11/30/2012

September/December 2012, No. 121



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!

We’re getting a bit of a late start to our meeting schedule this year, but looking ahead, the next couple of months will be busy for CAHSLA. After the November Membership Meeting, the December Holiday Party is right around the corner. Watch your e-mail for the official announcement, which should be coming soon. Almost everyone at the November meeting had heard of, or was already trialing, the new Elsevier product Clinical Key. In response to this, we’re planning a January CAHSLA TechConvo to look at and discuss Clinical Key. As always, if you have meeting ideas or topics for training, please don’t hesitate to let someone on the Executive Committee know.

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
(513) 522-7886
Parking is available on the street or in the driveway.
Please bring something savory or sweet to share as well as a children’s book suitable for a boy whose first language is not EnglishBooks 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.
 
Holiday MeetingOptions 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 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'
Text Box:  
KATHERINE GANTER/REDMOND REPORTER
Peggy Wenneborg, left, and Dorothy Gilroy share a laugh during a group discussion about the book “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie at the Redmond Senior Center.


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


Medical School Admission Officers Checking Facebook According to New Study

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.’ ”



Medicine's 'soft side' often forgotten in race to build latest technology

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.
 
Guidelines created by officials at Stanford University are written to ensure that physicians stay focused on their patients, and include basic instructions like "face your patient" and "excuse yourself to check the screen."

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.
Google search | Medical Humor | Scoop.it

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.

Medical Library Ravaged by Superstorm Sandy
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.

Personal Branding for Librarians
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!

Why Are Medical Dramas So Popular?
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 'most important' NEJM article ever published
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
Suwanee, GA 3002

Watson supercomputer goes to medical school - What can physicians teach Watson and vice versa?
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).


Library Belt Tightening Continues
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/2012/11/19/gmail-now-supports-cherokee-its-first-native-american-tribal-language/

 



 
Happy Holidays!                                                  

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