SHR Medical Library

Attributes of a Health Literate Organization

2012-01-26T08:15:00.000-06:00

Find a discussion paper from the Health Literacy Roundtable at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies here that identifies ten attributes of a health literate organization.

New Lexicomp interface

2011-11-18T14:46:00.000-06:00

Lexicomp has released its new interface and is offering training sessions to those interested in learning more about using the new interface before the old interface is retired. You can sign up for sessions at the following times:

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 @ 10:00 AM EST

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 @ 10:00 AM EST

Thursday, December 1, 2011 @ 4:00 PM EST

Tuesday, December 6, 2011 @ 10:00 AM EST

Thursday, December 8, 2011 @ 4:00 PM EST

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 @ 10:00 AM EST

Thursday, December 15, 2011 @ 4:00 PM EST

Tuesday, December 20, 2011 @ 10:00 AM EST

Thursday, December 22, 2011 @ 4:00 PM EST

Tuesday, December 27, 2011 @ 10:00 AM EST

Thursday, December 29, 2011 @ 4:00 PM EST

Or contact the library at library at saskatoonhealthregion dot ca about arranging alternatives.

You can download a quick reference to the changes here

Discussion Paper: Patient-Clinician Communication: Basic Principles and Expectations

2011-11-01T10:09:00.000-06:00

In June the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies released a discussion paper outlining key principles of patient centred care impacted by communication between health care providers and patients.

Canadian Patient Safety Week

2011-10-26T13:52:00.000-06:00

October 31 to November 4, 2011 is Canadian Patient Safety Week; at the Canadian Patient Safety Institute's website you can register, find tools and resources, answers to FAQs, find out what's happening across the country, and read the stories of patients and families. CPSW is an annual campaign to inspire improvement in patient safety and promote good communication in healthcare. This year there is a Virtual Forum, free of charge, with speakers and participants from all over Canada. You can read the program, register and find out more here

New Guidelines from the Mental Health Commission of Canada

2011-10-13T09:30:00.001-06:00

The Mental Health Commission of Canada has published Guidelines for Comprehensive Mental Health Services for Older Adults in Canada. You can find the Executive Summary, PDF version and an interactive version of the guidelines here

ETA: The Canadian Women's Health Network has published a critique of the Guidelines here

App for that?

2011-10-11T09:26:00.000-06:00

Medical Librarian Michelle Kraft discusses the pros and cons of the Medical Apps section of the App Store.

Communicating Risks and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User's Guide

2011-08-17T16:03:00.000-06:00

The FDA has published, for free as a pdf, a resource addressing evidence around risk communication, which is "the term of art used for situations when people need good information to make sound choices... commitment to accuracy and avoidance of spin". Chapter topics include Quantitative and Qualitative information, Health Literacy, Affect and Emotion, Readability, Shared Decision Making, and Practitioner and Agency perspectives. To access the full text click here

Community View Collaboration (CVC)

2011-06-17T10:04:00.007-06:00

In collaboration with the City of Saskatoon, Saskatoon Public School Division, Saskatoon Greater Catholic Schools, and other Saskatoon Regional Intersectoral Committee agencies, Public Health Services of the Saskatoon Health Region have developed a regional comprehensive community information system, the CommunityView Collaboration (CVC).

The main features of the system are:

- The assembly of data from multiple sources, and;
- A system supported by appropriate information technologies and tools for end-user analysis including the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS).

CommunityView allows for inter-sectoral and inter-jurisdictional data sharing and access among human services organisations. According to the CVC site, its primary objective of this sharing is to "ensure consistent, timely, and efficient delivery of a variety of sources of data along with sophisticated user tools to combine, analyse and visualise data selected from across the breadth of data sets."

Visit the CommunityView Collaboration website at: http://www.communityview.ca/

Lexicomp Training Sessions: June 21-22

2011-06-10T14:38:00.004-06:00

Our library hours will be changing: May 30th

2011-05-16T13:06:00.014-06:00

Effective Monday May 30th, the SHR Medical Libraries' hours of operation will be changing to:

7:30am - 4pm inclusive at SCH and SPH locations.

After-hours access to libraries can be obtained via proxy card. Email the SHR Medical Libraries staff for further details at: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

New resource: Lexicomp

2011-05-16T12:50:00.009-06:00

The SHR Medical Libraries are proud to announce the acquisition of Lexicomp an Internet-based, hospital-wide solution providing quick access to drug information, lab and diagnostic procedures, diseases and conditions, patient education and more!

All SHR staff and physicians can access Lexicomp on-site via our internal library website at: http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/medicallibrary. Check it out under "Quick Links," "Databases: I-Z" and "What's New!"

For off-site access, SHR staff and physicians can visit our external library site at: http://library.saskatoonhealthregion.ca/. Existing SHR users can login with their Athens ID at: http://auth.athensams.net/my/ or new SHR users can register for an Athens ID at: https://register.athensams.net/shr.

For library assistance or to arrange a customized training session contact the SHR Medical Library staff at: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Trial available for Lexicomp Online

2011-02-10T09:30:00.005-06:00

Lexicomp Online is an Internet-based, hospital-wide solution providing quick access to drug information, lab and diagnostic procedures, diseases and conditions, patient education and more!

All SHR physicians and staff can check out the trial version now at: http://online.lexi.com/

Or feel free to try it on your smartphones and PDAs at:
http://www.lexi.com/individuals/free-trial/?clicksource=5916&page=smartphone

Please note: this trial will be effective until March 31, 2011.

Google Body Browser

2011-02-04T11:04:00.029-06:00

Now you can explore the human body just like you can explore the world in Google Earth, with Google Body Browser.

This detailed three dimensional model of the human body allows you to peel back anatomical layers, zoom, click to identify anatomy, and search for muscles, organs, bones and more.

Body Browser uses WebGL, a plug-in-free programming interface, to power its 3D graphics. WebGL is a relatively new standard but it will work with Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox 4 Beta.

Type any muscle, bone, or organ into the search box at the top of the page, and Body Browser will instantly zoom into the appropriate part to show you where it is. Body Browser adjusts its URL as you move along, so if you ever want to save a particular view or share it with someone else, all you have to do is copy the current Web address and you're good to go.

You can try out Google Body Browser right now at bodybrowser.googlelabs.com.

Season's Greetings from the SHR Medical Library staff

2010-12-23T10:18:00.007-06:00

The SHR Medical Library staff wishes you a joyful holiday season and a happy new year!

Please note that the SHR Medical Libraries will be closed on the following dates:

Friday December 24, 2010

Saturday December 25, 2010

Sunday December 26, 2010

Monday December 27, 2010

Friday December 31, 2010

Saturday January 1, 2011

Sunday January 2, 2011

The SHR Medical Libraries will resume normal hours of operation:

SCH: 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday
SPH: 8am-4:30pm, Monday-Friday

For any library inquiries or assistance, please email library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Remembrance Day: Thursday November 11th

2010-11-10T14:15:00.004-06:00

Please note that the SHR Medical Libraries will be closed on:

Thursday November 11, 2010 for Remembrance Day.

The SHR Medical Libraries will resume services on:

Friday November 12, 2010

For library inquiries or assistance, email library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Celebrating Libraries from October 18th to 21st!

2010-10-08T10:07:00.009-06:00

Did you know that October is Canadian Library Month and Saskatchewan Library Week?

Feel free to check out the SHR Medical Library displays from October 18th to 21st at the following locations:

Saskatoon City Hospital, Atrium
Royal University Hospital, Cafeteria
St. Paul's Hospital, Cafeteria

Join us in celebrating libraries this month!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-10-08T09:37:00.000-06:00

The SHR Medical Libraries will be closed on: Thanksgiving Day- Monday October 11th and will re-open on: Tuesday October 12th.

For library inquiries or assistance, email library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

The SHR Medical Library staff wishes you and yours a happy thanksgiving!

Labour Day: Monday September 6th

2010-09-02T14:38:00.003-06:00

Please note that the SHR Medical Libraries will be closed on:

Monday September 6th, 2010

The SHR Medical Libraries will resume services on:

Tuesday September 7th, 2010

For library inquiries or assistance, please email library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

SHR Medical Library's Fall Training Schedule

2010-08-31T15:28:00.004-06:00

Are you looking to improve your research skills? Why not sign-up for a free library training session? The Saskatoon Health Region Medical Library provides free library training sessions for all SHR staff and physicians. Registration is now available on the SHR InfoNet website at: http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/trainingsystem

Library training sessions from September to November 2010 include:

Alternative Medicine* New!

