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Newsletter of the Public Health/Health Administration
Section
of the Medical Library Association
Summer 2004
Editor: Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu
Column Editors: Marie Ascher (Grey Literature), Helena VonVille (GIS)
Newsletter Committee: Brad Long and Linda Spitzer
PH/HA News Web site: http://phha.mlanet.org/newsletter.html
Read or print this issue in pdf
(includes working links).
PH/HA Reports
Columns
MLA Announcements
MLA Dental Section Booklist - 2002/2003
MLA Conference Report: Power Surge Session, "The Future of Iraqi Libraries"
MLA Conference Report: "Eco-Power: Taking Back the Environment"
MLA Conference Report: "Mining Data for Knowledge Generation: Collecting, Using and Promoting Data Sets"
MLA Conference Report: "Emerging Infectious and Zoonotic Diseases: The Power of Disease on Society"
MLA 2005 Symposium Announcement: "The Role of Information Services in Emergency Preparedness Planning"
News From/About the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
New Listserv on Environmental Health Now Available
The Household Products Database
CHEMIDplus / CHEMIDplus "Lite"
PubMed's LinkOut Display for Links to Chemicals Found in TOXNET's HSDB
Review of PDA Applications in Toxicology and Environmental Health
Tox Town
The International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER) Database
Inaugural Meeting of the Environmental Health Information Outreach Panel
The Hazardous Substances Databank (HSDB): 42 New Chemicals and 44 Updated Chemical Records
Summary of "Delivering Environmental Health Information"
NLM-Tox-Enviro-Health-L Announcements List
Health Services Technology/Assessment Texts (HSTAT)
Update on the Health Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj) Database
Resources and Announcements
Call for Librarians' Contributions to the PHIRC Web Site
Healthy Roads Media
Pathfinders on Maternal and Child Health
Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health Project
Connecting Communities for Better Health Learning Network
Public Health Information and Data: A Training Manual
Distribution of Public Health Reports to Continue at Federal Depository Libraries
Open Access to Public Health Reports
Article on Policies for Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
Principles of the Ethical Practice of Public Health
Emerging Infectious Diseases GAO Report
Cover the Uninsured Guide
Strategic Plan for Prevention and Control for Overweight and Obesity
Health Policy Online Resource
Workbook on Assessment and Transitioning for Service Delivery
Partners in Prevention Fact Sheet
Help for Smokers Fact Sheet
Report on Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response
Preventive Services Selector PDA Application
Women's Health Web Page Redesigned
Quality of Health Care for Children and Adolescents Chartbook
Contributed Article
Conferences / Calls for Papers and Posters
2nd Biennial Distance Education Conference: Best Practices in Distance Education for Health Professionals
4th National Conference on Quality Health Care for Diverse Populations: Integrating Community Needs into the National Health Agenda
Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) 55th Annual Meeting
American Public Health Association 132nd Annual Meeting and Exposition
From the
Editor
Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu, Editor/Chair of Newsletter
Committee, bnailchi@umd.edu
I will keep my comments brief to give you plenty of time to carefully comb through the wealth of information in this issue of the newsletter. I send out a warm thank you to all of the folks who submitted items and to all who continue to make this newsletter so successful through your various roles in its production.
It was a pleasure to see those of you who attended the PH/HA meeting at the MLA conference in Washington, D.C. If you did not have a chance to attend the conference this year, be sure to read the conference reports on some of the PH/HA sponsored programs.
Happy summer to all!
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From the
Chair
Kristine Alpi, kalpi@att.net
I am honored to now be serving as the Chair of PH/HA. Thanks to Marie Ascher for her hard work as Chair and for organizing the agenda for the large and productive PH/HA Business Meeting at the Annual Meeting. It was terrific to see so many people at the business meeting and the PH/HA-sponsored sessions. Thanks to our officers, particularly Kathy Kerdolff, Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu, and Lisa Wallis, and a host of volunteers who reported on the programming sessions, there should be plenty of information about the meeting in the newsletter and on the Web.
Nancy Schaefer, PH/HA Chair-Elect, is busy planning the program for San Antonio as well as organizing for the Sewell stipends for attendance at the American Public Health Association annual meeting this Fall in Washington, D.C. Please watch for her emails and let her know what interests you.
I have some exciting programming news to share. The proposal for a symposium on "The Role of Information Services in Emergency Preparedness Planning" was selected by the Continuing Education Committee for presentation at the 2005 MLA meeting in San Antonio. Sponsors are PH/HA, the National Library of Medicine, the Federal Libraries Section, and the Nursing & Allied Health Resources Section. I will soon be appointing an ad-hoc committee to work on the symposium planning. If you are interested in being part of the action, please let me know.
Thank you to outgoing Secretary/Treasurer, Kathy Kerdolff, and welcome to new Secretary/Treasurer, Patricia Auflick. I appreciate that so many committee chairs and members are staying with us for another year. There are plenty of opportunities to become involved with the section.
Have a wonderful summer!
Kris
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Health Literacy Electronic
Journal Club
Submitted by Kay Deeney, CE Chair, kdeeney@library.ucla.edu
The Continuing Education (CE) Chair of PH/HA worked with the CaPHIS section to offer a Health Literacy Electronic Journal Club. Initially we had two to three conveners ready to go, depending on the number of attendees we anticipated. An e-mail invitation was sent to the CaPHIS and PH/HA listservs. The message was also forwarded on to the Canadian Medical Library group and various individuals. Response was great--almost overwhelming! Over 70 individuals indicated interest in the electronic journal club. I scrambled to find more and more conveners as the numbers grew. We organized eight groups with the conveners from PH/HA, CAPHIS, MLA's Health Literacy Task Force, and other MLA members. Conveners are Erica Burnham, Dale Prince, Nancy Schaefer, Marilyn E. Hall, Sandra I. Martin, Michelle Malizia, Kay Deeney, and Tammy Mays. We each set up listservs through Yahoo Groups. In addition, because we had so many, we set up a listserv for the conveners to discuss mutual problems such as stimulating conversation.
