This seminar explores best practices in hybrid course structure, with an emphasis on deciding what to teach online versus in person. In addition, ideas for blending the multiple modalities to create a cohesive learning experience will be explored. Challenges for both the student and teacher will be a focus of discussion.

Alexa Doig, PhD, RN, is an Assistant Professor at the College of Nursing and teaches physiology and pathophysiology courses in the undergraduate and graduate programs. She has developed two fully online courses and three that use an integrated hybrid approach. She received two University Technology Assisted Curriculum Center grants to support the development of the fully online courses. Dr. Doig is a recipient of the University’s Early Career Teaching Award.

Please join us in the Spencer F. and Cleone P. Eccles Health Sciences Education Building, Room 2120 at 12:05-1:00 p.m. for this program.

For more details, visit the LIFT Forum page at http://library.med.utah.edu/or/lift/   Program can be viewed from off-site via link from the web page; and available on demand after the program.

The LIFT Forum is co-sponsored by the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library and the Media-on-Demand committee.

Questions can be directed to: Jeanne Le Ber; 801-585-6744 or jeanne.leber@utah.edu

Available in English and Spanish.

For more information, contact either

• Alice Weber, Alice.weber@utah.edu or 801-587-9247
• Eccles Library front desk, ehsl-reference@lists.utah.edu or 801-581-8772.

• Picking the right search terms
• Understanding search results
• Narrowing a search to get the best results
• Searching for evidence for research tasks
• Evaluating credibility of sources

This video includes two librarians talking briefly about the transformation of their jobs, and the importance of overcoming the digital divide: those who can versus those who cannot search effectively.

While these lessons are aimed at primary and secondary school students, Google’s Search Education could also be incorporated in to college freshmen level courses, especially those that everyone is required to take.

Pros and cons

On the positive side, this package of lesson plans could be incorporated into any school’s curriculum, perhaps with testing to assure students are reaching certain levels of proficiency. If students moving from one level of education to another (primary to secondary to higher ed) bring sufficient levels of search proficiency, this provides opportunities for them to take these skills to the next level, creating and contributing new content. If librarians and other educators embrace this curriculum and can clearly demonstrate its value (grant-funded study, anyone?), it will eventually become required learning.

On the negative side, what if the librarian’s Masters of Library Science degree was replaced with a “Bachelors in Education with Search Certification” degree? If using Google and a few selected credible resources is all that’s needed for primary and secondary education, why would anyone spend the extra time and money to get an MLS? Colleges and universities may still need Information Specialists (i.e. librarians) to teach how to use specialized databases for a time. But what if Google decided to weigh in on the subscription database business, setting up a single standard for organizing data for searching? Google could become a single-point of access to any and all publishers’ content. This could make or break a publisher or other content provider. While major vendors such as EBSCO and LexisNexis could find the resources to adapt, smaller publishers could be pushed aside, and ultimately be absorbed by their larger competitors.

Could this happen? Why or why not? Tell us (in the comments)!

• a short booklet aimed at researchers explaining the relevance of information literacy to their work, and
• a two-page pamphlet version of key information from the booklet.

Included in these materials is a diagram of “Information literacy lens on the Vitae Researcher Development Framework using the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy.” IL for the researcher involves the ability to:

• Identify an information need for answering a research question,
• know the Scope of gaps in their current knowledge that need filling,
• Plan strategies for finding needed data and information,
• Gather data, information and other needed resources,
• review and Evaluate the research process and resulting data
• Manage information so it is organized both professionally and ethically,
• apply and Present research results by synthesizing new and old information to create new knowledge, and disseminate it in multiple ways

As discussions in our regular “Librarians Meeting” indicate, academic libraries supporting research need to move from a ready-to-help-librarian model, to a partnership with researchers where we bring our expertise at organizing and finding information to the research planning process. Our challenge is to build collaborative relationships with researchers at our institutions so that as they begin planning research, we can facilitate the process so research information and results are well-organized, and packaged for reuse. Eccles Library is dedicated to supporting the medical research community, and has on staff a dedicated Research Librarian, Abby Adamczyk.

