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Books & Bytes

Volume 7, Number 3    November-December 1994

Books & Bytes is produced by the HSLIC Library Staff for Health Sciences Center personnel. Copyright University of Washington.

Table of Contents

  1. Information Support for UW Patient Education
  2. AIDS Outreach Project Funded by NLM
  3. Christine Beahler: HIFY Librarian
  4. Use Nursing & Allied Health Database for Patient Education!
  5. Reductions in Document Service Rates Expected in January
  6. An Apple a Day
  7. Patient Information Available through HIFY
  8. Health Reference Center
  9. Patient Information Available Through HealthTracks
  10. Recent Gifts
Contributors to this issue: Sherry Dodson, Ellen Howard, Terry Ann Jankowski, Debbie Ketchell, Neil Rambo, Janet Schnall, Jean Shipman, Carolyn Weaver.

Information Support for Patient Education

Information support for patient care at the UW Medical Center (UWMC), Harborview Medical Center (HMC), and UW outpatient clinics is integral to the mission of the UW Health Sciences Libraries. Requests for information needed for direct patient care at any UW facility receive priority attention. Two clinical librarians have special responsibility for coordinating access to information needed by health care teams.

In response to new patient education requirements for hospital accreditation, health care reform initiatives at the state and national levels, and increasing activism on the part of health care consumers, the Libraries' role in the past year has expanded to include new initiatives in direct support of UW patient education. Library staff are actively working with patient education committees and health care providers to identify patient education materials in both printed and electronic formats which should be added to the Libraries' collections, and we will be making some materials in electronic format available through HealthTracks and HealthLinks in the next year. Health care providers can now refer patients to the Health Sciences Library (HSLIC) for information about their conditions with reasonable assurance that materials written at the appropriate level will be available. Harborview patients should also be referred to HSLIC rather than the K.K. Sherwood (KKS) Library, since the KKS collection is intended for professional use only.

Patient education is initiated by health care providers as a part of the health care delivery process for a particular patient or group of patients to enable them to participate in and make informed decisions about their own health care. Consumer health information (CHI), in contrast, is sought directly by the consumer in response to a personal need for health information.

Because of limited resources, HSLIC does not at this time offer consumer health information services directly to the public, although consumers are welcome to use library resources onsite and to make use of the fee-based Health Information for You program. Wellness information, a hallmark of many formal CHI programs, is collected only to the extent specifically requested by UW health care providers or required to support UWMC and Harborview programs, and consumers seeking such information are routinely referred to local public libraries. HEALTH REFERENCE CENTER, among other resources, is available at the Bellevue, Federal Way, and Shoreline Regional Libraries of the King County Library System, which also has a Medical Reference Specialist to handle reference questions.

"Patient and Consumer Health Information Resources" was developed to make the Library more "user friendly" for patients and consumers in researching health care topics. This pathfinder provides quick directions for locating books and journals, lists key reference books by subject, and briefly describes HEALTH REFERENCE CENTER and other resources useful to consumers. Request copies by sending an email message to hsl at u.washington.edu. It will soon be available on HealthTracks as well.

Additional information about patient education resources of the Health Sciences Libraries are described in this issue of Books & Bytes. Watch future issues for announcements of new patient education resources as they become available.

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AIDS Outreach Project Funded by NLM

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region (NN/LM PNR), headquartered at HSLIC, was awarded $21,466 in September by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to conduct an AIDS information outreach project in the Northwest. N N/LM PNR was one of three regional offices of the NN/LM to receive supplemental project funding to support outreach efforts to AIDS-related organizations.

Under the project's two components, NN/LM staff will work directly with interested county health departments, and will also provide funding to health sciences librarians in Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon to enable them to serve community-based AIDS organizations in their areas.

Since AIDS is frequently viewed as an urban phenomenon, information about AIDS is often more difficult to obtain in rural areas. While all county health departments have an AIDS contact staff person, that individual may be the only local resource available in some rural areas, for physicians, nurses, patients, families, and the general public. NN/LM PNR staff will work with interested county health departments in the Northwest on AIDS information needs for a variety of uses and populations. The specific need will guide the approach taken in each case, whether searching AIDS databases with GRATEFUL MED, using other Internet resources, or locating appropriate patient education and consume r health information materials. NN/LM PNR librarians will train health department staff, develop customized materials, and help establish relationships between departments and other medical and public libraries.

The second part of this project will provide limited support to librarians who are interested in providing outreach services to community-based AIDS organizations in their areas. NN/LM PNR staff will provide support in the form of GRATEFUL MED and Internet training materials, specially developed resource guides, and other training as needed. Librarians will be invited to apply for these support grants and asked to describe and justify their project plan.