We anticipate that some attendees will not finish the six-month commitment, but it is great that so many are interested in this vital issue.
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Client Relations Committee
Report
Submitted by Nancy Schaeffer, NancyS@library.health.ufl.edu
Hoping to attend the American Public Health Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C. this November but worried about funding? Apply for the Sewell Fund Stipend. The application form is available at http://depts.washington.edu/hswork/mla/stipend/mla-crc-call-2004.doc. Completed applications will be accepted through Monday, July 26, 2004. Visit http://www.sewellfund.org/ for information on the Sewell Fund, its stipends, and the soon-to-be-launched sabbatical program.
Thanks to the very hard work of Karyn Pomerantz, with the assistance of Laura Larsson, Matt Wilcox and Nancy Schaefer, the Sewell Fund will offer stipends to defray attendance costs of Community Health Workers whose papers/posters were accepted by the APHA Community Health Worker SPIG for presentation at the 2004 annual meeting.
Welcome to new CRC members, Molly Youngkin (NN/LM Midcontinental Region), Bobbie Carlson (Medical University of South Carolina) and Barbara Nail-Chiwetalu (University of Maryland)!
MLA 2005 - Section Program Planning. Armed with an even dozen suggestions from PH/HA listserv members, PH/HA Section Chair-Elect, Nancy Schaefer, and Chair, Kris Alpi, attended the two planning meetings for next year's MLA. Nancy will be working with Chairs-Elect from other sections to refine programming suggestions, which should be announced in mid-August. Programming will revolve around five themes: education, technology, research, clinical settings and diversity. Structured abstracts containing objectives and methods will be due November 1. Please contact Nancy at NancyS@library.health.ufl.edu or 352.392.1306 if interested in reviewing abstracts or moderating sessions.
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PH/HA Membership
Committee: Mid-Year Summary
Submitted by Pauline Fulda, PFulda@lsuhsc.edu
As of June 11, 2004, the Public Health/Health Administration Section has 153 members! I extend a sincere thanks to all who renewed for the current year and a hearty welcome to our new members. The contributions and involvement of our members in various section activities make this an outstanding section!
Twenty-one new members have joined the section since my last report, compiled at the end of January 2004. We look forward to their participation.
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CDC Column: Report of the
Surgeon General, 2004
Submitted by William T. Marx, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, bym3@cdc.gov
Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona released The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2004, at a National Press Club event on Thursday, May 27, in Washington, D.C. The 960-page volume was the 28th report on smoking and health issued from the Office of the Surgeon General, and it came during the 40th anniversary year of the landmark 1964 report, Smoking and Health, the first Surgeon General's report to establish a causal link between smoking and cancer.
An update, evaluation, and synthesis of evidence on the health consequences of active smoking, the report examines cancer, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, reproductive effects, and other effects. The four major conclusions of the report are:
The report was prepared by CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, working with 19 contributing authors selected for their expertise and familiarity with topics covered in the report. The senior scientific editor was Dr. Jonathan Samet, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at John Hopkins University.
Additional information about the report, instructions for ordering materials, and downloadable documents are available on CDC's Web site [http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr_2004/]. In addition to the scientific report, CDC developed the following resources to communicate the findings of the report widely to public and professional audiences:
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Using GIS to Find Vital
Statistics: One State's Example
Submitted by Helena Von Ville, Helena.M.VonVille@uth.tmc.edu
Accessing community-level data is often extremely difficulty if not impossible to obtain. While the Census Bureau does provide data reports down to the Census tract, vital statistics are not accessible from there. Vital statistics in Texas, until recently, have been accessible at only the county level. However, two sites, both developed by the Center for Health Policy Studies (CHAMPS) at The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston (UTSPH), have greatly increased public access to vital statistics data using GIS via the Web.
The first site is the Community Health Information System (CHIS) Community Information System [ http://www.slehc.org/SLEHC/CHIS/CommunityInformation.cfm], developed for the St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities (SLEHC). It covers those 57 counties in southeast Texas that are part of SLEHC. The site contains four major components:
Drilling down to the Galveston area for birth data yields the following map:
A legend, found on the left side of the screen, indicates that some of the Census tracts had between 51 and 100 births in them, whereas the others had 50 or fewer. By selecting a Census tract or Census tracts, you can then generate reports on the fly. This enables researchers to collect data specific to neighborhoods, which can be priceless when developing grant proposals that are community oriented. The images enable the user to gain a snapshot of communities very easily, whether it be births, deaths, or race/ethnicity make up of an area.
The Community Information System is indeed a wonderful tool, but its boundaries do not extend beyond the area served by SLEHC. However, another site, called the Community Health Assessment Resource for Texas (CHART) [http://www.sph.uth.tmc.edu/Admaps/champs/lrgv.html] does.
CHART, as mentioned above, was also developed at the UT School of Public Health. Vital statistics data has been geocoded for all counties in Texas from 1995 through 2001 as well as for 1980, 1985, and 1990. Census tract reports are available for 2001 and include: births by birthweight, by mother's age, by mother's education, and prenatal care received. All of the reports include breakouts by race/ethnicity. Mortality data reports include child deaths by ethnicity, infant deaths by ethnicity, and all deaths by age, and by cause (7 major causes of death and other) with race/ethnicity breakouts for both. Census data has also been geocoded so researchers have one place they need to go to get the data they need.