Are you a researcher planning a new endeavor? Have you ever considered partnering with a librarian during the planning process? Tell us about it!

Health care professionals must become “medically bilingual,” that is, learn to speak both medical jargon and plain language. I like to ask myself, “How would I explain this to my mother?”

When a physician is explaining her/his findings and recommendations, if the patient does not understand, he/she may not even ask for clarification out of fear of appearing ignorant. While medical schools are working to train doctors to speak using everyday language, patients can take some simple steps to avoid making this mistake: ask three simple questions:

1. What is my main problem?
2. What do I need to do?
3. Why is it important for me to do this?

And if your physician answers in a way that is confusing or loaded with unintelligible jargon, stop her/him and ask for them to explain in simpler language.

The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) created the Ask Me 3^TM patient education program “to promote communication between health care providers and patients in order to improve health outcomes.” When patients clearly understand health information and instructions, they make fewer mistakes and can better manage their own healthcare. The NPSF offers patient brochures and other reference materials, and created this video to assist in improving patient-doctor communication.

While it is important that patients ask questions, and doctors answer using understandable language, it is also important to acknowledge that the current health system does not reward physicians for taking time to speak with patients. Regulation needs to be enacted or changed so that physicians can be reimbursed by health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid and other plans for the time spent. It will likely save the system money in the long run as well.

What other steps can be taken to improve doctor-patient communication? Tell us about it!

From 2006 – 2008, families in a six-site nationwide study participated in a program to enhance parenting skills. Participating parents were monitored for “depression, health- and healthcare-related practices, and surrounding family conditions at baseline and 6-month intervals for up to 36 months.” Data from this study, available in a publicly-funded AHRQ/NIH database, was recently analyzed, and while participants began with reduced health literacy skills, “after 1 year of enhanced home visitation, vulnerable parents were better able to manage personal and family health and healthcare, especially if depressed.” While the sample size (2,572 parent/child dyads) was modest, the findings demonstrate one way we can improve parental health literacy levels even among depressed parents.

In addition to demonstrating the benefits of home visitation in improving health literacy, this study provides support for those that argue for making publicly-funded research data available to all. While no less important back then, health literacy was not the burning topic in 2006-2008 as it is today. Principal investigators had no idea that their work could or would be used in this way. If this data was locked behind a publisher’s pay-wall, this study might never have happened. Because it was publicly available, it could be re-used to test new ideas and ways to help people today.

Researchers must have open access to as many data sources as possible in order to find new ways to help those in need. Access must take precedence over ownership and control when the health outcomes of vulnerable populations (in this case, children) is at stake.

What data sources should be made accessible that are not available right now? Or, what publicly available data/studies/etc. would you like to see analyzed in new and creative ways? Tell us about it!

Reference:

1.    Smith SA, Moore EJ. Health Literacy and Depression in the Context of Home Visitation. Maternal and child health journal. Nov 26 2011.

First, the Center for Health Literacy Promotion Blog has a great story about “Esther,” a woman in the 1830′s whom the author calls “ahead of her time.” Too sick a 21 to help on the family farm or marry, she became a servant in a convent. When she became too sick to work there, she was sent home, where she founded a school, taught others to be teachers (who then started other schools), and broke social norms of the time to teach boys and girls together. At age 40, she and her teachers were recognized by the Catholic Church, becoming the Order of the Sisters of Saint Anne. While it may seem far afield to mention religious education in this context, closing words from the post make it a bit more relevant:

Aunt Esther was born two hundred years ahead of her time. Today her vision of literacy as the foundation for health, an escape route from poverty and the key to the advancement of women and society is an idea whose time has come. She inspires my work at the intersection of health and literacy.