Provides an overview of using the following alternative medicine databases: Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED), Natural Medicines and Natural Standard.

Mondays- Sept.27, Oct.25, Nov.22 from 14:30-16:00 @ SCH Medical Library-Training Room

CINAHL

CINAHL is the main nursing and allied health professionals database. Learn about effective search strategies and how to navigate within this database.

Tuesdays- Sept.28, Oct.26, Nov.23 from 14:30-16:00 @ SCH Medical Library-Training Room

Drug Information* New!

Provides an overview of using the following drug information databases: e-CPS, Micromedex 2.0, and the RxFiles.

Wednesdays- Sept.29, Oct.27, Nov.24 from 14:30-16:00 @ SCH Medical Library-Training Room

MEDLINE

MEDLINE is the premier source for medical information. Learn about effective search strategies and how to navigate within this database.

Thursdays- Sept.30, Oct.28, Nov.25 from 14:30-16:00 @ SCH Medical Library-Training Room

To register, visit the SHR InfoNet website at: http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/trainingsystem

For questions, e-mail: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

STAT!Ref goes mobile!

2010-08-19T13:20:00.010-06:00

*Attention all SHR staff and physicians*

STAT!Ref, the online library of electronic resources is now available on your mobile devices!

To access this on-site simply visit: http://online.statref.com/mobile?grpalias=HKN on your PDA.

If you have any questions or need assistance, contact us at: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Saskatchewan Day: Monday August 2nd

2010-07-30T11:39:00.003-06:00

Please note that the SHR Medical Libraries will be closed on:

Monday August 2, 2010

The SHR Medical Libraries will resume services on:

Tuesday August 3, 2010

For library inquiries or assistance, please email library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

New OvidSP platform to launch August 2nd!

2010-07-14T16:45:00.009-06:00

Mark your calendars! Effective August 2nd, OvidSP will be launching their new database interface with added features. These new enhancements include:

Adjustments to functionality on citation exporting and exported file formats
Automatic de-duplication is now available within a project in My Projects
Searching within My Projects now encompasses searching all citation fields
Select a range of results option is now available in a results list
Additional display and linking adjustments

As a result, the following databases which uses the OvidSP interface will be affected: Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), MEDLINE and PsycINFO.

Check out the Ovid Resource Centre for tip sheets and more information at: http://www.ovid.com/site/resources/index.jsp

Websites of Interest

2010-06-29T10:08:00.020-06:00

Department of Pathology Online Case Studies

A database of case studies from the Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. This database is constantly growing with regular contributions from members of the University of Pittsburgh's Department of Pathology.

Visitors can access the cases by patient history, diagnosis, and keyword search. Provided information includes clinical histories, pathologic findigs, and final diagnoses. "Cases of the Month" and online continuing medical education case studies are also offered.

Check out the database here: path.upmc.edu/cases.html

EthicShare

A research and collaboration website for the practical ethics community. This site is home to a free database of practical ethics citations from numerous sources as well as collaboration tools such as online groups and ways to share citations. EthicShare is available for free to anyone who registers.

Visit EthicShare at http://www.ethicshare.org/

From "Websites Worth a Look" published in MLA News, May 2010. Volume 50, Issue 5

Happy Canada Day!

2010-06-29T09:13:00.004-06:00

Please note that the SHR Medical Libraries will be closed on:

Thursday July 1, 2010

The SHR Medical Libraries will resume services on:

Friday July 2, 2010

For library inquiries or assistance, please email library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

The SHR Medical Library staff wishes you a happy Canada day!

Effective June 28th: Changes to External Website Access

2010-06-23T11:04:00.006-06:00

*Attention all SHR staff and physicians*

As of June 28th, remote or external access to the Medical Library electronic resources will change. This access will be managed through a product called "Athens". Anyone with an existing username and password for the external website will need to switch over to an Athens account in order to continue to have access to the resources. We are very excited about this because it will provide seamless access to almost all of the electronic resources for our patrons.

You can sign up for your Athens account through the Athens Registration Link: https://register.athensams.net/shr/

If you sign up for an Athens account from a non-SHR email address, the library staff will have to authorize your account before you can access the resources. If you sign up for Athens using your SHR email address, your account will be set up automatically.

We encourage you to sign up for Athens today in order to guarantee your remote or external access to our electronic resources continues as of June 28th!

If you encounter problems when setting up your Athens account, please email us at library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Improve your research skills this summer!

2010-06-03T09:40:00.003-06:00

Did you know that the Saskatoon Health Region Medical Library provides free library training sessions for all SHR staff, physicians, residents and students?

If you are a SHR staff member and looking for ways to improve your research skills or would like assistance using any of our electronic resources we can certainly help!

Contact the SHR Medical Library staff to arrange a free customized individual or group training session by emailing us at: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Happy Victoria Day from the SHR Medical Library staff

2010-05-20T10:30:00.005-06:00

Please note that the SHR Medical Libraries will be closed on:

Monday May 24, 2010

The SHR Medical Libraries will resume services on:

Tuesday May 25, 2010.

For library inquiries or assistance, email library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

The SHR Medical Library staff wishes you a happy Victoria day!

SHR Medical Library Update Sessions

2010-04-21T11:47:00.003-06:00

*Attention SHR staff and physicians*

The SHR Medical Library staff would be interested in attending one of your department’s staff meetings to provide a 10-15 minute update session on our library’s resources and services. We can customize these sessions upon request and welcome any suggestions on how the library can assist you and your staff in meeting all your information needs.

Please feel free to contact us at library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca with details on the date, time, and location that would be convenient for your staff and we would be happy to arrange a library update session for your department.

Happy Easter from the SHR Medical Library Staff

2010-04-01T09:19:00.011-06:00

Please note that the SHR Medical Libraries will be closed on:

Friday April 2, 2010- Good Friday
Saturday April 3, 2010
Sunday April 4, 2010- Easter Sunday
Monday April 5, 2010- Easter Monday

The SHR Medical Libraries will resume services on: Tuesday April 6.

For library inquiries or assistance, email library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

The SHR Medical Library staff wishes you a happy easter!

SHR Medical Library's New External Website!

2010-03-29T11:53:00.011-06:00

*Attention: All SHR staff and physicians*

Please note the following change to the
SHR Medical Library’s external website
effective immediately: http://www.lib.sk.ca/shrlib has been changed to: http://library.saskatoonhealthregion.ca/

In the interim, our library’s old external site: http://www.lib.sk.ca/shrlib will automatically redirect you to our library’s new external website.

Remember to update your bookmarks to our new external website: http://library.saskatoonhealthregion.ca/

For questions or library assistance, email the SHR Library Staff at:
library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

New! E-Books from OCLC's NetLibrary

2010-02-09T10:40:00.007-06:00

Are you looking for e-books on leadership and management in the healthcare sector? If so, check out our new e-book collection from OCLC's NetLibrary. Access the full content of 55 book titles ranging from "Applying Quality Management in Healthcare" to "Digital Medicine: Health Care in the Internet Era " and much more!

To view the entire collection, visit the SHR Medical Library homepage at: http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/medlib/ or directly at: http://www.netlibrary.org/

*Please note: OCLC's NetLibrary e-book collection can be currently viewed only on-site (within SHR facilities).

If you have any questions or need assistance with this new resource, email: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Winter 2010 SHR Medical Libraries Physicians' Newsletter

2010-01-19T16:49:00.005-06:00

Wondering what's happening at the Saskatoon Health Region Medical Libraries this Winter? Be sure to check out our latest Winter 2010 edition of our Physicians' newsletter now available on our SHR Medical Library homepage at:

Internal site: http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/medlib/
External site: http://library.saskatoonhealthregion.ca/

Check out Micromedex!

2010-01-11T09:19:00.002-06:00

The SHR Medical Library staff are pleased to announce the acquisition of Thomson Reuters Micromedex.

A primary resource for pharmaceutical drug and interaction information, Micromedex is now available for all SHR staff who can access this via the internal library website at: http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/medlib/

If you have any questions or need assistance using this resource, email the SHR library staff at: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Happy New Year from the SHR Medical Library Staff

2010-01-04T08:30:00.003-06:00

The SHR Medical Library staff would like to wish you and yours a very Happy New Year!

If you are a SHR staff member and looking for ways to improve your research skills we can certainly help!

Sign up for one of our free library training sessions today via the SHR training registration system or contact the library staff to arrange a free customized session at: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca.

