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The Ovid local holdings feature can be very beneficial to library patrons. This article describes the use of the feature for one academic health sciences library. Topics covered include how the function works, how it was implemented, how it is updated, the impact of electronic journals, and benefits and drawbacks of use. Also included are suggested enhancements to the system.
This paper shows how the Galter Health Sciences Library of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine developed and implemented a program to assess reference staff competencies for assisting users in the electronic environment after completing a new training program. The first phase was a year-long assessment of reference questions to identify the types of questions received at the desk. Next, a training program for reference was developed and implemented with an emphasis on answering the most common questions identified such as remote access, access privileges, holdings information, and database searching. The program included individualized instruction on library policies, electronic resources, access restrictions, and troubleshooting. The next phase was to create instruments to test staff competencies in answering questions after training. Based on the scores, additional training was individualized and provided to the appropriate staff member to enhance their skills where needed. The training system that was developed has proven to be effective as most staff scored better than 92% on initial testing. As a result, library management can be certain that users' questions are being answered correctly and that the staff has the skills required to work in an electronic environment.
Integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine (ITCWM) plays an important role in developing traditional Chinese medicine. Implementing ITCWM is necessary in accordance with the developing rule of medical sciences and the optimum profits pursued in medical areas. In the face of challenge and problems, collaborating with international academic researchers interested in ITCWM, striving to resolve some problems and puzzles in basic and clinical research of ITCWM, introducing new methods and techniques from any other subjects into the research of ITCWM, and encouraging communication and cooperation among investigators from different scientific areas are suggested to be carried out. It is actually a great opportunity to develop ITCWM at present.
Transformational change interventions often fail or short fall of their intended impact on organizations and systems. One main reason is that these interventions frequently do not strategically address the complex human dynamics of change. This happens despite awareness of and commitment to intervening at this level by top management and change leaders. The wisdom that "systems don't change; people change" is widely acknowledged but inadequately applied. These are exactly the conditions the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faces in deploying its new Veterans Integrated Services Networks (VISNs). Applying validated behavioral science strategies that address the human side of change will help VA implement VISNs effectively. Six strategies derived from many years of study and practice in the public and private sectors are discussed, along with suggestions for VISN managers about how to implement them.
Health Informatics (HI) is a dynamic discipline based on the medical sciences, information sciences, and cognitive sciences. Its domain can broadly be defined as medical information management. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of this domain, discuss the current "state of the art," and indicate the likely growth areas for health informatics. The sources of information used in this paper are selected publications from the literature of Health Informatics, HI 5300: Introduction to Health Informatics, which is a course from the Department of Health Informatics at the University of Texas Houston Health Sciences Center, and the author's personal experience in practicing telemedicine and implementing an electronic medical record at the NASA-Johnson Space Center. The conclusion is that the direction of Health Informatics is in the direction of data management, transfer, and representation via electronic medical records and the Internet.
The Health Sciences and Human Services Library of the University of Maryland developed and implemented a methodology to evaluate print and digital resources for social work. Although this methodology was devised for the interdisciplinary field of social work, the authors believe it may lend itself to resource selection in other interdisciplinary fields. The methodology was developed in response to the results of two separate surveys conducted in late 1999, which indicated improvement was needed in the library's graduate-level social work collections. Library liaisons evaluated the print collection by identifying forty-five locally relevant Library of Congress subject headings and then using these subjects or synonymous terms to compare the library's titles to collections of peer institutions, publisher catalogs, and Amazon.com. The collection also was compared to social work association bibliographies, ISI Journal Citation Reports, and major social work citation databases. An approval plan for social work books was set up to assist in identifying newly published titles. The library acquired new print and digital social work resources as a result of the evaluation, thus improving both print and digital collections for its social work constituents. Visibility of digital resources was increased by cataloging individual titles in aggregated electronic journal packages and listing each title on the library Web page.
The New Integrated Curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Which comprises three major longitudinal strands, was first implemented in 1998 to provide better integration of clinical and basic medical sciences. One of these longitudinal strands, the Doctor, Patients, Health and Society (DPHS) module, emphasizes the importance of developing good communication skills as well as introducing students to behavioural sciences, public health medicine, statistics and epidemiology. Community Family Case Studies (CFCS), within this module, have been used as a means for students to focus on these aspects, as the students are introduced to patients, their families and their community in Year 1 of the medical course and are required to follow them up throughout their five-year training period.