The second item worth noting is a wiki created by researchers at the University of Michigan that is a catalog of more than 100 medical devices and technologies that can be used in poorer areas of the world. Example include:

• Pedal-powered nebulizer for asthma treatments
• Using a hand-cranked salad spinner as a centrifuge for blood samples
• Small, wax-filled sleeping bags that could be used to keep premature babies warm

Finally, an article in the Wall Street Journal asks some challenging questions about mobile devices and the future of medicine. In short, with all of the add-ons that are being created for smartphones, how will this transform the practice of medicine? The author offers these examples:

You can get an add-on to a smartphone which does eye refraction and then texts [the prescription] to get your glasses made. If you’re an optometrist, you might be worried about that. Or you can get your skin lesion scanned and get a text back quickly that there’s nothing to worry about. If you’re a dermatologist, that’s a big part of your practice. You will be able to take a DNA sequence on a USB port and pop it into your smartphone and get data out of it. It just goes on and on.

For patients that live a distance from a specialist in one area of medicine or another, online appointments could be used to maintain communication and improve patient outcomes. And many yet-to-be-invented uses of technology will radically alter how medicine is practiced. Yet medicine, as a profession, is slow to change. Will technology change that, or will it leave traditional medicine behind?

What do you think of these different stories and what they have to offer? Tell us!

“there has also been criticism that this concept has been poorly defined, that it stretches the idea of “literacy” to an indefensible extent and more specifically, that it adds little to the existing concerns and intervention approaches of the better established discipline of health promotion.”

She goes on to select one definition of health literacy (Nutbeam, 2000) and using the concept of “critical health literacy” to determine its usefulness in improving the health of communities and individuals. This article concludes that the concept of critical health literacy connects ideas across multiple domains, yet retains “a key focus on the interaction between individuals and information about health” and how information can be used to improve health outcomes.

While much of the research around the topic of health literacy has be quantitative in measure, qualitative research is also needed to address the “socially situated nature of health literacy, involving interpersonal relationships, emotional involvement, and issues of power and resistance” (Chinn, 2011). Knowing how people utilize their personal networks to assemble an understanding of their health situation has the potential to increase the effectiveness of health literacy outreach efforts.

But we cannot stop there. It is also important to know what individuals and organizations benefit from poor health literacy, and what roadblocks and hurdles – legal, political, and more – are being put or kept in place to maintain the status quo.

What questions do you think researchers should be asking about critical health literacy? Where should academic institutions, libraries, non-profit organizations and others be focusing their resources to address this timely issue? Tell us about it!

References:

Chinn, D. (2011). Critical health literacy: a review and critical analysis. Soc Sci Med, 73(1), 60-67. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.04.004

Nutbeam, D. (2000). Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century. [Article]. Health Promotion International, 15(3), 259.

Health literacy is the ability to get information, understand it, and use information to lower risk and better health.

In addition, this site posted a YouTube video from Harvard School of Public Health’s Dr. Rima Rudd, Senior Lecturer on Society, Human Development, and Health. In it, she talks about the “Perspective” article she wrote for the New England Journal of Medicine on improving Americans’ health literacy.

Unfortunately, NEJM’s link to one of the sources cited in her paper is not working properly, namely, the report “Literacy & Health Outcomes” from AHRQ (the link to the left works). If only librarians had been consulted in the building of the Internet and World Wide Web…

This practice can be applied to the clinical setting as well. When prescribing medication or other treatments, physicians can ask their patients to tell them what they’ve just learned. The Amednews blog gives one example of how to make this happen, as offered by one physician:

“The way I do it is to ask, ‘When you get home tonight, your husband or wife will probably want to know what happened. What are you going to tell him or her about what you and I agreed to in the office today?’ ” Dr. Zeitz says.

“If they can’t tell me what it is they need to do in the format of talking to their spouse, that means they’re not in command of the material, and I haven’t gotten them to successfully understand it. If I see they’re not in command, then I take another crack at it.”