Other reports are available at the county level for select years, including most common cause of death (1990, 1995, and 1998), 1990 to 2000 rates of new TB cases reported, Cervical Cancer Deaths and Rates (1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, and 1998).
Two GIS based Web sites have been briefly discussed in this column. While there are some data overlaps, each is unique enough to be of great use to researchers depending upon their needs. Take a look at these sites and I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.
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MLA Dental Section Booklist
- 2002/2003
http://www.usc.edu/hsc/dental/library/MLAbooklist/#Public
This Web site contains the revised, final core list of book and journal titles recommended for acquisition by the Dental Section of the Medical Library Association (MLA) for support of clinical dentistry. There is a specific section on dental public health.
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MLA Conference Report: Power
Surge Session, "The Future of Iraqi
Libraries"
Submitted by: Marcus Banks, mab76@georgetown.edu,
and Jie Li, jli@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
As part of the 2004 MLA Annual Meeting, the International Cooperation Section and Public Health/Health Administration Section co-sponsored a Power Surge session, "The Future of Iraqi Libraries." Three speakers provided insight about the situation in various parts of Iraq, and a fourth speaker described the efforts of his medical library to send resources to Iraqi libraries that are badly in need. The session was audiotaped for those unable to attend.
Dr. Mary-Jane Deeb, Arab World Area Specialist for the Library of Congress (LC), led a LC mission to Baghdad in October and November 2003. She described her group's findings, including the care with which Iraqi librarians protected important manuscripts as conflict loomed. Dr. Deeb continues to serve as a liaison between Iraqi and American librarians, and informed the audience that there will soon be an opportunity to host Iraqi librarians who will visit the United States. We will share further details about this opportunity once it is available.
Mr. Biddanda (Suresh) Ponnappa, Assistant Dean for Learning Resources and Director of the medical library at East Tennessee State University, described his visit to three universities in northern Iraq in December. Sponsored by the US Department of State, this was a mission to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region. Mr. Ponnappa's presentation highlighted how distinct this region is from other parts of Iraq. At each university he installed information resources and provided training in their use. These efforts complimented the visit of several Kurdish librarians to his institution.
Dr. Alexander Garza recently returned from a year in Iraq, as the Public Health Team Chief for the 418th Civil Affairs Battalion. This region includes the city of Tikrit, which was a stronghold for the Hussein regime. Dr. Garza described the squalid conditions in most hospitals, which contrasted vividly with the opulence of medical facilities available to Hussein loyalists. He also focused on the fact that people were now free to criticize the former regime. Finally, he described a very successful resource donation drive. He made a call for assistance that received coverage in the MLA News.
Mr. David Keddle, Medical Librarian and CE Coordinator for Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas, was one of the people who answered Dr. Garza's request. In remarks dedicated to Nicholas Berg, the American entrepreneur who was brutally murdered in Iraq, Mr. Keddle described his library's effort to send approximately 100 pounds of resources to Iraq. As other medical librarians learned of this gesture they helped as well, in a "phenomenal" outpouring of support.
Following the session, Dr. Garza and Mr. Keddle discussed ways to facilitate continued resource sharing. In addition, a representative of Dynamic Medical Information Systems mentioned that this up-to-date information resource is available free of charge to Iraqi health professionals. Since the session we have attempted to encourage use of this resource within Iraq.
The impending transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government is a delicate phase that will hopefully lead to increased stability over the long term. During this time Iraqi librarians will undoubtedly require continued assistance from international colleagues. This Power Surge session presented several inspiring stories of meaningful assistance. We hope that it encouraged more people to take on this challenge.
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MLA Conference Report:
"Eco-Power: Taking Back the
Environment"
Submitted by Marcia Henry, mhenry@csun.edu
The "Eco-Power: Taking Back the Environment" program, sponsored by the Chiropractic Libraries and Public Health/Health Administration Sections, was a diverse presentation by three good speakers. Barbara Sattler gave a thought-provoking talk on environmental health accompanied by her personal collection of illustrative photos of children, people, and places affected by our advances in the chemical industry. She reminded us that the "cide" words, infanticide, homocide, fungicide, insecticide, were NOT good. Barbara pointed out some neurological studies on Yucca Indian children exposed to pesticides and their pesticide-free peers living on higher lands, and although all children looked healthy, the group living with toxic chemicals were neurologically far less competent.
The second speaker, Ursula Ellis, gave a thorough description of a bioterrorism course for librarians being developed by her library. The Robert M. Bird Library at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center is designing the course in collaboration with the Southwest Center for Public Health Preparedness in Oklahoma City. "Bioterrorism 101: What Librarians Need to Know and Where to Find It" will be offered as a CE course at the MLA South Central Chapter annual meeting in October. The class will also be delivered to Oklahoma medical librarians, public librarians, and other groups.
The third speaker, Gale Dutcher, Head of the Office of Outreach and Special Populations, Division of Specialized Information Services, NLM described the importance of imparting "Power to the People: Health Information and Environmental Justice". In this age where information literacy is an important topic in all arenas, Ms. Dutcher's presentation described the interconnections between the environment, racial/ethnic differences, income inequities, and human health disparities. She then discussed the work of some federal agencies in this area and pointed out sources of information about environmental justice. She concluded by discussing several databases and Web resources with toxicological and chemical information that could be used by organizations and communities in dealing with potential environmental justice issues.