City municipalities implementing health and wellness programs patterned after North Little Rock, Arkansas, can significantly reduce the cost of health care for employees, as well as reduce costs associated with workers' compensation claims and lost time caused by injury. In addition to primary care services, effective programs include health risk assessments through pre-placement physicals, employee physicals, drug screening, employee health and wellness promotion programs, and immunization and registry. In implementing the program, a team from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Nursing worked with city officials to establish a steering committee, safety initiatives through first responders, systems for monitoring immunizations, criteria for pre-placement physicals, and an employee health and wellness program. While the benefits for the city are well documented, the contract also created opportunities for education, research, and services in a real life community based learning laboratory for students in the College of Nursing. In addition, it provided opportunities for faculty to participate in faculty practice and meet the College's service missions. The College's model program holds promise for use by other major health care centers across the region and nation.
Hypertext and hypermedia are important new methods of learning and instruction for the health sciences. Articles cited in this bibliography deal with the creation, development, and implementation of hypertext/hypermedia programs in both academic and clinical environments.
IOM asserts fee-for-service program actually discourages quality improvement. Report claims jury is still out on approach; current research contains conflicting results. Ten design principles recommended for pay for performance and its implementation.
When a lizard loses its tail, a new caudal appendage soon grows to replace the one that is missing. But when a human loses a kidney, severs a peripheral nerve or worse, the spinal cord, that organ is lost forever. Such at least is conventional thinking. But imagine that the victim of an industrial accident with a paralyzed hand could achieve new levels of function by inducing axonal regrowth through a synthetic nerve guidance channel; or that a Parkinsonian patient's symptoms could be relieved by implanting in his brain neural tissue encased in a selectively permeable polymer envelope; or that the inexorable progression of the vascular complications of juvenile diabetes could be stopped, even reversed, by a membrane-protected xenograft of insulin-producing tissue. This is the dream of bionic organ science. It is predicated on two lines of technological achievement: the availability of ultra-thin, biocompatible, selectively permeable polymer membranes which can protect a transplant against immune rejection while allowing solute exchange between the graft and its environment; and the synthesis of novel materials, some biostable, some bioresorbable, which can serve as scaffolding or anchor for tissue regrowth in the geometrically and chemically controlled environment of an implant. The fabrication, growth and survival of composites of living tissues with synthetic polymers, often enhanced by the incorporation of specific cell growth factors or inhibitors, has been demonstrated at the tissue culture level, and extended in vivo to experimental models of human endocrine deficiency or neurological defects. The key to progress with bioartificial organs is the confluence of knowledge ranging from materials science to cell and molecular biology to experimental surgery. Obstacles to clinical implementation of this new therapeutic concept include: large scale procurement of specific tissue structures or isolated postmitotic cells from animal sources; demonstration of safety and efficacy of spontaneously occurring, bioactive tumor cell lines; verification of long-term stability and bio-acceptance of polymer implants; and industrialization of the fabrication process to meet quality control, shelf-life and commercial distribution requirements.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
A problem-based predoctoral implantology course was implemented for ten senior dental students at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Students met in small tutorial groups three times a week to analyze patient cases developed for the course. As students explored the patient's problems, they identified areas where their knowledge was deficient, as well as special interests, and prioritized these areas, known as learning issues, into a learning agenda for subsequent study. During unprogrammed free time between tutorials, students researched the learning issues, and came to the next tutorial prepared to discuss what they had learned and in so doing, helped their peers learn the material. The faculty tutor used non-directive questioning to facilitate group problem-solving and promote interaction but did not lecture or give answers. The cases were developed in the "progressive disclosure paperback" format, reflecting the evolving nature of the patient's implant therapy. In conjunction with the PBL tutorials, students performed implant surgery and prosthodontics on a minimum of three patients and provided maintenance therapy on three to four other implant patients. Course evaluation consisted of three elements: (1) weekly peer evaluation by the students using a six item checklist, (2) tutor evaluation, using the same checklist, and (3) an oral examination. The tutor met individually with each student midway through the course and at the conclusion to summarize the peer evaluations and discuss the student's performance, including contributions to group process. Student reaction to this PBL experience was enthusiastically supportive, and student performance exceeded faculty expectations.