This post goes on to cite data that should give physicians pause before assuming that all patients understand instructions received:

• Nearly 90% of U.S. adults are less than proficient in reading medical information.
• 3 of 4 of people with limited literacy do not tell their doctors about it.

Are you a physician or clinician who faces these challenges? If so, how do you help patients understand complex information? Tell us about it!

Reference:

O’Reilly, K. B. (2012). amednews: The ABCs of health literacy. March 19, 2012  Retrieved March 20, 2012.

“seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities” (from the Harvard Law School’s Youth and Media blog).

This report looks not only at patterns of information-seeking behavior, but also the influence of context and demographic factors. It offers four key findings for consideration:

1. Search shapes the quality of information that youth experience online.
2. Youth use cues and heuristics to evaluate quality, especially visual and interactive elements.
3. Content creation and dissemination foster digital fluencies that can feed back into search and evaluation behaviors.
4. Information skills acquired through personal and social activities can benefit learning in the academic context.

And it summarizes their findings in a clear and understandable infographic, shown at right (click image to view full size).

It is no small surprise that context and other social cues strongly influence the information-seeking behavior of youth. Humans are innately social creatures, and need connections to others to survive and thrive.

You can read a one-page summary, an executive summary, the full report, or listen to a podcast version courtesy of the aforementioned blog.

What do you think of this report? What did it get right/wrong? Tell us about it!

“Providing users with good information literacy skills is an important function of library services, and most health libraries carry out some level of user education activity” (Stevenson, 2012).

Stevenson goes on to point out that while the learner can usually demonstrate what they’ve learned in class, there is no assurance this knowledge will be applied in daily work activities. Training takes place in a social context, which can have a significant effect on whether or not such training is applied. Stevenson recommends viewing training and library services as part of a larger system: is the environment conducive to implementing newly-acquired skills? What barriers are in place?

Testing the learner at the end of the training is a commonly used method of evaluation. Stevenson points out that such tools probably haven’t been tested for validity or reliability, and suggests using validated tests such as the Fresno test (Tilson, 2010). While not tested to this standard, incorporating evidence-based information literacy instruction into the curriculum is one way to demonstrate whether students at least understand how to find answers based on research.

Our Education Team currently offers embedded information literacy instruction to third year medical students during the obstetrics and gynecology rotation of their clerkship. Each student is given a clinical question that must be answered using evidence provided by medical and other research. For two, 2-hour sessions, students learn about different evidence-based resources, and present what they’ve learned to their peers. The exercises also help them to research the answer to their question. During the third week, librarians and medical faculty meet individually with students to check on their progress, and help them translate their findings into a ten-minute PowerPoint presentation. The following two sessions are spent presenting these findings, and receiving feedback from medical and library faculty, and peers. Presentations are graded and archived, and though we do not use a “validated” testing instrument, it is clear from interactions with students at the end that they have gained some appreciation for the importance of research in evidence-based medicine.

Does your medical library provide information literacy instruction for students? What form(s) does it take, and how do you evaluate learning? Tell us about it!

References:

Stevenson, P. (2012). Evaluating educational interventions for information literacy. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 29(1), 81-86. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2011.00976.x

Tilson, J. K. (2010). Validation of the modified Fresno test: assessing physical therapists’ evidence based practice knowledge and skills. BMC Med Educ, 10, 38. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-10-38

Recently, a young Spanish-speaking mother anxiously brought her weeping, 18-month-old daughter to our office. Through a translator, she told me her story. “My baby keeps waking up at night with fevers and ear pain after receiving antibiotics in the emergency room.”

When I looked into the affected ear with my otoscope, I quickly recognized a pinkish liquid, with a sweet familiar scent – Amoxicillin – crusted inside her ear. Used three times a day. Just like the doctor told her, she said.

We delicately corrected her inappropriate use of the drug and explained that she should put it in her child’s mouth instead of her ear (from philly.com).