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MLA Conference Report:
"Mining Data for Knowledge Generation: Collecting,
Using and Promoting Data Sets"
Submitted by Vivian Auld, auld@nlm.nih.gov
On May 23, 2004, the Public Health/Health Administration Section sponsored a program for the MLA 2004 Annual Meeting entitled "Mining Data for Knowledge Generation: Collecting, Using and Promoting Data Sets." The program gave the audience the chance to understand the requirements and limitations of collecting data at a state and local level and facilitating access to available data sets by researchers. In addition, the program provided an overview of national standards development efforts to facilitate data collection and use through implementation of electronic health records (EHR) and the National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII). Approximately 50 people attended.
The presentations for this session are available from the National Library of Medicine Web site at [http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/pres/pres.html].
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MLA Conference Report:
"Emerging Infectious and Zoonotic Diseases: The Power
of Disease on Society"
Submitted by Lisa Wallis, lwallis@uic.edu
Over 60 people attended this session, the afternoon PH/HA Section Program on Tuesday, May 25. The presentations began with "Information Pathways During the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Crisis in a Sydney Metropolitan Hospital". Rolf H. Schafer, Chief Librarian at the Walter McGrath Library of St. Vincent's Hospital, and Paul C. Smollen, Clinical Nurse Consultant at St. Vincent's, traveled from Sydney, Australia to speak of their work during last year's SARS outbreak.
Within hours of the World Health Organization's March 2003 announcement of an airborne pathogen outbreak in Southern China, St. Vincent's Hospital was inundated with calls about SARS and realized they needed an organized system of response. Of primary concern was the need for their staff to use credible sources of information to instruct their patients and the public. Through a thorough review of policies, staff training, and the assembly of the 1st SARS manual in Australia, the St. Vincent's team developed a streamlined pathway for ensuring access to reliable information.
The hospital's intranet became the primary mode of communication, as it was available on all hospital PCs. Within one keystroke staff could locate reliable information that had been filtered to contain only correct SARS information from credible sources. Each PC was also set up to block inaccurate sites, with only one person having the privileges needed to update SARS information. E-mail became the most useful tool, and staff were alerted by bulk e-mail whenever the SARS information had been updated. Schafer and Smollen reported that information was key, adding that it must be available onsite within the clinical environment, not stored away in an offsite library or in individual offices.
Pauline Todd, Coordinator of Monograph Collection Development at the Eskind Biomedical Library of Vanderbilt University, spoke next on "Reemerging Infectious Diseases: A Comprehensive Investigation of the Adequacy of Medical Literature Coverage." The work by Todd and her colleagues addressed the concern that recent medical literature may not contain primary data describing complete diagnostic information. Therefore, it is essential to search older literature in addition to the most recent publications.
Focusing on five communicable diseases (anthrax, botulism, tularemia, plague, and smallpox), the team reviewed the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, and the Journal of Infectious Diseases from 1896 through 2004 for articles on these diseases and patient history, symptoms, signs, and laboratory tests. They found that the most complete articles vary in time by disease. For instance, plague was covered most thoroughly during the period from 1896 to the early 20th century. Botulism, on the other hand, was more comprehensively discussed during the last 25 years.
They concluded that it is essential to consider older literature in order to develop a complete picture of infectious disease. Additionally, they suggested that future studies like this expand beyond the three English-language journals examined in their study to include non-English language and international journals.
The final presenter was Matthew Wilcox of the Epidemiology and Public Health Library at Yale's School of Public Health on "Canary in a Haystack: Building a Database of Animal Sentinel Literature." Canary, the name of the database in development by Wilcox and his co-researchers, is an attempt to bring together into a single resource bibliographic references to animal sentinel studies. Animal sentinels are used to warn of impending danger before human health is affected.
The major problem the database hopes to address is the fact that there is a disconnect between wildlife researchers and human health researchers, both in terms of standards and means of communication. Each field relies on different core databases, each of which has varied indexing schemes. The Canary Database Project will use a curation algorithm to standardize terminology from databases such as BIOSIS, MEDLINE, CAM, Agricola, Zoological Record, and Web of Science.
The final product will contain articles on non-laboratory animal studies about significant health effects that are potentially relevant to humans. The team hopes to make the database public later this summer, spreading the word through MLA and other means.
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MLA 2005 Symposium
Announcement: "The Role of Information Services in
Emergency Preparedness Planning"
Submitted by Catherine R. Selden, NLM/NICHSR, selden@nlm.nih.gov
MLA accepted the PH/HA cosponsored symposium proposal for MLA 2005 in San Antonio entitled The Role of Information Services in Emergency Preparedness Planning. The MLA Federal Libraries (FLS) and Nursing and Allied Health Resources Sections (NAHRS), National Library of Medicine (NLM) and National Networks of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) are cosponsors as well.
The symposium will be 6 hours and consist of lecture, panel presentations, small group breakout sessions and final synthesis and wrap-up. Our keynote speaker is Harold Timboe, MD, PhD, Associate Vice President at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He coordinated Walter Reed Hospital's response to the Pentagon disaster on Sept. 11, 2001. Kris Alpi, Library Director, New York Department of Public Health, Brad Robison, Library Director, National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), and Lian Ruan, Librarian, Illinois Fire Service Institute (she is conducting a survey of fire library usage) will also present.
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Update from the National Library of Medicine,
Division of Specialized Information
Services
Submitted by Colette Hochstein, D.M.D., MLS,
Division of Specialized Information Services, NLM, hochstec@mail.nlm.nih.gov
New Listserv on Environmental Health Now Available
A new listserv on Environmental Health is now available from the National Library of Medicine's [http://www.nlm.nih.gov] MedlinePlus [http://medlineplus.gov/]. MedlinePlus provides health information for patients, families and health care providers.
The Environmental Health listserv will be issued every Friday and will include all the environmental health news stories selected for MedlinePlus during the previous week, as well as new Web resources added to topic pages related to environmental health. (The news stories are from United Press International, Scripps Howard, Reuters Health, New York Times Syndicate, and Canadian Press.)