Happy Holidays from the SHR Medical Library Staff

2009-12-23T09:29:00.008-06:00

Please note that SHR Libraries will be closed on:

Friday December 25th, 2009

Saturday December 26th, 2009

Sunday December 27th, 2009

Monday December 28th, 2009

Friday January 1st, 2010

For library inquiries or assistance, email library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca.

The SHR Medical Library staff wishes you and yours a safe and happy holiday season!

Sign-up today for a free library training session!

2009-11-30T11:07:00.012-06:00

The Saskatoon Health Region Medical Library provides free library training sessions for all SHR staff and physicians. Registration is now available on the SHR InfoNet website at: http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/trainingsystem

Library training sessions from January to March 2010 include:

Stat!Ref 2: Stedman's Medical Dictionary & Anatomy TV
"The most reliable must-have resource for healthcare professionals … with more than 107,000 total terms" (www.stedmans.com). Participants will learn to look up medical terms with this resource and improve their knowledge and accuracy of medical terminology. Participants will also learn how to navigate the different views in Anatomy TV and use the built-in quiz to test their knowledge of anatomy. Anatomy TV provides a fun way to learn the human anatomy using 3D modelling technology.

Tuesdays- Jan. 12, Feb. 9, Mar. 9 from 15:00-16:30 @ SCH Medical Library- Training Room

Rehabilitation Reference Center
The Rehabilitation Reference Center (RRC) is a clinical reference tool designed for use by occupational therapists, physical therapists, and rehabilitation clinicians at the point of care. Learn how to navigate and search this database.

Wednesdays- Jan. 13, Feb. 10, Mar. 10 from 15:00-16:30 @ SCH Medical Library- Training Room

The Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases and the primary source to find evidence for EBM, Systematic Reviews and Randomised Control Trials. Learn how to search all of The Cochrane Library effectively.

Thursdays- Jan. 14, Feb. 11, Mar. 11 from 15:00-16:30 @ SCH Medical Library-Training Room

To register, visit the SHR InfoNet website at: http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/trainingsystem

For questions, e-mail: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Celebrating Saskatchewan Library Week!

2009-10-08T09:39:00.006-06:00

Join us for our SHR Library Open House in celebration of Saskatchewan Library Week! Win draw prizes and enjoy free coffee + treats!

Open House Events will take place at the following locations:

Saskatoon City Hospital- Medical Library
Tuesday October 20, 2009
9:30-11am

St. Paul's Hospital- Medical Library
Thursday October 22, 2009
1:30-3:30pm

Library Week Displays- available from October 19 to 23 at:

Saskatoon City Hospital- Atrium
St. Paul's Hospital- Cafeteria
Royal University Hospital- Cafeteria

*Brought to you by the SHR Medical Library Staff*

Free Consumer Health computer classes available at Saskatoon Public Library this Fall!

2009-09-04T14:53:00.007-06:00

Are you wondering where you can find reliable health information on the Internet? We are pleased to announce that Saskatoon Health Region is partnering with Saskatoon Public Library to present Consumer Health classes this Fall!

Sessions will include:

Accessing Medical Information Online on Wednesday September 16, 7-8:30pm at the Cliff Wright Branch. No registration required; please call (306) 975-7550 for more information.
Consumer Health on Thursday October 15, 7-8:30pm at the Frances Morrison Library. Registration is required. To register, please call (306) 975-7539.

For more information, pick up a copy of the latest issue of SPL's Library News, Sept-Nov 2009, Vol.10, No.4 available at any SPL branch or you can check it out online at:

http://www.saskatoonlibrary.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=81&Itemid=79

Fall '09 SHR Medical Libraries Physicians' Newsletter

2009-09-04T11:16:00.011-06:00

Wondering what's happening at the SHR Medical Libraries this Fall? Be sure to check out our latest Fall '09 edition of our Physicians' newsletter available on our Medical Library homepage at:

(InfoNet) http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/medlib or
(Internet) http://www.lib.sk.ca/shrlib

Register for a library training session today!

2009-08-28T14:40:00.010-06:00

The SHR Medical Library is continuing to provide free library training sessions from September to November for all Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) staff and physicians:

STAT!Ref: Learn how to access this electronic medical library including the full text contents of over 60 leading drug and medical textbooks!

Tuesdays- Sept. 15, Oct. 13 and Nov. 10 at 14:30-16:00

The Cochrane Library: Find out how to search for the best available evidence in your field using The Cochrane Library’s evidence-based medicine databases, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials.

Wednesdays- Sept. 16, and Oct. 14 at 14:30-16:00 and Thursday- Nov. 12 at 14:30-16:00

To register or to find out more information, please email:
library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine Source

2009-08-19T10:04:00.005-06:00

We are pleased to announce the acquisition of a new journal database!

Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine Source™ provides indexing for nearly 200 sports medicine and rehabilitation journals.

Designed for rehabilitation clinicians in a hospital setting, the database contains over 174,000 records dating back to 1963. Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine Source includes access to over 170 full-text scholarly titles in the discipline, such as Journal of Rehabilitation. Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine Source covers such domains as orthopedics, physiology, nutrition, sports exercise, and physical therapy.

Cited references are searchable from over 90 journals. The database also contains access to the full text for 20 book titles in this area, as well as select trade publications and magazines. Most journals are available in full text. For a complete listing of journals and their dates of coverage refer to: http://www.ebscohost.com/titleLists/rss-coverage.pdf

This resource is accessible to all Saskatoon Health Region staff! Feel free to check it out by visiting: Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine Source (*tip: scroll to the bottom of the list of databases to locate and access this resource). If you have any questions or need assistance using this new database, please contact: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

New Check out Rehabilitation Reference Center!

2009-07-20T11:32:00.006-06:00

Yes, you've heard right! We've added a new resource to our online database collection! It is now available for all SHR staff.

According to the site, "Rehabilitation Reference Center is a clinical reference tool designed for use by rehabilitation clinicians, physical therapists, and occupational therapists at the point of care. It provides valid and relevant information intuitively and conveniently, using the best available evidence to help support clinical decisions."

Why not try it out for yourself? You can find the link http://search.ebscohost.com/ from our Library's Homepage at:

(Intranet) http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/medlib/
(Internet) http://www.lib.sk.ca/shrlib/

From the Library's Homepage check the What's New section or go to Databases > Health Databases > EbscoHost Research Databases or Rehabilitation Reference Center.

If you need assistance with this new resource, contact the SHR Medical Library staff at: library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

Anatomy Websites

2009-07-13T15:03:00.013-06:00

Need to understand anatomy?
Desperate for an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand resource with the basics?

Then:

Check out these great websites
Test your knowledge when you're done
Master the basics with confidence!!

Visit:

A new current awareness tool: Clinical Reader

2009-07-07T14:42:00.016-06:00

Developed in 2009, by a physician and tech programmers in London and Toronto, Clinical Reader is a free medical news aggregator that strives to help busy healthcare professionals manage clinical information overload by delivering relevant news from authoritative sources on a daily basis.

For more information, please visit:

About Clinical Reader- http://www.clinicalreader.com/cr/about/
FAQs- Clinical Reader- http://clinicalreader.com/cr/faqs/

Or why not try it out for yourself by visiting: http://clinicalreader.com/

*As an update, please note that this product is not endorsed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Check out Nicole Dettmar's blog citing several copyright issues of Clinical Reader at: http://eagledawg.blogspot.com/2009/07/clinical-reader-starry-ethics-fail.html

Aboriginal data available @ Statistics Canada

2009-06-30T14:34:00.005-06:00

Did you know that Statistics Canada, the major national agency for collecting national statistical information on Canada provides access to extensive Aboriginal data from their website (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/)?

This data covers topics including:

Demographic trends
Family, community, language & culture
Health, housing, & well-being
Education, labour, & income

Also, highlights of Statistics Canada's featured products include data on:

Want to find out more? Go to the Statistics Canada homepage, click on Find Statistics By Subject, and select the link for Aboriginal Peoples to get started with your research.

Summer 2009: Library Training Sessions

2009-06-17T08:48:00.013-06:00

*Attention all SHR staff and physicians!*

Want to learn or improve your search techniques?
Sign up today for a training session at the medical library this summer!

Available Training Sessions at the SHR Medical Library include:

STAT!Ref:
Learn how to access this electronic medical library including the full text contents of over 60 leading drug and medical textbooks!

The Cochrane Library:
Find out how to search for the best available evidence in your field using The Cochrane Library’s evidence-based medicine databases, systematic reviews, and randomized controlled trials.