In addition to doctors, pharmacists can play a crucial role in making sure patients understand what their medications are and how to properly take them. To that end the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has put together a “Pharmacy Health Literacy Center” page on its website. It defines pharmacy health literacy, explains its importance, and provides links to health literacy tools for use in pharmacies. These tools could also be used in the training of pharmacy students in order to increase their awareness of this important issue.

Are you a pharmacist or pharmacy student? What stories can you share about the importance of this aspect of health literacy? What steps do you take to ensure your customers really know and understand how and when to take their medications? Tell us!

Healthism differs from other health websites, like webmd.com, because it focuses on quality, not quantity, Ramsey says. All content on the site is reviewed by a medical advisory board to assure credibility, he says. Interactive quizzes help provide personalized information to visitors, who can build up health profiles by registering. Healthism differs from WebMD and similar sites in its intuitive, clean design as well, Ramsey says. “I have an obsession with user-centered design and the user experience.”

The site is visually appealing, with a simple navigation structure and useful tools such as a Target Heart Rate Calculator, Body Fat Calculator, and quizzes to test your “Preventive Health IQ.” To use the site, it requires registering and creating a profile, and you can even connect via Facebook.

Because of the nature of journalism (deadlines and the demand to produce), interviewing and taking the founder of such a website is at his/her word is usually good enough. But to evaluate whether the quality of such a site, it is necessary to dig deeper, and to apply two methods of evaluation: the CRAAP Test and the HON Code.

Developed by the Meriam Library at California State University Chico, the CRAAP test evaluates web content based on its:

• Currency: When was the information published/posted/last updated?
• Relevance: What is the importance of the information given your topic or information need?
• Authority: Who is the author/publisher/sponsor of the information?
• Accuracy: Is the information reliable, truthful, and correct?
• Purpose: Why does this information exist?

The Health on the Net Foundation’s “HON Code Certification” is “an ethical standard aimed at offering quality health information. It demonstrates the intent of a website to publish transparent information. The transparency of the website will improve the usefulness and objectivity of the information and the publishment of correct data.” As discussed in a previous post, it simply means a site will be transparent about its funding sources, privacy and advertising policies, author credentials, site’s sources, etc.

As of this writing, Healthism.com does not have HON Code certification. In addition, the “medical advisory board” mentioned in the VO article is not documented anywhere on the site. The privacy policy, while long, is fairly straightforward, but there is no mention of funding sources. And the few articles I sampled, and calculators I looked at, do not cite their sources for this information. So, with these shortcomings, it appears the best decision is to wait and see if this site improves its transparency and provides sources for its information before adding it as a linked resource on the website of a top-notch academic medical library website, such as the Eccles Library.

Serious journalists who would evaluate such sites would do well to know about these methods of evaluating online resources before interviewing the site’s founder.

Where do you being searching for medical information online — Google, Wikipedia, a medical site? What have you found to be a reliable source of health information online? Tell us about it!

Recent federal policy initiatives, including the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy, and the Plain Writing Act of 2010, have brought health literacy to a tipping point—that is, poised to make the transition from the margins to the mainstream.

Much of our health system assumes that every patient we see has strong health literacy skills, and can be strong advocates for themselves. But, as a video in a previous post clearly demonstrated, many ordinary people find the process of understanding and acting correctly on instructions from their providers a difficult challenge. One study cited found that only 12% of U.S. adults have sufficient health literacy skills to understand and effectively utilize health information. This can lead to hospitalization when a patient does not follow prescription instructions correctly, or recognize when their condition is worsening. Healthcare providers and organizations can change their processes and procedures in ways that can make a clear difference:

• Improve providers’ communication skills.
• Simplify and make written materials easier to understand.
• Improve patients’ self-management skills.

This article goes on to illustrate how three recent major policy initiatives are creating an opening to move beyond this cycle of “crisis care:”

• The Affordable Care Act,
• the Department of Health and Human Services’ National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy, and
• the Plain Writing Act of 2010

Together, these initiatives are moving the concept and practice of health literacy from the margin to the mainstream.