The first phase of this project is under way. The second phase will begin early in 1995. The project will continue through April 1996. For more information, please call the NN/LM PNR office at 543-8262 (or toll free within the region, 800-338-7657) or email to nnlm@u.washington.edu.

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Christine Beahler: HIFY Librarian

Christine Beahler is now on board as HSLIC's Health Information for You (HIFY) librarian. Chris comes to UW from Environmental Toxicology International, Inc., where she was Director of the ETI Information Center. She received her MLS degree from the University of Washington in 1991 and has an undergraduate degree in Sociology from Pacific Lutheran University.

As HIFY Librarian, Chris' primary responsibility is to provide information services on a fee-for-service basis to clients not affiliated with the University. For more information about HIFY, or to request services, call 543-7478 or send an email message to hsl at u.washington.edu.

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Use Nursing & Allied Health Database for Patient Education!

The latest addition to the UW Libraries suite of databases, nursing & allied health (UW's locally mounted version of CINAHL), is a rich source for patient and consumer health information. In addition to health and patient education materials written from a professional perspective, consumer health journals are included as a primary focus of the database.

A quick way to locate articles written from the patient's point of view is to develop a search using the Wilco Compose or Willow Advanced Searching screens and then use ^x (the control and X keys) in Wilco or click on a field label in Willow to change one query box to Journal Set. From the resulting browse list under Journal Set, select Consumer Health. The resulting retrieval is from general titles such as Health & You, Johns Hopkins Medical Letter, Health After 50, Time, and US News & World Report. This list can be used either to recommend readings to your patients or to explore the health-related topics that are being discussed in the general press. Most articles from these journals are easily accessible by patients in public libraries.

NURSING & ALLIED HEALTH also provides excellent coverage of such health education journals as American Journal of Health Promotion, Diabetes Educator, and Health Values. To locate articles to use for patient education, simply use the Compose o r Advanced Searching screen to build your search on a topic such as 'Smoking cessation.' In one Subject Heading box (change the label if necessary) use the term Patient Education as one of your search terms.

Because of its broad coverage of allied health and consumer oriented materials written in non-technical language which is comprehensible to non-professionals, nursing & allied health is a very useful database for direct searching by patients. Patients may be referred to the Library to use this database and other resources such as HEALTH REFERENCE CENTER at any time. They do need to be warned, however, that UW faculty, staff, and students have priority access to library workstations and that they may need to wait for access to a terminal.

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Reductions in Document Service Rates Expected in January

We are pleased to announce that both copicard and mediated photocopy rates for UW clients are expected to decrease by 1 cent per page effective January 1. Assuming that proposed changes are approved by the UW budget office, copicard fees for UW users will decrease to 5.5 cents per page for cards charged to a UW budget (6.8 cents per page including sales tax and overhead for those paying by cash or credit card.) Budget rates for mediated copying (you pull/we copy) will decrease to 11 cents per page (14 cents per page including sales tax and overhead for those paying cash.)

Most Document Delivery rates will remain unchanged. However, due to an expected increase in postal rates, off-campus delivery charges for photocopies will increase to $1.09 (budget) or $1.35 (cash) per item.

The Interlibrary Loan (ILL) rate structure will also change effective January 1. Although UW Health Sciences clients will continue to be charged a flat fee of $4.00 per item ordered through ILL, any request not charged to a UW budget will incur a UW surcharge of 14.7% plus sales tax. There will also be a delivery charge for off-campus delivery of prepaid photocopies received via ILL (See Document Delivery delivery charges above.) Revised ILL rates mirror the rates for HSLIC's document delivery services.

For further information about rates or services, send an email message to hsl at u.washington.edu or call 543-7497.

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An Apple a Day

Taking care of one's health means developing habits that lead to vigor and health; making the right preventive health decisions; periodic monitoring for those diseases that sneak up without warning; and responding to new medical problems through self-care and consulting with health professionals. A new section of HealthLinks called "Your Health" is intended to collect information needed for personal health maintenance - which is why it is labeled with a red apple.

The "Your Health" section includes HealthBeat articles produced by the UW Health Sciences/Medical Affairs News and Community Relations staff, using UW and WAMI faculty as sources. These are the same articles that appear in University Week and are distributed to newspapers throughout the four-state WAMI region. "Your Health" also includes a selected group of health information resources from other institutions.

HealthLinks is a joint project of IAIMS and the Health Sciences Libraries. We are interested in adding other UW-produced self-care and patient education materials to complement HealthBeat. Please contact Debbie Ketchell (ketchell@u.washington.edu) if you have such materials available as electronic text that you would like to distribute.