To sign up, input your e-mail address at:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/medlineplus/listserv.pl?lang=EN,
and specify the "Environmental Health" topic. (Other
available topic-specific listservs include Children,
Diabetes, Mental Health, Senior's Health, and Women's
Health.)
The Household Products
Database
http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/
The Household Products Database (HPD) now links over 5,000 consumer brands to health effects from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) provided by the manufacturers and allows scientists and consumers to research products based on chemical ingredients.
Several features were added to HPD in June:
CHEMIDplus
http://chem.sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemidplus/
CHEMIDplus "Lite"
http://chem2.sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemidplus/html/help.jsp
A new version of ChemIDplus called ChemIDplus Lite has been released. ChemIDplus Lite allows users to search compound identifiers (such as chemical name or CAS Registry Number) on the NLM ChemIDplus database of over 370,000 chemicals.
Unlike the original ChemIDplus database, the Lite version does not allow chemical structure searching, and so no plugins or special display software are needed. Chemical structures in this version are displayed as GIF images. A link to the original ChemIDplus (or "Advanced ChemIDplus Search") is provided on the search page of ChemIDplus Lite, for users needing chemical structure searching.
The ChemIDplus Lite search page is similar to other TOXNET search pages (substance name or CAS Registry Number is entered into the search box). Right truncation ("starts with") is available by using the asterisk (*) at the end of a search term. More advanced data and structure searching can be done at the main ChemIDplus page [http://chem.sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemidplus/].
PubMed's LinkOut Display
for Links to Chemicals Found in TOXNET's
HSDB
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB
PubMed's LinkOut display for links to chemicals found in TOXNET's HSDB has been updated. The links now appear as specific chemical name/s, replacing the phrase "Hazardous Substance Data Bank from NLM".
LinkOut provides PubMed users with connections to Web-accessible resources, including full-text articles, consumer health information, and supplementary data, related to a PubMed citation. These resources expand on the information in the citation.
PubMed users have had access to information for over 3,000 Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB®) chemical substances via LinkOut since September 2003. HSDB is a factual data file that focuses on the toxicology of potentially hazardous chemicals. In addition to toxicity data, HSDB provides information in the areas of emergency handling procedures, industrial hygiene, environmental fate, human exposure, detection methods, and regulatory requirements.
How to use LinkOut to retrieve HSDB information:
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY DATABASES:
Review of PDA Applications in
Toxicology and Environmental Health
http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/Tox/PDAReview/PDAHomePage.htm
The National Library of Medicine's Division of Specialized Information Services (SIS) has introduced the "Review of PDA Applications in Toxicology and Environmental Health," an ongoing descriptive review of selected PDA applications in the fields of toxicology and environmental health.
Individual reports in the review series are based on downloadable demo versions of selected PDA applications. Each review typically covers: General Information, Intended Users, Authorship/Data Source, Contents, Navigation, Requirements, Application Type/Price, Availability, Useful Web Links, and Updates (when applicable).
SIS staff welcomes any comments on completed reviews or suggestions for additional reviews of other such applications not currently included. Send an e-mail to tehip@teh.nlm.nih.gov.
Tox Town
http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/
Tox Town City's [http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/city/main.html] "Dental Office" now provides new information for dental care providers and other dental office and dental lab employees, on nitrous oxide exposure, infection control, hazardous chemicals and other potential environmental health concerns at work.
City's "Pharmacy" provides information about your medicines, cosmetics, dietary supplements, drug and medical device safely, latex allergy, and more.
Chemicals added to Tox Town in 2003 include: benzene, chromium, pesticides, phthalates, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds.
The International Toxicity
Estimates for Risk (ITER) Database
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?iter
The International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER) database was added to SIS's TOXNET system on January 22. ITER is a database of human health risk values for over 600 chemicals of environmental concern from major organizations worldwide. It is a product of Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA), a non-profit group whose mission is to protect public health by developing and communicating risk assessment values, improving risk methods through research, and educating the public on risk assessment issues. ITER values are included from: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), USA ; the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), USA; Health Canada; the International Agency for Research on Cancer; the National Institute of Public Health and Environment (RIVM), the Netherlands; and other groups (e.g. industry, consultants, academia), after an independent peer review. These independent values are available only on ITER. The list will likely expand over the coming years as TERA identifies new global risk information resources.
Inaugural Meeting of the Environmental Health Information Outreach Panel ("ENHIOP")
The 'inaugural' meeting of "ENHIOP" - the Environmental Health Information Outreach Panel - took place on January 14 at the National Library of Medicine. The mission of the Environmental Health Information Outreach Panel is to enhance the capacity of minority-serving and academic institutions to reduce health disparities through the access, use and delivery of environmental health information on their campuses and in the communities.
