VOL. 29 NO. 4 November 2008

 

 

ISABEL - New Diagnostic Decision Support Tool - Educational TRIAL

The Library is very pleased to announce a new educational trial to "Isabel'" (Isabel Healthcare, Inc.), a clinical diagnosis support system at http://www.isabelhealthcare.com. Recent studies demonstrate that Isabel is:

  • Validated -The correct diagnosis was suggested 90 - 96% of the time.
  • Rapid - Manual entry of key findings takes less than 1 minute and results are displayed within 2-3 seconds.
  • Easily accessible - Isabel is web accessible, including remote access and via the wireless network.

Isabel has greater validity than Google and is more rapid and accessible than previous diagnostic decision support tools.

All patrons with access to the University of Miami/Jackson Health System networks are encouraged to participate in the educational trial and provide feedback to Mary Moore, PhD, the Library's Executive Director, at mmoore@med.miami.edu. If feedback is positive and usage is significant, the Library hopes to implement a full subscription which can be used throughout the University of Miami/Jackson Health System for patient care decisions.

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Calder Selected to Host NLM Associate Fellow

In September, the Library welcomed Ms. Brenda M. Linares, a National Library of Medicine Fellow, for her second year fellowship. Originally from Guatemala, Brenda graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Library and Information Science in 2007 and completed her first year fellowship at the National Library of Medicine in July. She was an American Library Association Spectrum Scholar in 2005-06.

At the National Library of Medicine, Brenda worked on a project to deliver medical information to Latin American countries in the event of a disaster. She has reference and information literacy experience as an intern at the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library and collection development and outreach experience at California State University in Northridge. While at the University of Miami, Brenda will focus on new services to support clinical decision making, the International Medical Institute, the Librarians and DOCS for Health project and the Library's role in teaching undergraduate and graduate medical education classes.

The NLM Associate Fellowship is a highly competitive program for promising leaders in medical librarianship and informatics. The Calder Library was one of only five libraries nationwide selected to host a second year NLM Associate Fellow for the 2008-09 year. The optional second year provides fellows opportunities to develop skills and gain experience in working with administrators, librarians, health professionals, system developers and educators to design and implement information services that are integrated with clinical and/or educational programs and contribute directly to accomplishing the host institution's mission.

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New Electronic Book Collections

Forty-two electronic books in the Lange Educational Library are now accessible on the McGraw-Hill Access Medicine platform, which also supports Harrison's Online and Goodman and Gilman's Pharmacology (http://www.accessmedicine.com/home.aspx). The 42 books include curriculum texts, such as Vander's Renal Physiology, Mohrman's Cardiovascular Physiology, Levitsky's Pulmonary Physiology, Katzung's Basic and Clinical Pharmacology and Aminoff's Clinical Neurology. Current editions of books in other basic sciences and many clinical sciences are also available.

Forty-two popular atlases and textbooks in the Thieme ElectronicBook Library are now accessible University-wide (http://www.thieme.com/dyn/ebooklibrary/index.php). Included are 14 books in the Color Atlas series, 11 books in the Pocket Atlas series and other titles in dermatology, microbiology, neurology, ophthalmology and radiology.

All electronic books are accessible by subject and title on the E-Books link on the Library's website. Access by author/editor, keyword and other bibliographic elements is available in the Library catalog.

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New Consumer Health Portal and Health Library Database

A new Consumer Health portal was created by Joaquin Arriaga, Director for Reference, Education and Outreach and Calder's consumer health librarian, for the Library's website at http://spmed.library.miami.edu/subjects/guide.php?subject=consumerhealth.

The portal includes important and trusted sites of health information, such as MedlinePlus and UpToDate for Patients, and authoritative sources of information on drugs, diseases, physicians, hospitals, hazardous substances and library services.

The portal also features a new database called Health Library, which includes comprehensive, evidence-based consumer health and wellness information in easy to understand language to help patients make appropriate choices about their health care. Illustrations, animations, video, images and Spanish language content further support consumer understanding. Health Library has an A-Z list of conditions, drug databases and news sources in English and Spanish, as well as wellness centers and a medical dictionary.

The Consumer Health portal honors pioneer Ellen Gartenfeld, for whom Calder's Consumer Health Informa-tion Network was named when it was launched in 1985. Ellen's mother and aunt were members of the Medical School Auxiliary, which provided initial funding for the Network.

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JAMA & AMA Archives Going Live

The AMA has announced that the Archives of Internal Medicine, 1908-1960, is now online and the remaining AMA journals, including JAMA, will become available during the coming months. The backfiles of these journals are fully integrated into the existing journal sites, which are readily accessible on the Calder Library's E-Journals: A-Z list link. Go to the 'Past Issues' link on any journal web site and click on any year prior to 1998.

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More On-Site Facility News

More Group Study Rooms - In addition to the two newly refurbished meeting/study rooms on the lower level of the Library, a group study room for students at the rear of the first floor and two individual study rooms/retreats on the second floor are now available. All five rooms may be reserved, on a first come, first served basis, by University of Miami patrons, for no more than one two-hour period at the Library's Service Desk. Groups of three or more may reserve the rooms on the first floors and lower level.

To ensure fairness to all Library users, the two meeting/study rooms on the lower level may be scheduled for meetings no more frequently than one two-hour period per month, or three times each semester. When rooms are not scheduled for meetings, they may be used as group study rooms.

Wireless Upgrade - In response to patron requests, Medical Information Technology upgraded both the speed and dependability of wireless service throughout the Library building.

Pre-1960 Journal Collection Moving to Off-Site Storage - Beginning in September, print journals published in 1960 and before are being relocated to the off-site storage unit in Miami Lakes. To request an item from the storage unit, please submit a request to Calder's Interlibrary Loan Department and allow 72 hours.

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2008/09 Medical Library Committee

The Medical Library Committee of the Medical School Faculty Council held its first meeting of the 2008/09 academic year on September 25, 2008 in the newly reappointed meeting room on the lower level of the Library. Awtar Krishan, PhD, is Chair, and Kenneth Muller, PhD, is Co-chair. Members include Drs. Joseph Both, Jayanthi Chandar, Stuti Dang, Eric Harris, Jennifer Ju, Chaitanya Jain, Joseph Lucci, George Munson, Igal Nevo, Zoraya Parrilla, Carl Schulman, Elaine Tozman, Ashok Verma, Teresa Zimmers, Carl Eisdorfer and Mary Moore.

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Faculty and Fellow News

Joaquin E. Arriaga and Yanira Garcia-Barcena published "Collaborating with the International Medical Institute to provide health information in Spanish," Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet 2008 12(2):119-129.

Brenda Linares attended the ALA Spectrum Scholar Harvard-MIT invitational program, October 20-22, 2008 in Cambridge, MA.

Mary Moore and Deborah Kaercher published "Healthy Texas: the eight-year odyssey of a community health web portal," Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet 2008 12(2):95-104. Drs. Robert G. Badgett and Moore's oral abstract, Learning Evidence-based Medicine by Writing Evidence-based Edits on WikiPedia, will be presented at the Association of American Medical College's RIME meeting, November 5, 2008, San Antonio, TX.

Vedana Vaidhyanathan is one author of a poster, Bioinformatics Research, Service, and Training (BIRST) Program: New horizons - outreach to bioinformatics researchers within a university environment, presented at the meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association, October 21, 2008, Morgantown, WV .

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