The Guardian’s campaign to improve the teaching of computer science and IT kicks off with a live Q&A featuring experts from Microsoft, the Open University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, e-skills UK, and the Computing at School Working Group.

The presentation took place January 10, 2012, on a “live blog” with guest speakers from Google, teachers and experts from higher education, and a “live Q & A” session.

Efforts to teach information literacy with a focus on news are also taking place here in the U.S., as mentioned previously in this column. This kind of outreach can have lasting effects only if the students have access to computers and the Internet not just in the classroom, but at home as well.

Do you know of similar outreach efforts by news and other organizations? Have your kids had this kind of instruction? What benefits have you seen? Tell us what you think!

Watch News Literacy Project Trains Young People to Be Skeptical Media Consumers on PBS. See more from PBS NEWSHOUR.

With health literacy being taught in inner-city schools, and now news literacy as well, perhaps it is time for a school curriculum to be built around information literacy as a whole. What if a librarian were in charge of the curriculum? In an age where the quality of information is critical to everyday life, perhaps it is time for librarians to step forward and take the lead in educating our young people.

What dreams and ideas for helping people learn to be effective consumers of information do you have? Tell us about it!

Program Description:
In an effort to expand its Web media service offerings, the University of Utah is working with Kaltura to provide simple, self-serve video publishing capabilities to all faculty, students, staff, researchers, and clinicians in a variety of convenient environments. Kaltura is a commercial online video publishing platform with an emphasis on open standards and flexible integration capabilities. Dave will provide an overview of the project’s goals and progress to date

Presenter
As the manager for University Information Technology (UIT) Streaming Media Services, Dave Adams is responsible for the coordination and support of Web media publishing strategies for the University of Utah campus, health sciences, hospitals and clinics. Dave provides infrastructure, tools, and support for all major video service providers including Instructional Media Services, the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library and the J. Willard Marriott Library, Media Solutions, Health Sciences Center Web Resource Center, and many colleges, departments and academic programs.

For more details, visit the LIFT Forum page.

Program can be viewed from off-site via links from the web page; and available on demand after the program.

The LIFT Forum is co-sponsored by the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library and the Media-on-Demand committee.

Questions can be directed to: Jeanne Le Ber; 801-585-6744

Fortunately for the newspaper’s readers, the journalist goes on to include a response from Geni Alexander, public information officer for the Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services, who said, “We would be very careful basing” programs “strictly off that study” because it makes the case for technology that TeleVox sells. The article goes on to cite other quality resources that support some of the study’s findings while not endorsing the TeleVox healthcare product line, which includes automated messaging systems, website hosting, and other tools “not just stay in touch but actually engage their patients while saving money in the process” (from the company website).

Health sciences libraries are in the business of helping patrons find evidence-based health and medical information. Here at Eccles Library, we can point you to quality information resources — websites, journals and more — on everything from health statistics, to personal/consumer health, to sites that address rumors and hoaxes on the Web. Got a question? Just ask!

“nearly 90 percent of people would prefer to discuss blood test results during a doctor’s visit, only about 40 percent have discussed their results in person, primarily because the results were either mailed or emailed to the patient or the patient never received the results. In addition, some respondents reported that providers told them to assume everything was okay if the doctor did not notify them about the results.”

As a result, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics and the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors have launched a “Know Your Numbers” Educational Campaign in Conjunction with National Health Literacy Month. These two groups

“convened representatives from government, business, healthcare professional groups and consumer advocates to examine the state of the nation’s health literacy regarding blood tests. The result of this effort, “Fundamentals to Wellness and Prevention: A Call to Action,” is a report that encourages business, healthcare and government leaders to work together to help consumers become more aware of the importance of blood tests, facilitate timely access to test results and help consumers understand their blood test “numbers” so they can translate the knowledge into action.”