The Hazardous Substances
Databank (HSDB): 42 New Chemicals and 44 Updated
Chemical Records
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB
The Hazardous Substances Databank (HSDB) has added 42 new chemicals and updated 44 chemical records:
New HSDB chemicals: 1-HYDROXYANTHRAQUINONE, 1-TRIDECENE, 2,3,4,7,8-PENTACHLORODIBENZOFURAN, 2-BIPHENYLAMINE, 4-METHYLQUINOLINE, 5-AMINO-O-CRESOL, ABACAVIR SULFATE, AMMONIUM THIOGLYCOLATE, AMPRENAVIR, ARISTOLOCHIC ACIDS, CHLORAMINE T, CRYSTALLINE SILICA, DELAVIRDINE MESYLATE, EFAVIRENZ, FLUOSILICIC ACID, HELIOTRIDINE, HYDROXYSENKIRKINE, INDINAVIR SULFATE, ISATIDINE, JACOBINE, LAMIVUDINE, LUCIDIN, MECHLORETHAMINE HYDROCHLORIDE, METHYL ANTHRANILATE, NELFINAVIR MESYLATE, NEVIRAPINE, PADIMATE O, PAROXETINE HYDROCHLORIDE, (+)-RETRONECINE, RETRORSINE, RIDDELLIINE, RITONAVIR, SAQUINAVIR, SENECIONINE, SENECIPHYLLINE, SENKIRKINE, TENOFOVIR DISOPROXIL FUMARATE
Updated HSDB Chemicals Records: 1,1'-AZOBIS(FORMAMIDE), 1,2,3-BENZOTRIAZIN-4-(1H)-ONE, 1,6-HEXANEDIOL DIACRYLATE, 2,3,7,8-TETRACHLORODIBENZOFURAN, 2-ETHYLHEXYL ACRYLATE, 2-ETHYLHEXYL METHACRYLATE, 2-METHOXYETHANOL, 2-(N,N-DIETHYLAMINO)ETHYL METHACRYLATE, 4,4'-METHYLENEBIS(2-CHLOROANILINE), 4-AMINOBENZOIC ACID, 4-BIPHENYLAMINE, 9-METHYLBENZ(A)ANTHRACENE, AMORPHOUS SILICA, ARSINE, ATRAZINE, AZINPHOS ETHYL, AZINPHOSMETHYL, BENZOFURAN, BENZYL BROMIDE, BENZYL CHLORIDE, DESETHYL ATRAZINE, DIBENZOFURAN, DIDEOXYINOSINE, ETHYLBIS(2-CHLOROETHYL)AMINE, ETHYLENE GLYCOL, HEXADECYL METHACRYLATE, ISOBORNYL METHACRYLATE, ISODECYL ACRYLATE, ISODECYL METHACRYLATE, MECHLORETHAMINE, METHANE, MONOCROTALINE, N-DODECYL METHACRYLATE, N,N-DIPHENYLAMINE, PICLORAM, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, P-TOLUENESULFONAMIDE
Summary of "Delivering
Environmental Health Information"
http://csdl.computer.org/comp/mags/it/2004/02/f2018abs.htm
Martha Szczur, Deputy Associate Director, Division of Specialized Information Services, provided a summary of "Delivering Environmental Health Information" (A National Library of Medicine program used effective IT strategies in creating compelling presentations of complex scientific information), for IT Professional, March/April 2004, pgs 18-24.
NLM-Tox-Enviro-Health-L
Announcements List
http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/Tox/ToxListServ.html
It's easy to stay updated on SIS toxicology and environmental health resources via the NLM-Tox-Enviro-Health-L Announcements List. You can join via its Web page above.
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Health Services
Technology/Assessment Texts (HSTAT)
Submitted by Lisa Sedlar, sedlarl@mail.nlm.nih.gov
The Health Services Technology/Assessment Texts (HSTAT) has moved to the Bookshelf at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) [http://hstat.nlm.nih.gov].
HSTAT is a free, Web-based resource of full-text documents that provides health information and supports health care decision making. HSTAT's audience includes health care providers, health service researchers, policy makers, payers, consumers and the information professionals who serve these groups.
The following is the current list of the full-text, searchable documents available in the HSTAT database:
All of the collections in HSTAT can be accessed in the following ways:
Each document within HSTAT is displayed in a series of bite-sized pieces, based on the subsections of the documents. A navigation bar on the left of each page allows the user to jump between document sections, documents or collections within HSTAT.
Any Bookshelf page can be bookmarked as a "favorite" for future reference, or be linked to by another Web page. Citations within HSTAT documents that also have a PubMed or PubMed Central record are hyperlinked accordingly from the reference list.
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Update on the Health
Services Research Projects in Progress (HSRProj)
Database
Submitted by Catherine R. Selden, NLM/NICHSR, selden@nlm.nih.gov
The National Library of Medicine HSRProj (Health Services Research Projects in Progress) database has a new address: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hsrproj/
In response to user requests, the new HSRProj interface provides specific searching from the Query screen by:
Also, in response to user requests, HSRProj provides Browse capabilities for Latest Projects and Supporting Agencies. We added a Limits function so you can narrow your search to projects in the latest update and by initial and final years.
Unlike other databases that provide information on completed and published research, HSRProj provides information about grants and contracts in health services research that are still in progress. Records include grants and contracts awarded by major publish and private funding agencies and foundations. HSRProj is still accessible via the NLM Gateway under Other Collections.
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Call for Librarian's
Contributions to the PHIRC Web Site
http://www.phf.org/infrastructure
The Public Health Infrastructure Resource Center (PHIRC) Web site was created by the Public Health Foundation (PHF) to serve as a gateway to information and resources for public health workers to build the capacity of their own agency or organization's infrastructure. The three core areas of infrastructure (as defined by the CDC), include: (1) public health workforce; (2) information, data, and communication systems; and (3) organizational and systems capacity.
The PHIRC is asking for the expertise of librarians to help PHF keep the Web site up-to-date with the most current public health infrastructure information-including gray literature, Web sites, organizations, initiatives, legislation, reports, and research as outlined in the following areas.
Resource Categories. The information on our site can be searched in two ways, by infrastructure area (as noted above), or by information type. The types of information we would like you to collect will fall into the three core infrastructure areas, as well as the following categories:
If you would like to volunteer as a librarian for the PHIRC site, send any online resources you find to Ms. Houkje Ross at hross@phf.org.