To register or to find out more information, email:

library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca

The Sky's the Limit- CHLA/ABSC 2009

2009-06-08T10:37:00.008-06:00

The sky truly is the limit! This year's Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA) conference held in Winnipeg from May 30th to June 3rd was an incredible experience! Being a first-timer to this event, I was amazed by the wealth of knowledge that colleagues shared with other professionals in the health libraries field via presentations, continuing education workshops, poster sessions, contributed papers, and a vast array of networking opportunities. Speakers at the conference included: Dr. Alex Jadad from the Centre for Global e-Health Innovation, Dr. Thomas Kerr renowned in HIV/AIDS research, David Rothman writer/consultant on the Web and health information, as well as journalist Nora Young from the CBC.

I would like to congratulate the members of this year's Conference Planning Committee for all their hard work and for executing a flawless conference! Hats off to you!

For more information on this year's conference, check out: http://www.chla-absc.ca/2009/ or to find out about the Canadian Health Libraries Association (CHLA), please visit: http://www.chla-absc.ca/

SHR Medical Libraries Summer 2009- Physicians' Newsletter

2009-06-08T10:30:00.005-06:00

Want to find out what's going on at the SHR Medical Libraries this summer?
Be sure to check out our Summer 2009 edition of our Physicians' newsletter available at: http://www.lib.sk.ca/shrlib/PDF/Summer%202009_Physicians%20Newsletter.pdf

Bored with Google? Try out these new search engines!

2009-05-22T14:06:00.014-06:00

Have you heard of Twine, hakia, Kosmix, SearchMe, or Wolfram Alpha? These are the latest search engines that are trying to make your searches quicker, smarter, personal and more visually appealing. Interested in seeing what all the hype is about? Want to try something other than Google for your searches? See for yourself and try them out! Here are the links below:

Twine- http://www.twine.com/

hakia- http://hakia.com/

Kosmix- http://www.kosmix.com/

SearchMe- http://www.searchme.com/

Wolfram Alpha- http://www.wolframalpha.com/

For more information about these new search engines, check out this article from CNN.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/12/future.search.engine/index.html

Also, CNET.com and its readers have already tested out Wolfram Alpha. Find out the results at:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10247115-2.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

Happy searching everyone!~

Bioportal search engine

2009-05-19T11:33:00.007-06:00

What is Bioportal?

The bioportal search engine is an online tool that assists policymakers, researchers and public health professionals in their search for information on public health genomics by scanning the websites and databases of HumGen International, the PHG Foundation and the CDC's National Office of Public Health Genomics.

According to the site, the aim of the GRaPH-Int bioportal search engine is to optimize searches on the ethical, legal and social issues surrounding public health genomics while providing the latest public health genomics literature; epidemiological data; and public health genomics news and events.

Bioportal is sponsored by the Public Health Agency of Canada, Genome Canada as well as Genome Quebec. This free online tool is available at: http://bioportal.graphint.org/bioportal/

McGill's Global Health Resource Guide Wiki

2009-04-21T09:17:00.012-06:00

The McGill Library has developed a wiki called the Global Health Resource Guide to promote collaboration and to share and organize knowledge about resources within the McGill community and beyond in Canada and internationally.

This guide is available at wikisites.mcgill.ca/GlobalHealthGuide All members of the McGill community – students, faculty, clinicians, researchers and staff – can add resources to the guide by logging in with their McGill user ID. Anyone in the international community with an interest in global health can use the guide for locating global health information and resources.

If you are from an academic community outside of McGill, you can email one of McGill's librarians below to obtain a user ID if you would like to contribute to the wiki.

For further information, to comment or pass on suggestions for content, or to request a User ID to add resources and content, please contact one of these McGill librarians:

Eamon Duffy, Government Information Service, eamon.duffy@mcgill.ca
Louisa Piatti, Nahum Gelber Law Library, louisa.piatti@mcgill.ca
Jim Henderson, Life Sciences Library, jim.henderson@mcgill.ca
Deborah Meert, Macdonald Campus Library, deborah.meert@mcgill.ca

HCIR link collection now transferred to del.icio.us

2009-03-24T10:28:00.008-06:00

The Health Care Information Resources (HCIR) website formerly available on the Health Sciences Library server at McMaster University has been transferred to del.icio.us!

The new del.icio.us collection has over 8,100 links to important and useful health care internet sites. The extensive network of links to alternative and complementary health care from the old site is once again accessible on del.icio.us. There are website links to practically every topic in health and health care that you can explore including information on: disease, healthy living, nutrition, substance abuse, nursing, surgery, bariatric medicine, aromatherapy, endometrial cancer, naturopathy, smoking cessation and more!

Also, there are over 1,600 tags (subject headings) in use on the website to assist you in locating useful web links in the collection. Tag bundles help you bring together single topics which are scattered through a number of subject headings (such as "Cancer" which may be indexed with more specific tags such as: "lymphoma", "bladder cancer", "chordoma", "gynecologic cancer", and so on).

Feel free to try it out at: http://delicious.com/tomflem, add it to your "Favourites", and send any feedback you think would improve the collection to Tom Flemming at: tomflem@sympatico.ca

Yale Image Finder

2009-02-24T12:01:00.002-06:00

Yale Image Finder (YIF) is a publicly accessible search engine featuring a new way of retrieving biomedical images and associated papers based on the text carried inside the images. Users may also search on image captions or on the article text.

A user simply provides a few search keywords and the most relevant images are returned and presented in the form of thumbnails. Users can click on the image of interest to retrieve the high resolution image.

In addition, the search engine provides two types of related images: those that appear in the same paper, and those from other papers with similar image content. Retrieved images link back to their source papers, allowing users to find related papers starting with an image of interest. Currently, YIF has indexed over 140 000 images from over 34 000 open access biomedical journal papers.

Try out Yale Image Finder: http://krauthammerlab.med.yale.edu/imagefinder/

Introducing our New Library Staff!

2009-01-30T11:11:00.009-06:00

From left to right:

(Val Younge, Kelly Dawson, Colleen Haichert, Diana Bang, and Joanne Franko)

Yes, you have heard right! The SHR Medical Library at SCH is back up and running. We are pleased to announce the arrival of 3 new SHR library staff members:

Kelly Dawson, Library Technician
Diana Bang, Reference Librarian
Val Younge, Reference Librarian

As such, we are delighted to continue to offer our library services and resources for staff and physicians within the Saskatoon Health Region. We offer a full suite of services ranging from literature searches, journal article requests, inter-library loans, training sessions, to house-calls, and more!

Feel free to check out our websites for further information including our library training schedule for 2009:

(Infonet) http://infonet.sktnhr.ca/medlib or

(Internet) http://www.lib.sk.ca/shrlib/

New to SHR Library: Consumer Health Books

2008-07-04T11:40:00.003-06:00

Thanks to a donation via the Saskatoon City Hospital Foundation Wish Fund the SHR Medical Library (at city) now has consumer health books. These are great resources for patients and patient families that want health information in terms they can understand. This is a non-circulating collection, but the public is welcome to use the books during library hours (8-5pm Monday thru Friday). Look for new titles as this collection builds.

A couple of recently arrived titles are: Canadian Pharmacists Association Guide to Drugs in Canada and The Complete Canadian Health Guide published by the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine.

Health Maps

2008-05-05T15:30:00.007-06:00

There are many different ways to represent health statistics. The Health Map provided by Harvard-MIT supplies a visual, geographical representation of disease outbreaks across the globe. They do this by aggregating information from a variety of different places, including ProMED and Google News. This kind of combination is often called a mash-up, which means that data from different sources is "mashed" together to provide a new service.

An in-depth and highly interactive approach to mapping health information is provided by the World Health Organization's Global Health Atlas. You can sort WHO statistics by different criteria, and generate reports, charts and maps. You can also use the tool to map specific social and economic aspects of an area, like access to health facilities, schools and roads.

Image source: Life expectancy around the world, Wikipedia, GNU Free Documentation License.

New Databases

2008-04-15T15:37:00.003-06:00

The SHR Library has access to two new databases provided by the Saskatchewan Health Information Resources Partnership. The first new database is Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI for short). This database has listings of a wide variety of medical measurement instruments. HaPI helps clinicians avoid duplication and "reinventing the wheel."
The other new database is Natural Standard. It supplies information on complementary and alternative therapies.
Both of the new databases are available on the SHR library Database page.

