “mobile medical app reviews and commentary by medical professionals.”
iMedicalApps features sometimes lengthy reviews, including pricing information where applicable. You can choose a device type (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) or filter by medical specialty, though the filter isn’t working on my older version of Internet Explorer.
Some of my favorite articles are those listing “top apps” for various constituencies such as “internal medicine residents” or “medical students on clinical rotation.”
iMedicalApps also presents relevant news stories, such as the “Mobile Medical News Roundup,” and reports on recent clinical studies, like “Hospital hand washing compliance improved using a mobile app.
Three simple marketing rules all libraries should live by… but which so few do!Source: http://thewikiman.org/blog/?p=1717
1. Market the service, not the content.
Telling people about content puts the onus on them think about how they can integrate that content into their lives; many people simply don’t have time to analyse what we’re offering in that way. We should be making it explicit how we can help them so they need no imagination to understand it – and that comes from marketing services. To paraphrase the awesome Sara Batts, Content is, Services do. Doing is more useful to people than being, so when you have a very limited time in which to appeal to people with limited attention span, market to them what you can do.
2. No one cares about the how!
Can’t stress this enough: libraries are seemingly process focused, but the the rest of the world is focused on results. When marketing a service we should concentrate on what people aspire to, not the tools which will get them there. A classic example is databases: we say things like “we subscribe to X databases which you can access via the library catalogue” or, even worse, we name them individually. We market the features; what people want to know about is the benefits. Like Mary Ellen Bates says, the way to market databases is to say ‘we provide you with information Google cannot find’.
3. Market what THEY value, but continue to do what WE value.
The SLA’s Alignment Project unearthed some fascinating truths about what we as libraries and librarians think are important, and what our patrons and potential patrons think are important. There are marked differences, I’d urge you to read about it for yourselves. (To sum up, users put the emphasis on value-driven attributes, we put it on functional attributes. This is, essentially, points 1 and 2 above, mixed together.) But the key thing is this – it doesn’t mean the stuff we value isn’t important, it just means that it isn’t as valued AS highly by other people. So we continue to DO all the important stuff we value, we just concentrate the marketing on promoting the stuff THEY value.
You don’t need to be a genius to do this stuff, or to have huge marketing budgets, or even loads of time. It’s just a case of reconfiguring our existing efforts to acknowledge some simple rules.
Any that you’d add? - thewikiman
Gmail Now Supports Cherokee, Its First Native American Tribal Language By Frederic Lardinois Google just announced that it has added Cherokee as Gmail’s 57th supported language. While Google has continuously expanded its language support for Gmail and its other services, this marks the first time that Google has added a Native American tribal language to its repertoire. Google, of course, isn’t doing this because of the large number of Cherokee-speaking Gmail users who are demanding support for their language. Indeed, the company points toward a 2002 survey of the Oklahoma Cherokee population that found that “no one under 40 spoke conversational Cherokee.” Because of this survey, however, the Cherokee Nation decided to explore the use of technology to encourage a new generation to use the
language. The Cherokee Nation worked together with the Gmail team to make today’s announcement a possibility. Google writes that by working together with Durbin Feeling – the author of the Cherokee-English Dictionary – the teams “were able to find and implement the right words for hundreds of Gmail terms, from “inbox” (ᎧᏁᏌᎢᏱ) and “sign in” (ᏕᏣᏙᎥ ᎰᏪᎸᎦ) to “spam” (ᎤᏲᎢ).” As part of this effort, Google also added Cherokee to its recently launched virtual keyboards for Gmail. This, says Google, will enable Cherokee students to “easily contact their tribal elders, e.g., “Joseph wants to chat” (“ᏦᏏᏫ ᎤᏚᎵ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ”) and connect instantly.”
http://techcrunch.com/2012/11/
Happy Holidays!
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