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Healthy Roads
Media
http://www.healthyroadsmedia.org/
Healthy Roads Media is a Web site developed by the Family Health Care Center, a federally funded community health center. It features multilingual health education information in written, audio, and video formats. Material on health concerns such as asthma, dental health, diabetes, smoking, and domestic violence appears in English, Arabic, Bosnian, Spanish, and other languages. Material available in translation varies for each language.
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Pathfinders on Maternal
and Child Health
http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/index.html
The Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Library at Georgetown University has posted revised editions of three knowledge paths (pathfinders) on Adolescent Violence Prevention, Asthma in Children and Adolescents, and Oral Health and Children and Adolescents. These knowledge paths provide information about the best current resources available electronically and in print on these topics. The MCH Library's Web site has 13 additional knowledge paths, and numerous bibliographies and organization resource lists on a wide variety of topics in maternal and child health. For additional information contact Olivia Pickett, Director of Library Services, at opickett@ncemch.org or at 202-784-9776.
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Evidence-Based Practice for
Public Health Project
http://library.umassmed.edu/ebpph/
The Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School received funding through a cooperative agreement from the Association of Teacher of Preventive Medicine and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to examine the clinical evidence-based medicine (EBM) models and assess their effectiveness to the public health literature. The outcomes of this project are to create (1) an evidence-based public health Web site; (2) an electronic publication or database on the preferred models; and (3) a training program for public health practitioners to introduce them to evidence-based public health practice and literature retrieval methods. For more information, visit the Web site.
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Connecting Communities
for Better Health Learning Network
http://ccbh.ehealthinitiative.org/default.mspx
In April 2004, the launching of the Connecting Communities for Better Health Learning Network was announced. The Community Learning Network is a growing repository of materials on health information exchange that reflects current research as well as practical, "on the ground" advice and lessons learned from national (and emerging international) healthcare IT experts and pioneering implementers in communities that are engaging in electronic health information exchange. The idea is to work together to make significant strides in advancing an electronic health information infrastructure to improve healthcare in the United States. For more information, visit the Web site or contact Phil Duncan, Director of Communications, Foundation for eHealth Initiative, Phone: 202.448.2981; e-mail: phil.duncan@ehealthinitiative.org.
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Public Health Information and
Data: A Training Manual
http://phpartners.org/educ.html
Scroll down to the section, Resources Related to Education and Training, to find the manual as a pdf file. Chapters from the manual plus additional content by Laura Larsson and Keith Cogdill will form the basis of the learning content for a Continuing Education Institute (CEI) to be held on Saturday, November 6, 2004 from 9am to 5pm, at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
TITLE: Public Health Knowledge: Acquisition, Management and Generation (course number 1003)
FACULTY: Laura Larsson, Keith Cogdill, Kris Alpi, Molly Youngkin, Catherine Selden, Nancy Allee
DESCRIPTION: The purpose of this Institute is to provide practitioners hands-on training in using information resources and information search strategies that are useful for fulfilling common information needs in public health practice. Participants will improve their informatics competencies and achieve a better understanding of how information can be used efficiently. Upon completion of this CE participants will be able to stay informed of developments and events related to public health; find reliable and authoritative consumer-oriented materials to support health education; retrieve statistical information and access data sets relevant to public health; retrieve and evaluate information in support of evidence-based practice; and have a good idea of additional software applications that can be used to improve their efficiency in finding, organizing, retrieving, and disseminating knowledge.
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Distribution of Public Health Reports to Continue at Federal Depository Libraries
Publication of the Public Health Reports switched from Oxford University Press to Elsevier, Inc. with Volume 119, number 1 (January/February 2004). The journal is published bimonthly in collaboration with the Association of Schools of Public Health. Distribution of the Public Health Reports to Federal depository libraries will continue as it did under Oxford University Press, since this requirement was incorporated into the contract with Elsevier.
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Open Access to Public
Health Reports
http://www.publichealthreports.org
For a limited time, Public Health Reports will be available on-line. The length of time is not specified on the Web site.
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Article on Policies for
Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health
Disparities
http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/picrender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&action=stream&blobtype=pdf&artid=385308
Peter Droese, Health Policy Librarian for the Office of Medicaid in the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, has co-authored an article in the March issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association, titled "A Selected, Annotated List of Current Materials that Support the Development of Policies Designed to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities."
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Principles of the
Ethical Practice of Public
Health
http://www.phls.org/docs/PHLSethicsbrochure.pdf
The Public Health Leadership Society (PHLS) has produced a document, Principles of the Ethical Practice of Public Health, available in pdf format. For additional documents by the PHLS, see their Web site at http://www.phls.org/docs/PHLSethicsbrochure.pdf.
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Emerging Infectious Diseases
GAO Report
http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d04564high.pdf
The Government Accounting Office (GAO) has produced a report on the effect of SARS and the role the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. government, and Asian governments played in responding to SARS. Highlights of the report can be found in the pdf file above.
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Cover the Uninsured
Guide
http://covertheuninsuredweek.org/materials/descriptions/
A new resource guide titled Cover the Uninsured Week's Health Care Coverage in America: Understanding the Issues and Proposed Solutions is now available. This guide provides basic information about the issue of the uninsured, such as how Americans get coverage, who is uninsured and why coverage is important. It also outlines policy approaches to securing coverage for more Americans and lists questions to ask when considering various policy options.
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Strategic Plan for
Prevention and Control for Overweight and
Obesity
http://www.neconinfo.org/Strategic_Plan_02-11-03.pdf
The New England Coalition for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (NECON) and the Harvard School of Public Health have pulled together an obesity strategic plan which provides ideas about how to address obesity. The guide is useful as a reference for states and localities working on obesity plans.