Reading, Writing and Health

2008-04-03T16:11:00.007-06:00

How well you can read, interpret and understand health information has a direct impact on your health. Health Literacy is becoming a hot topic as of late. A March 3rd, 2008 press release from the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) states that " a majority of Canadian adults do not have the skills needed to respond to daily health information demands." Debra Lynkowski the CEO of CPHA points out that "Canada's health system must become more sensitive and responsive to the issues of language culture and health literacy."

The CPHA panel recommends that there be a nation wide strategy that implements a programs for groups that are significantly impacted by low levels of health literacy, such as older adults, recent immigrants, those with low income/low education or low capacity in French or English.

To read more about what the CPHA Expert Panel on Health Literacy has to say check out www.cpha.ca

..and stay tuned for more posts about Health Literacy as we delve into the literature and see what's shaking on the international, national and local fronts.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!

2008-02-29T11:09:00.013-06:00

MedlinePlus has a series of surgical procedure videos available on their website. These are educational videos, meant to help people understand what to expect when having a surgical or diagnostic procedure. The videos are all one-hour in length, and are in full colour. You can find a list of the videos and instructions on how to view them here.

They are brought to MedlinePlus by OR-Live which has both live and previous webcasts of surgical procedures. The webcasts include procedures such as a Total Knee Replacement and a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft.

Cochrane Library

2008-02-15T16:07:00.003-06:00

Many of us have used the Cochrane Library to find high quality evidence. However, a large part of Canada does not have access to this resource. In fact, in Canada, Saskatchewan is one of the few provinces that provide universal access to the Cochrane Library, since the Health Quality Council has purchased access for the entire province. So not only can we access the Cochrane Library from within the Health Region, but it is also available through the Public Library to all Saskatchewan residents.

Currently, the Canadian Health Library Association has endorsed a petition to buy a national license for the Cochrane Library, to provide universal access to this resource across the country. If you would like to sign, the petition is here.

Updated E-Books

2008-02-07T16:06:00.000-06:00

The 2008 editions of these books are now available online through STAT!Ref or Books@OVID!

Find a complete list of the SHR Medical Libraries' E-Books listed by subject, click here.

Current diagnosis & treatment in emergency medicine, 6th Ed.
Current medical diagnosis & treatment, 47th Ed.
Griffith's 5-minute clinical consult, 16th Ed.
Hurst's the heart, 12th Ed.
Irwin & Rippe's intensive care medicine, 6th Ed.
Medical-surgical nursing: critical thinking in client care, 4th Ed.
Nursing diagnosis reference manual, 7th Ed.
Review of natural products
Smith's general urology, 17th Ed.

New Print Journals!

2008-01-31T14:10:00.000-06:00

The SCH Medical Library recently added these two journals to their print collection:

Archives of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

If you can't make it into the SCH Library to check them out don't you worry... they are also available online!!!

Keeping Current

2008-01-17T14:04:00.000-06:00

Clinical Cases recently published a couple of posts about RSS feeds and podcasting (Interesting Journal Articles and Annals of Internal Medicine launches a podcast in Chinese) and how you can use them to keep current. Four of the major Medical journals have podcasts of their content, so you can listen to a summary rather than reading. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed from the major journals, and many other journals also have RSS feeds that you can subscribe to.

To subscribe to an RSS feed or a podcast use an RSS reader program such as Bloglines or Google Reader. Sign up for a free account and then just copy the URL of the feed you want into your program.

Contact the SHR library at library@saskatoonhealthregion.ca for help with setting RSS feeds or podcasts up.

New Ovid

2008-01-07T08:51:00.000-06:00

The interface that Medline, PsycINFO, HealthSTAR and many of the other databases use has changed. As of January 4th, the Health Region started using the new Ovid interface, so any database on Ovid works differently than it did before.

The default search is the Basic Search. This search is more "Googley" (if you know what I mean) and is good for quick searches, especially if you're not interested in the ins and outs of Subject Headings and other more complicated aspects of searching.

If you want to continue using the search methods you're used to, you can use the "Ovid Syntax" search that's available by clicking on the tab on the upper right-hand side. This interface looks slightly different, but the search basically works the same way as the searches in the old interface.

If you are interested in any help or instruction on the new interface, contact the SHR library or you can try one of the online demo that Ovid provides.

Are Magical Powers Inherited?

2007-12-21T08:53:00.000-06:00

If you want to know the answer, check out this week’s double issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Magical mysteries are just one of the humours articles published in this special annual Christmas edition.Other gag medical studies in this issue include:

Using chocolate bars to explain bone structure not justified

Altitude and athletic performance: statistical analysis using football results

Also in this issue, there are etiquette guidelines on how to properly sneeze while wearing a surgical mask, and an analysis of slang terms used by doctors.

Have fun reading this issue, and whenever you hear "It’s like . . ." remember that this term is just the opening words of every medical or nursing student sentence (according to BMJ).

Happy Holidays from everyone at the SHR Medical Libraries!

The Return of the Electronic Book: Introducing the Kindle

2007-11-21T08:36:00.000-06:00

Do you remember when they said, like 10 years ago, that we were soon to become a paperless society? Well, I don't know about you, and maybe its the bibliophile in me, but the amount of paper that litters my life has not significantly decreased during this decade. I must admit first off, that I am guilty of the need to experience reading in a tangible way - there is nothing better than cracking open a new book or reading the newspaper sprawled out on the floor.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com fame is the most recent to throw his hat (or e-book) into the electronic ring. The "Kindle" (an e-book reader) is being touted as the "ipod of e-books". The Kindle is a battery operated, wireless device that can download both from Amazon.com and from Audible.com (an audio book site) and is approximately the same size as your favorite paperback novel.

E-books and their partners the e-readers, haven't really caught on with the same breakneck speed as Apple's i-products (mabye they should follow Apples' lead re: tv advertising and pair up Johannes Gutenberg with some coffee shop slacker for some clever banter about print vs. ebooks - just an idea).

So far, the e-book drawback has been the displays (I'm not a techie), something about the lighting and contrast - basically the electronic display is harder on our eyes than print on paper. That's where Kindle comes in with its "revolutionary electronic-paper display, high resolution screen that looks and reads like paper". Does it also have that musty, kind of dirty, glue smell of old library books? If so, I'm in!

Amazon.com already has about 37 medical reference and textbooks available - which may prove useful to medical professionals. But don't we already have PDA's (personal digital assistants)? You can download journal articles, TOC feeds, point of care tools. The PDA also has the advantage of acting as one's personal assistant and office on the go.

Okay, not to be to harsh, medical reference isn't really the main focus of the Kindle. There are about 88,000 books ready for purchase and reference books make up only a small portion - bestsellers and award winning fiction populate the list.

If you happen to have $399 burning a hole in your pocket you can pick up one of thise nifty gadgets from the Amazon online store. Check out Newsweek's article about Bezos and his Kindle: The Future of Reading (how many times have we heard that one). If you're not quite sure you want to make the plunge into e-books here's a product review.

Canadian Health Network is No More

2007-11-20T13:58:00.001-06:00

Canada is unfortunately losing one of its best consumer health resources. The Canadian Health Network (CHN) web portal created by Public Health Canada and various other major Canadian health programs/institutions will be shutting down at the end of at the end of March 2008 due to funding cuts by the federal government. The CHN is a gateway to over 20,000 French and English Canadian web-based consumer health resources, that have been selected and assessed for their quality and validity.

For more about why Canadian Health Network is being eliminated read this message from Public Health Agency of Canada.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Ovid Gets a New Look

2007-11-20T13:33:00.000-06:00

OVID has a new interface, this means that Medline, PsycINFO, HealthStar will look and work differently. The SHR Library will be making the switch sometime in early January. In preparation for this change the library is offering drop in training sessions to demo the new features. The sessions are running November 20th, November 22nd, November 27th, November 29th, December 4th, December 6th, December 11th and December 13th from 3:30pm to 4:15pm.

No registration or sign up is required and watch for more sessions in the new year. Too busy to come to a session? Check out the online demo from Ovid (requires Flash).

Fancy a cuppa?

2007-11-14T15:54:00.000-06:00

A recent article in the CBC Health News states that researchers have found that mixing citrus juice with your cup of green tea will increase the amount of catechins that your body absorbs. These catechins are an antioxidant thought to reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and some forms of cancer. Those claims may be true or not. However, it is known for sure that tea is generally yummy and makes you feel warm on a cold day.