HealthLinks may be accessed through any Mosaic or equivalent World Wide Web browser. The URL address is http://healthlinks.washington.edu. Click the "Your Health" button or text to access. If you do not have a graphical browser, you may connect through the Lynx program on UWIN by selecting: Internet Resources -> Lynx gateway and then typing G (for Go) and the URL address provided above. Use the down arrow to move down to "Your Health" and press return once the phrase is highlighted.

YOUR HEALTH HEALTH INFORMATION FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
HealthBeat is provided courtesy of the University of Washington Health Sciences Center.  Articles are written by staff of Health Sciences/Medical Affairs News and Community Relations in collaboration with Health Sciences Center faculty.
-  Body Art the Safe and Sane Way. September 20, 1994
-  Chlamydia:  Breakthroughs in Diagnosis and Treatment.
     September 13, 1994
-  Motherhood After 35: Staying Healthy and Happy.
     August 30, 1994
-  New Nutrition Guidelines for Diabetes. August 16, 1994
-  Breast Cancer Treatment. August 2, 1994
-  Know the Basics of CPR. 12 July 1994
-  Computer Screens and Your Eyes. 17 May 1994
-  Panic Attacks, Anxiety, Shyness, Phobias:  Are They
     Running Your Life? 26 April 1994
-  Arthritis and Exercise. 12 April 1994
-  New Drug May Ease Depression. 15 March 1994
-  Dirty Air:  a Breathing Problem. 8 March 1994

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Patient Information Available through HIFY

Health Sciences Libraries services are available to clinicians who wish to offer patients additional information about their conditions, upcoming medical tests or surgical procedures. Through its Health Information for You (HIFY) service, HSLIC can provide patients with subject-specific database searches, copies of articles or book chapters, or customized research. Fees for this self-sustaining service vary according to the type of service provided. Patients may pay for these services by cash, check, or credit card. If you want additional information or wish to refer patients, contact HIFY staff at 543-7478 or hsl at u.washington.edu.

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Health Reference Center

HEALTH REFERENCE CENTER (HRC), a comprehensive patient education/consumer health library on CD-ROM, is available on a dedicated terminal in HSLIC's reference area. HRC provides current information on health, medical advances, fitness, nutrition and related topics. It uses hypertext technology to access periodical indexes, professionally written consumer summaries, abstracts, full text journal articles, and references from medical and drug books. HRC includes:

HEALTH REFERENCE CENTER, which is updated monthly, will soon be joined by other electronic products intended for patient and consumer use. We welcome your suggestions for electronic products to be considered. Send an email message to hsl at u.washington.edu or call Carolyn Weaver at 543-3401.

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Patient Information Resources Available Through HealthTracks

A wealth of patient and consumer health information is readily available through HealthTracks on UWIN. From the main UWIN menu, follow the path HealthTracks -> Clinical Care -> Patient Information.

Patient information

1.  Breast Cancer Information  Clearinghouse (NYSERNet)/
2.  Health information (McKinley Health Center, U Illinois)/
3.  New York State Dept of Health - Consumer Health Information/
4.  Travel Health: Staying Healthy in Asia, Africa, and Latin America/
5.  Variety of general information (U Montana)/
6.  Women's Health/

One of the available "gopher holes" on this path:

Health information (McKinley Health Center, U Illinois)

1.  Diseases/Conditions/
2.  Drug/Alcohol/
3.  Health Promotion/
4.  Fitness/
5.  Nutrition/
6.  Sexuality/
7.  Stress/
8.  Tests/
9.  Translated Materials/
10. Women's Health/
11. Medications/

Information relevant for patient education is available through discipline-specific paths as well. For example, OncoLink, developed at the University of Pennsylvania, is the first multimedia World Wide Web an d gopher server focusing on cancer information for both the health care professional and the patient. From the main UWIN menu, follow the path Health Tracks -> Clinical Care -> Cancer.

OncoLink (U Penn)

1.  WAIS Search of OncoLink . . . [?]
2.  Conventional (SINGLE WORD) Search of OncoLink . . . [?]
3.  What's NEW on OncoLink/
4.  A Short Paper On OncoLink
5.  Cancer News/
6.  Disease Oriented Menus/7
7.  Chemotherapy/7
8.  Gynecologic Oncology/
9.  Medical Oncology/
10. Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology of Cancer/
11. Pediatric Oncology/
12. Radiation Oncology/
13. Medical Physics/
14. Pain Management/
15. Surgical Oncology/
16. Veterinary Oncology/
17. Psychosocial Support, Support Groups, Cancer Organizations, etc./
18. Specific Topics Relating to Cancer/

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Recent Gifts

Acknowledgment and appreciation are extended to the following individuals and organizations who have recently made contributions to the Health Sciences Libraries collections:

and the following UW departments:

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