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Health Policy Online
Resource
http://www.kaiseredu.org/
The Kaiser Family Foundation has a new Web site that is geared towards the academic community. It provides faculty and students with easy access to data, literature, news, and developments regarding major health policy topics and debates. Issue modalities focus on specific policy issues and the section, Reference Libraries, provides background information on broad health topics. Subjects include: Medicare and Medicaid, The Uninsured, and Quality of Care.
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Workbook on Assessment and
Transitioning for Service Delivery
http://www.naccho.org/prod133.cfm
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) presents Making Strategic Decisions About Service Delivery: An Action Tool for Assessment and Transitioning. This workbook features a guide to assessing whether a local public health agency (LPHA) should continue to provide clinical services; addresses the possible transition of services to other community providers; and, presents strategies for monitoring performance outcomes related to the transfer of services.
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Partners in Prevention
Fact Sheet
http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/prev/partners.htm
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has compiled a new fact sheet entitled Partners in Prevention, outlining the various efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services that address the effects of substance abuse, violence, inactivity, tobacco use, and poor eating habits.
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Help for Smokers Fact
Sheet
http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/helpsmok.htm
A fact sheet by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) entitled, Help for Smokers: Ideas to Help You Quit, provides practical advice and referrals to additional resources.
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Report on Bioterrorism
Preparedness and Response
http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/evrptfiles.htm#bioreg
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has issued a new report on bioterrorism preparedness and the regional coordination of resources, Regionalization of Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response. Copies of the summary and full report are available by calling AHRQ's Publications Clearinghouse at 1-800-358-9295 or by sending an e-mail to ahrqpubs@ahrq.gov.
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Preventive Services
Selector PDA Application
http://198.76.191.14/ipss/ipss.htm
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has issued a personal digital assistants' (PDAs) application designed to help clinicians deliver evidence-based medicine when they are with a patient. The new tool, the Preventive Services Selector, is an application for Palm Pilots and other PDAs. It helps clinicians quickly and easily search for which preventive services to provide-or not provide-to patients based on their age and gender. In order to download the tool, go to the AHRQ Web site.
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Women's Health Web Page
Redesigned
http://www.ahrq.gov/research/womenix.htm
The Women's Health page on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Web site has been redesigned. Clinical topics are arranged by subject and a separate link leads to consumer materials for women's health. Go to the AHRQ Web site and choose Women's Health.
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Quality of Health Care for
Children and Adolescents Chartbook
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/child/leatherman_pedchartbook_700.pdf
A new chartbook on children's health, Quality of Health Care for Children and Adolescents, released by the commonwealth Fund is now available in pdf. This chartbook illustrates the state of preventive care and chronic care services in children and youth.
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High and Low Tech Tools for
Recording Ideas: Some Suggestions
Submitted by Laura Larsson, larsson@u.washington.edu
Luigi Pirandello is often quoted as having said, "The history of mankind is the history of ideas." Buckminster Fuller said that everyone has great ideas, but few people capture them, and even fewer act on them. He also said, "Man knows so much and does so little." Are you one of those people who have good ideas but never write them down or act on them? Do you know a lot but do little?
...This article describes hardware, software and simple technology methods for capturing and presenting ideas when and where you think of them, including in the shower. Some of the recommendations will be obvious; others may be new to you. Both high and low-tech idea capture and management possibilities are discussed. [See the full article at http://depts.washington.edu/hswork/articles/has2004/ideas.html].
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2nd Biennial Distance
Education Conference: Best Practices in Distance
Education for Health Professionals
http://www.unmc.edu/hsns/disted/conference.htm
Omaha, Nebraska
This conference will be held in Omaha, Nebraska on September 24-25, 2004. It is sponsored by the University of Nebraska Medical Center's College of Nursing. At this time, there are 26 universities/schools represented from 15 states. For more information, visit the Web site.
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4th National Conference on
Quality Health Care for Diverse Populations:
Integrating Community Needs into the National Health
Agenda
http://www.diversityrx.org/ccconf/04/index.html
Washington, D.C.
This conference, to be held on September 28-October 1, 2004 in Washington, D.C., is presented by the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Resources for Cross Cultural Health Care, Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For more information, visit the Web site.
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Society for Public Health
Education (SOPHE) 55th Annual
Meeting
http://www.sophe.org
Capital Hilton, Washington, DC
Themed "The Power and Influence of Health Education: Promoting Monumental Change," The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) is convening it's 55th Annual Meeting, November 5-7, 2004, in the nation's capital, immediately preceding the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting. More than 50 sessions and posters will feature the latest research and practice in health communications, health promotion, and health education. Of special interest to information professionals will be two pre-conference workshops: Thursday, November 4, 1:00 pm-5:00 pm, an interactive training using CDCynergy, an innovative, multi-media CD-ROM developed by CDC that guides users in developing effective health communications campaigns using a public health framework; and Friday, November 5, 8:30am-12:00 noon, Applying Informatics to Transform Public Health Research & Practice, which will cover how to integrate CD-ROM and web technologies into public health curricula and training (trial software and other resources included). For meeting and program details, visit www.sophe.org or request a preliminary program by contacting info@sophe.org.
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American Public Health
Association 132nd Annual Meeting and
Exposition
http://www.apha.org/meetings/
Washington, D.C.
The theme for this year is "Public Health and the Environment". The conference will be held in Washington, D.C. from November 6-10, 2004. Pre-register by August 27 and save! To defray the costs, public health librarians may apply for the Sewell Memorial Fund Stipend through the PH/HA section of MLA through July 26. See the application at http://depts.washington.edu/hswork/mla/stipend/mla-crc-call-2004.doc.
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Copyright Internet Scout Project, 1994-2001. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/ Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The InterNIC provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation: NCR-9218742. The Government has certain rights in this material.
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