Journal Info Database

2007-11-06T15:37:00.000-06:00

A database has been set up by the University of Lund in Sweden for researchers to find information on journals. The purpose of the database "...is to provide an aid for the researcher in the selection of journal for publication. The publication market has continuously grown more and more complex. It is important to weigh in facts like scope and quality, but more recently also information about reader availability and library cost. The Lund University Libraries have made an attempt to merge all their items into one tool, giving the researcher the power to make informed choices." - Database FAQs
The database includes many Medical journals, but also journals in a wide variety of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences. It covers approximately 18,000 journals from a number of databases, including MEDLINE and PsycINFO.

Medicine 2.0

2007-10-29T13:33:00.001-06:00

The Web has revolutionized a great deal of how we manage information, so it's not surprising that there's discussion of how the technology can be used to advance the practice of medicine and the delivery of healthcare. Especially when the web has undergone a recent change to Web 2.0 technologies, which make it easier for users to collaborate and network. It's also not a surprise that they are using the technology to discuss the technology.

The 10th edition of the blog carnival Medicine 2.0 came out on October 14th. Simply put, a blog carnival is kind of like an online journal around a particular topic that moves around and is hosted on different blogs. For a more detailed explanation, take a look at the Wikipedia article.

What Medicine 2.0 is about, is how the new tools of Web 2.0 can be used in medicine. As the carnival's mission statement says "We believe that the new generation of web services will change the way medicine is practised and delivered."

A complete archive of issues 1 through 10 of Medicine 2.0 is available here.

Food Guides Get More Personal

2007-10-26T12:50:00.000-06:00

Canada’s Food Guide has been around since 1942 and has been through many transformations. The most recent revision saw the inclusion of a variety of ethnic cuisines. Recognizing the different dietary needs of Canadians, Health Canada updated their website to include an interactive module that allows users to personalize the Food Guide information according to their age, gender and food preferences. Additionally, Health Canada created a complementary food guide customized to reflect traditions and dietary choices of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.

Health Canada based this food guide model on the United States Department of Agriculture’s “MyPyramid” which has already begun adapting its food guides for specific groups. Just this week the USDA released the “MyPyramid for Pregnancy and Breastfeeding”. This food guide allows users to personalize their nutritional needs in all stages of pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Eating Well With Canada's Food Guide
Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide - First Nations, Inuit and Métis
MyPyramid for Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

Congrats to the Winners of the Draw!!!

2007-10-22T16:02:00.000-06:00

Our library open houses were a great success! We had many entries for our Saskatchewan Library Week giveaways. People's favourite reading materials were not just limited to books and authors, but entries also included newspapers and magazines. We want to say a big thank you to everyone who came out to show your support for the library. So, without further ado, here are the winners!!

Clue Boardgame

Eunice Smith - Favourite Author: Nora Roberts

$25 Gift Card for McNally Robinson

Destiny Tolley - Favourite Book: After the War by Richard Marvis

Canadian Health Network Travel Mug

Kathie Keene - Favourite Book: Jean Val Jean

Ebsco T-shirts

Dr Obayan - Favourite Book: Textbook of Surgery by Schwartz
Don McCann - Favourite Book: Roots by Arthur Haley
Judy Metcalfe

Ovid Journal & Pen Sets

Carol Smith - Favourite Author: Alex Kava
Sandra Yurchuk - Favourite Book: Nancy Drew Series
Cristine Savage - Favourite Author: Dick Francis

Ebsco Bookbags

Evelyn Filoteo - Favourite Author: Robert Munsch
Loren Regier- Favourite Book: Powerful Medicines by Jerry Avorn
Lorraine Rathgaber

Saskatchewan Library Week 2007!

2007-10-16T12:54:00.000-06:00

Celebrate Saskatchewan Library Week 2007 from October 15 to 22.This annual event promotes the wonderful resources and services that Saskatchewan libraries have to offer. Here at the SHR Medical Libraries, we are celebrating by having an open house on Wednesday, October 17th! Come and visit the SCH Library from 9:00-11:00am, or the SPH Library from 1:30-3:30pm for coffee, cookies, and a chance to win a prize!

Be there or be square!

Fun Friday Factiod

2007-10-05T14:32:00.000-06:00

Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a rare medical condition that usually occurs as a side effect of brain trauma caused by a stroke or a head injury. As you may have guessed from its name, FAS causes people to speak as if they had a foreign accent. Last year, the Journal of Neurolinguistics dedicated a full issue to the syndrome, but for a quick overview, here is an article from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Just For Fun: How Times Have Changed

2007-09-27T15:56:00.000-06:00

File this under Just For Fun and a Good Laugh...Imagine Doctors endorsing Cigarette Smoking!

This You Tube Video via another medical related blog Clinical Cases and Images

Medical Wikis

2007-09-13T14:33:00.000-06:00

An article in The British Medical Journal already discussed why physicians are Googling for a diagnosis. As Doctor Wiki points out, they are using wikis as well.

A wiki is, basically, a website that a number of different authors can contribute to. Most people are probably most familiar with wikis through Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

Wiki's often have many authors, and the ability to author a wiki page may not be very tightly controlled. For medical information, this is definitely a concern. However, AskDrWiki is different, in that they have an editorial board that controls authorship on the wiki, so information can't be posted unless the author has already gotten approval.

A fairly comprehensive list of Medical wikis, including authorship and editorial policies, are at David Rothman's blog.

Scared of Needles?

2007-09-12T08:34:00.000-06:00

According to the CBC Health News, a new and improved patch is in development for administering medications through the skin. Patches are currently being used to administer some drugs, but according to this article, unlike the ones used for smoking cessation or birth control, this skin patch will use tiny needles that barely penetrate the skin, allowing medication to enter the bloodstream in precise doses. Good news for those who don’t like needles!

Check out the article here.

Change of Heart

2007-08-28T16:18:00.000-06:00

Today there was an interesting story on the CBC Health News. A girl who had an artifical heart implanted at Edmonton's Stollery Children's Hospital while waiting for a full transplant was able to have it removed after after 146 days. They figure that the artifical heart allowed her own heart to take the time to heal itself. According to the article, the "Berlin Heart" is the world's first mechanical heart designed for children. Pretty neat stuff!

Here is a link the original article on the CBC website, and also a link to another article on the Capital Health website.

Internet Health Information

2007-08-17T13:04:00.000-06:00

Microsoft and Google are both weighing-in with further attempts to make health information available on the Web. This article about their latest efforts comes from the New York Times and discusses new initiatives that both companies are taking to attempt to streamline searching and to make health records available on the Internet. There is also an interesting posting on the Clinical Cases blog about the new programs.

There are several predecessors to the Health Search Engine attempt, and, in fact, there are many different search engines available. You may want to take a look at Healthline, WebMD, and Medstory.

Healia is a fairly new health search engine directed primarily at consumer health information.

Health on the Net is a non-profit organization that certifies organization and their websites for ethical behaviour. MedHunt from the HON Foundation is a search engine that will not only search the Internet, but also lets you divide your results into those organizations that have received HON accreditation.

TauMed provides content and can also be used to search the Internet for health information. When you do a search in "Health Web" the engine will show you links to TauMed pages as well as other sites.

Baby Einstein?

2007-08-09T14:47:00.000-06:00

Having previously worked in the world of children's librarianship, I am well acquainted with the popularity of the Baby Einstein videos and various imitators. For those not yet familiar with this make your 'baby the smartest baby they can be' phenomenon of the Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby videos, the names pretty much sum up their marketing plan. The formula is simple: buy the video + put baby in front of TV + turn on video = your very own baby genius.

Turns out there might be a fly in this nerve and brain tonic. According to an article published in the Journal of Pediatrics, researchers from Seattle Children's Hospital and the University of Washington found that the first and most important language teacher is you. The researchers found that 8-16 month year old infants who viewed these types of baby targeted videos learned about 10% fewer words than infants with more diverse entertainment tastes.

For further reading:

Coverage of the study from CBC

The study:

Zimmerman FJ. Christakis DA. Meltzoff AN. Television and DVD/video viewing in children younger than 2 years. [Journal Article. Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural. Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't] Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 161(5):473-9, 2007 May.

Human Papillomavirus

2007-08-02T13:40:00.000-06:00

One of the most common sexually transmitted infections in Canada and around the world, there are more than 100 strains of Human Papillomavirus or HPV. Most are not significantly harmful, but several strains are dangerous, responsible for almost all cases of cervical cancer. Recently, several news stories described how Canadian governments are trying to prevent HPV infections, and the controversy that surrounds vaccinations.

An article from the CBC about a new program to vaccinate against HPV in Ontario.

Another article from the CBC describing HPV and the vaccine Gardasil in more detail.

An article from the Canadian Medical Association Journal about the need for further testing of Gardasil before federal funding for vaccination programs are set up.