The International Space Life Sciences Working Group (ISLSWG) is made up of representatives from five space agencies: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES), the Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR, formerly the Deutsche Agentur fur Raumfahrtangelegenheiten or DARA), and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA). The group met for the first time in 1989, and since that time has developed a Strategic Plan and has taken concrete steps to implement this plan. The result is a closely coordinated international program of Space Life Sciences which will enable optimal utilization of space flight opportunities.
Since the 1980s, environmental engineering education has been a rapidly growing discipline in many universities. This paper discusses the history, the current status and the near future of environmental engineering education at Ghent University. This university, with about 50% of the Flemish university environmental engineering students, can be considered as representative for the situation in Flanders, Belgium. In contrast to many other universities, environmental engineering education at Ghent University does not have its historical roots in civil engineering, but has been developed from the curricula organized by the former Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. As part of a reorganisation of the education and research activities at this faculty, a curriculum leading to the degree of "bio-engineer in environmental technology" was established in 1991. This curriculum covers a 5-year study and is constructed around 8 main components. Exchange of students with other European universities, e.g. within the Socrates framework, has become a prominent aspect of student life and education. This paper also briefly describes the employment opportunities of graduated bio-engineers in environmental technology. Finally, the current implementation of the bachelor's-master's structure, leading to a "master of science in environmental technology" degree is summarized.
Micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS)-based drug delivery devices have become commercially-feasible due to converging technologies and regulatory accommodation. The FDA Office of Combination Products coordinates review of innovative medical therapies that join elements from multiple established categories: drugs, devices, and biologics. Combination products constructed using MEMS or NEMS technology offer revolutionary opportunities to address unmet medical needs related to dosing. These products have the potential to completely control drug release, meeting requirements for on-demand pulsatile or adjustable continuous administration for extended periods. MEMS or NEMS technologies, materials science, data management, and biological science have all significantly developed in recent years, providing a multidisciplinary foundation for developing integrated therapeutic systems. If small-scale biosensor and drug reservoir units are combined and implanted, a wireless integrated system can regulate drug release, receive sensor feedback, and transmit updates. For example, an "artificial pancreas" implementation of an integrated therapeutic system would improve diabetes management. The tools of microfabrication technology, information science, and systems biology are being combined to design increasingly sophisticated drug delivery systems that promise to significantly improve medical care.
In March of 1997, the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences issued the report, "For the Record: Protecting Electronic Health Information." Concluding that the current practices at the majority of health care facilities in the United States are insufficient, the Council delineated both technical and organizational approaches to protecting electronic health information. The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center recently implemented a proof-of-concept, Web-based, cross-institutional medical record, CareWeb, which incorporates the NRC security and confidentiality recommendations. We report on our WWW implementation of the NRC recommendations and an initial evaluation of the balance between ease of use and confidentiality.
Modern experiments in the behavioral sciences frequently employ several items of electronic equipment such as computers, monitoring devices, stimulus presentation equipment, and response collection systems. In many cases it would be advantageous for these items to communicate directly with each other. Such communication may facilitate greater automation of experiments (i.e., reduced experimenter influences during the experiment), more precise experiment control (i.e., superior timing and synchronization capabilities of electronic devices), and greater accuracy of data collection (i.e., reduced ambiguity of participant responses). Many electronic experiment devices already provide external interfaces through which communication with other devices can be implemented. The most common is based on the RS-232 protocol, which is also found in all standard PCs. Therefore, Microsoft Windows based computers can be programmed to control experiments by communicating directly with electronic experiment devices. We show how to implement this RS-232 interconnection between devices and a Windows PC using currently available software tools.
The field of family-centered preventive intervention science is well poised to seize an opportunity for larger-scale intervention implementation and greater public health impact. This opportunity has been created by earlier research in the areas of epidemiology, developmental etiology, and intervention outcome research. Both earlier and current research define a number of key tasks required to meet the many challenges involved in scaling-up for greater impact. Illustrations of how these tasks can be addressed are provided in articles on programs of family-centered research with infants, children, and adolescents. Each article in this special issue treats one or more tasks that concern (a) expansion of the set of rigorously evaluated, theory-driven interventions that have potential to reach large numbers of children, youth, and families; (b) effective strategies for family recruitment and retention; (c) cultural sensitivity of interventions; (d) application of a developmental life course perspective; (e) strategies for linking higher-risk population subgroups with potentially beneficial services; (f) improved diffusion mechanisms for sustained, quality delivery; and (g) policy making informed by research, including economic analysis. A summary of how articles address these tasks concludes with a discussion of the importance of futher strengthening a public service orientation in prevention science.