A statement on HPV vaccine from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

MRSA News

2007-07-27T13:14:00.000-06:00

This image is a 2005 scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicting numerous clumps of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, commonly referred to by the acronym, MRSA; Magnified 4780x from the United States Department of Health and Human Services

The fight against drug-resistant nosocomial infections is ongoing. So its no surprise that measures taken by different hospitals and health authorities to combat these infections are in the news.

A BBC story details how British hospitals are having some success in bringing down their MRSA infections, but that C. difficile is a growing problem in their facilities.

A New York Times article tells about the use of screening and isolation to control infection in American hospitals.

An article from the British Medical Journal discusses how Scotland is considering using screening to combat MRSA infection in their hospitals.

A quick search in the Cochrane Library turns up several reviews and RCTs relating to control of MRSA infections.

Images

2007-07-19T08:44:00.000-06:00

There's always a need for medical images, whether it's for presentations, education or curiosity.

The first place many people go to find pictures is the ol' Google Image Search. However, like all Internet searches, you often get more results than you can deal with, and not necessarily all the images (or even most) will be medical.

So, you might also want to try dedicated Medical Image databases. There are quite a few on the Internet, some require payment and some are free, and there are also several sites, called portals, that give you links to other sites where images are kept. The University of Nebraska has such a site here, and Duke University Library also keeps a collection of links here.

The Hardin MD site, from the University of Iowa, has links to other sites, as well as its own collection of images. U of I also has more general reference information about a variety of medical subjects, so it might be worth exploring even if pictures aren't the most important thing for you.

There are many places to look when you want to find medical images. This is just a start, but if images are something that you use regularly, there are many options available to you.

Image Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine

Sicko: Free Tix for Nurses

2007-07-13T09:16:00.000-06:00

According to a story on the CBC's website, from July 12 to Thursday July 19, Canadian nurses can get in free to see Michael Moore's latest film Sicko. The film takes a critical look at the US health care system. So nurses, head down to the Galaxy Theatre (Cineplex) next week (with your nursing ID) and let us know what you think!

Top 100 Health & Medicine Blogs...

2007-07-05T09:19:00.000-06:00

Wanna be in the know? Meander over to eDrugSearch.com and peruse the list of the World's Top 100 Health & Medicine Blogs. Nope, the SHR Medical Library isn't there quite yet! But there's quite a few other tasty morsels. Some favorites of ours include the Krafty Librarian and Clinical Cases and Images Blog, the latter of which has been featured in BMJ.

Google Speak

2007-06-20T14:27:00.000-06:00

Google, for better or for worse, has become to Internet search engines what Kleenex is to facial tissue. Whether Google should or shouldn't be the default search engine isn't a question I can answer here, and I doubt if I really have the technical knowledge to answer it at all.

But, since Google is so popular, it's worth knowing what the search engine plans for the future. A recent

BBC article gives us some insight into Google's plans. Google is hoping to expand on its personalised search capabilities. Currently, if you're using a personal account in Google, the search engine keeps your search history for 18 months, and then uses that history to personalise your searches. In the future, the search engine is hoping to have an "opt-in" plan that would allow them to keep your search history indefinitely, meaning Google could then tailor your searches even more precisely.

It sounds good, especially in the realm of healthcare vernacular where certain words have a different meaning than they do in mainstream vocabulary. As the BBC points out: "One of the biggest hurdles facing any search engine is trying to understand what a user is specifically searching for when using terms which could be interpreted in different ways and the context of the search itself." For many searches, it's necessary to tell Google that you're looking for health information. Personalisation could potentially decrease this need, and make Google your de facto healthcare portal.

On the other hand, very personalised searches also reduce the flexibilty of your searching. If, like many people, you use Google for all your Internet searching, the search engine may not be able to personalise both work and personal searches. Also, personalised searching may cause the most popular websites to become more popular, and push less popular sites to the sidelines, since every time you connect to a site, it becomes more "popular" for your profile, and therefore more likely to be returned when you do a search.

Finally, the goal of the company is to provide searches that are "hyper-personal," and they hope to be able to answer questions like "What shall I do tomorrow?" and "Which college should I go to?" In order to answer these kinds of questions, the search engine would need to keep huge amounts of information on each user, which should be an issue in and of itself. But even with all that information, I'm not sure that an Internet search engine is capable of answering those questions. And even if it were, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable having Google tell me what I ought to be doing with my day off. Maybe it's just me?

Taking the next steps in using information.

2007-06-13T11:31:00.000-06:00

So once you have information in hand about an issue you are facing, how do you go about actually making the informed decision? Although we would like to think that research studies are perfect, they are usually not, and as such, decisions must be made regarding the level of merit each study should be given. When making decisions about how to judge the information, one process you might want to consider using is the “deliberative” process that I learned about at the 2007 Research Methods School in Calgary, AB.

The deliberative process is a tool for producing guidance for decision making based on heterogeneous evidence. The deliberative process takes into account the categories of evidence, as well as the context in which evidence was created. It is a participatory process that includes representatives from all stakeholders, and is conducted in a face to face interactive manner. The result of the deliberative process is a list of criteria for judging the scientific evidence, as well as a mechanism for including colloquial evidence, such as expert opinions, into the decision making while still leaving it secondary to the science.

The deliberative process also accounts for the wider social and cultural issues that are involved in any decision making process. Each stakeholder brings their own unique perspective to the table, so through the deliberative process, issues of outcomes, risks, equity, fairness, and feasibility can be discussed. Including all these factors in the decision making process should increase the chances that the process produces the best decision for the situation.

Fun in the Sun: Update

2007-06-12T14:08:00.001-06:00

Since our first posting on Vitamin D and its Cancer fighting powers from May 24th the Canadian Cancer Society has announced its recommendations to increase the daily dosage of the sunshine medicine. The society now suggests that Canadians should be taking 1,000 international units of Vitamin D daily during fall and winter when sunshine is not all that powerful here in the Great White North. Subsequently, the CBC website has reported that since the Canadian Cancer Society has released its recommendation the sales of Vitamin D have skyrocketed.

Links:

Vitamin D: Boning up on the sunshine vitamin - news story from the CBC website
Cancer Study Boosts Vitamin D Sales - news story from the CBC website
Canadian Cancer Society Vitamin D Recommendation - Press Release

Patient Safety Resources

2007-06-12T13:40:00.001-06:00

At the Canadian Health Libraries Association I had the opportunity to participate in the Patient Safety Resource Seminar. The discussion centered on how the librarian could best support patient safety in our own facilities or regions.

What we, the librarians have to offer is the ability to find, sift through and direct relevant and reliable resources to the region's staff - which is a service and expertise that we do offer for all areas and departments.

In response to the session and in support of the pro-active initiatives that the Saskatoon Health Region already leads (such as hosting the Quality & Safety Summit) and the overall commitment of SHR for patient care and safety we have created a Patient Safety Subject Guide, In the guide you will find links to websites, Government affiliated departments, key publications and those institutes and organizations on the forefront such as the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.

The guide can be accessed from both our internal and external SHR Medical Library Website (link to external found on tool bar on the right).

CHLA

2007-06-05T20:51:00.000-06:00

Amber Christensen and I (Charles Wood) just returned from Ottawa where we went to the Canadian Health Libraries Association conference. The theme of this year's conference was "Capitalizing on Health Partnerships," and so, the presentations centered on integrating library services into wider health service organizations, health institutions and with other health libraries.

We had an opportunity to talk to, and hear from health librarians from around the country about how libraries are "fitting in" to the wider world of healthcare research and delivery. Topics ranged from new online tools, social software and other technological methods for delivering services, to philosophical and legal issues surrounding information management. We both are looking forward to putting some of the ideas that the conference gave use into practice to serve the SHR better.

picture(locks @ the Rideau Canal): Courtesy of Charles Wood

Social Work Database

2007-05-25T11:18:00.000-06:00

A new database for finding evidence related to Social Work in Healthcare has just been developed by the Center for Aging Policy at the New York Academy of Medicine. Access the new database here.
"In coordination with the National Leadership Coalition, a national advisory group of social work leaders, CAP pursues public policy solutions to ensure that there is a strong workforce of qualified social service professionals to meet the demands of America's growing older population. "
Resources for Social Work can sometimes be a little hard to find, so this database is a welcome addition.

Fun in the Sun

2007-05-24T16:13:00.000-06:00

Well it’s almost summertime, though the May snowfalls and gray skies may be deceptive, it's the time of year (if you’re like me) when everyone cracks open that bottle of SPF 45. A habit according, to a couple of articles from the Globe and Mail that might just need a bit of adjustment.

All that lotion is allegedly blocking out the Vitamin D that our bodies need to prevent diseases like MS, juvenile diabetes and osteoporosis and cancers such as prostrate, colon and breast cancer. According to one of the articles the Canadian Cancer Society has even "tweaked" their sunscreen recommendations, acknowledging people need "limited" amounts of sunshine in order to synthesize enough Vitamin D naturally.

Hey don’t throw the bottle away yet! The article (Vitamin D casts cancer prevention in a new light) mentions results from a 4 year clinical trial, the author(s) and the specific study were not named…so in the spirit of Evidence Based Practice and Evidence Decision Making, we've included a citation for a similar themed recently published study and links for the two Globe and Mail articles!

Globe and Mail Articles:

Mittelstaedt, Martin. Vitamin D Casts Cancer Prevention in New Light. Globe & Mail. Toronto, Ont: Apr 28, 2007. pg. A.1

Agrell, Siri. Five-point Vitamin D Primer. Globe & Mail. Toronto, Ont: Apr 30, 2007. pg. L.1

Review - Journal Article

Schwartz GG & Skinner HG. Vitamin D status and cancer: new insights. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care. 10(1):6-11, 2007 Jan.

The Hitch-hiker's Guide to Systematic Reviews

2007-05-23T14:28:00.000-06:00

Not all systematic reviews are created equal. Ever since systematic reviews became the gold standard of evidence, people have tried to adjudicate them and rank them according to quality. Understandable, since so much now depends on their quality.
AMSTAR is a new tool developed to assess quality in systematic reviews. Not the first one, as the authors point out, there are 24 instruments to do this, but AMSTAR incorporates the latest research into it's design and is easier to use (hopefully). This probably isn't the last word, but it's the latest word.

New Training Session in June!

2007-05-18T14:30:00.000-06:00

Confused by that little orange button? Want to know more about blogs, blogging and how to use RSS feeds to keep up-to-date with the latest news in your field?

The SHR Medical Library is offering a new training session: Blogs, Database Alerts & RSS on June 26th, 3pm @ SCH for all Saskatoon Health Region Staff. We'll be showing you how to find blogs, set up your own blog, subscribe to various news sources and also how to set up database alerts for the likes of CINAHL & PubMED as well as setting up Table of Content Alerts for your favorite journals.

Contact the SHR Library Staff to register and for more information! Don't have time to come to the session, but still interested? The SHR Librarians make house calls - we provide one-on-one training for any of your research, library related needs (available to SHR Staff in Saskatoon).

Blogging Is Not Just For Medical Libraries… You Can Do It Too!

2007-05-16T08:23:00.000-06:00

Numerous blogs about life in the trenches have been written by doctors, nurses, and other health professionals. Check out some of these examples:

Adventures in Improving Access – This blog by Dr. Kishore Visvanathan, a Saskatoon Urologist, chronicles the successes and challenges of applying a new strategy for reducing patient waiting times in his clinic.

Madness: Tales of an Emergency Room Nurse – Veteran ER Nurse Girlvet humorously chronicles her and her colleagues adventures in an inner city ER.

Surgeonsblog– Retired surgeon Sid Schwab sets out to amuse and educate us with entertaining stories straight from the surgical suite.

A Day at the Pharmacy – mrhunnybunny blogs about the comings and goings from a provincial, small-town pharmacy. Very humorous antidotes about all things pharmacy.

If you want to start your own blog, check out this how-to video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU4gXHkejMo

Or, contact the library for help.

Your Heart in 3D

2007-05-11T11:55:00.000-06:00

Came across this site showing a 3D view of the anatomy of the heart from Your Practice Online via davidrothman.net (an exceptional 'in-the-know' medical librarian blog). The site is aimed at the consumer and gives decent overview of the major functions and anatomy of the heart including interior, exterior views and animations.

Tripping

2007-05-04T14:07:00.000-06:00

The TRIP database (Turning Research into Practice) searches a wide variety of sources, including DARE and the Cochrane Library, for the best evidence. The idea behind TRIP is to create a database where medical evidence can be found in one place, using one search engine.
A recent article in the Journal of the Medical Library Association took a look at how the TRIP database is used to find evidence. The authors came to two main conclusions 1) searchers often don't take advantage of all the features available to them through a database to make better searches and 2) the database (like almost all databases) could probably be clearer and easier to use.

The complete article is available from PubMed central here.
We've just added a link to the TRIP database from our own database page, so try it out if you haven't had a chance yet.

New Addition to Subject Guides: Current Awareness

2007-05-02T13:30:00.000-06:00

We've just added current awareness sections to most of our Subject Guides. In the guides you will find links for RSS news feeds relavant to the various subject areas. We've also added a Current Awareness Subject Guide (inspired by UBC Library's awesome Current Awareness Tools Guide) where you can find out how more about these handy tools to keep up-to-date!

**note the links to the SHR Library Subject guides are for the internal site only**

Brush Up on Your EBM Skills

2007-04-27T14:33:00.000-06:00

Not familiar with EBM pyramid of evidence? Check out the Evidence Based Knowledge Portal.

The portal was created by Eskind Biomedical Library - Vanderbilt University (Nashville Tennessee) and developed in conjunction with a National Library of Medicine funded project (USA). A terrific learning resource, the tutorials are aimed at helping clinicians to learn the basics of EBM.

All you need to do is submit your e-mail address to the site administrator to receive a password and EBMing you go!

SHR Medical Library

Attributes of a Health Literate Organization

New Lexicomp interface

Discussion Paper: Patient-Clinician Communication: Basic Principles and Expectations

Canadian Patient Safety Week

New Guidelines from the Mental Health Commission of Canada

App for that?

Communicating Risks and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User's Guide

Community View Collaboration (CVC)

Lexicomp Training Sessions: June 21-22

Our library hours will be changing: May 30th

*New resource: Lexicomp*

Trial available for Lexicomp Online

Google Body Browser

Season's Greetings from the SHR Medical Library staff

Remembrance Day: Thursday November 11th

Celebrating Libraries from October 18th to 21st!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Labour Day: Monday September 6th

SHR Medical Library's Fall Training Schedule

STAT!Ref goes mobile!

Saskatchewan Day: Monday August 2nd

New OvidSP platform to launch August 2nd!

Websites of Interest

Happy Canada Day!

Effective June 28th: Changes to External Website Access

Improve your research skills this summer!

Happy Victoria Day from the SHR Medical Library staff

SHR Medical Library Update Sessions

Happy Easter from the SHR Medical Library Staff

SHR Medical Library's New External Website!

*New!* E-Books from OCLC's NetLibrary

Winter 2010 SHR Medical Libraries Physicians' Newsletter

Check out Micromedex!

Happy New Year from the SHR Medical Library Staff

Happy Holidays from the SHR Medical Library Staff

Sign-up today for a free library training session!

Celebrating Saskatchewan Library Week!

Free Consumer Health computer classes available at Saskatoon Public Library this Fall!

Fall '09 SHR Medical Libraries Physicians' Newsletter

Register for a library training session today!

Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine Source

*New* Check out Rehabilitation Reference Center!

Anatomy Websites

A new current awareness tool: Clinical Reader

Aboriginal data available @ Statistics Canada

Summer 2009: Library Training Sessions

The Sky's the Limit- CHLA/ABSC 2009

SHR Medical Libraries Summer 2009- Physicians' Newsletter

Bored with Google? Try out these new search engines!

Bioportal search engine

McGill's Global Health Resource Guide Wiki

HCIR link collection now transferred to del.icio.us

Yale Image Finder

Introducing our *New* Library Staff!

New to SHR Library: Consumer Health Books

Health Maps

New Databases

Reading, Writing and Health

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!

Cochrane Library

Updated E-Books

New Print Journals!

Keeping Current

New Ovid

Are Magical Powers Inherited?

The Return of the Electronic Book: Introducing the Kindle

Canadian Health Network is No More

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: Ovid Gets a New Look

Fancy a cuppa?

Journal Info Database

Medicine 2.0

Food Guides Get More Personal

Congrats to the Winners of the Draw!!!

Saskatchewan Library Week 2007!

Fun Friday Factiod

Just For Fun: How Times Have Changed

Medical Wikis

Scared of Needles?

Change of Heart

New resource: Lexicomp

New! E-Books from OCLC's NetLibrary

New Check out Rehabilitation Reference Center!

Introducing our New Library Staff!