One would hope that these groups would also include librarians from public and health libraries, who are also “consumer advocates” that can put such important medical information before the public quickly, easily and for free.

Do you understand the information from your blood tests? Did you have the opportunity to discuss the results with a physician, or were you told that the doctor would call if there was a problem? Tell us about it!

While this quiz appears to be well-researched and informative, is it from an organization committed to providing reliable health information on the Web? Looking at HealthEd’s website, none of the people listed on its “Leadership” page have an M.D. or medical Ph.D. degree (at the time of this writing).

Information literacy includes having the skills to evaluate online information to determine its accuracy, relevance, source, etc. One way to do this is to apply the C.R.A.A.P. Test: try to determine the information’s:

• Currency: timeliness of the information.
• Relevance: importance of the information for your needs.
• Authority: source of the information.
• Accuracy: reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.
• Purpose: reason the information exists.

One way to sort through the tsunami of health information is to look for the HONcode logo (at left). The Health on the Net Foundation “was founded to encourage the dissemination of quality health information for patients and professionals and the general public, and to facilitate access to the latest and most relevant medical data through the use of the internet. The HONcode certification is an ethical standard aimed at offering quality health information. It demonstrates the intent of a website to publish transparent information. The transparency of the website will improve the usefulness and objectivity of the information and the publishment of correct data.”

Other sites that can provide reliable health information include MedlinePlus, major academic medical institutions, and other trusted sources.

What reliable online resources for medical information do you use? Tell us about it!

1. Insist on plain language.
2. Focus on absolute risk.
3. Visualize your risk.
4. Consider risk as a frequency rather than as percentages.
5. Focus on the additional risk.
6. The order of information matters.
7. Write it down.
8. Don’t get hung up on averages.
9. Less may be more.
10. Consider your risk over time.

The study revealed that many people overestimate the health literacy of the average health care consumer. Many linked intelligence to health literacy, suggesting people who overdosed on acetaminophen were “stupid” and deserved the outcome.

This is reflective of a wider practice in society: blaming the victim. If something bad happens to someone, they probably deserved it. Our culture, politicians, mainstream media, and even our justice system characterize the unemployed as “lazy,” victims of rape having “asked for it,” and so on. This absolves us of any group responsibility for the troubles that plague our society.

While the results of this study are not surprising, it is important advice to heed: no one wants to change their behavior after being blamed or looked-down upon. If public health campaigns want to improve health outcomes and reduce the costs to our healthcare system, it would be wise to choose positive language.

• Six preconference workshops: build your skills for communicating about health—in person, on the Web, and in print.
• Learn from today’s decision makers and experts.
• Two full days of speakers, panels, and skill-building workshops, plus time to meet with colleagues.

Key topics are listed as:

• Oral communication
• eHealth Literacy
• Usability

To a librarian in an academic medical library, this sounded like a great resource for its intended audience: “physicians, nurses, health education specialists, and public health professionals.” The agenda covers areas such as social media, writing for the web, translation/interpretation, financial literacy, graphic design, accessibility, communicating with seniors, medicaid and health IT, and military programs. It features leaders in these fields lecturing and providing pre-conference workshops on all of these areas.

But no librarians.

While it is important and laudable to help health professionals improve how they communicate information to patients and the public, it is just as important to teach patients how to find and understand this information on their own. At the very least, this event should have invited someone from the National Library of Medicine to talk about MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus Connect, and how they can be used to provide important information to patients and clients.

The program will begin in the spring semester after a newly-formed advisory committee spends six months planning what will best benefit students to learn. Once it begins, most, if not all, of their classes will include subject-relevant information they need to know about access to low cost health care, disease prevention, health insurance and more.

If successful, this will have a cost-saving benefit: it may reduce trips to the emergency room. Typically, those who cannot afford to see a physician wait until an illness or other medical condition has become so severe that they seek emergency care. With knowledge of how to find low-cost health care, fewer trips to the ER should be the result.

Having worked in public education, the number one complaint of students I’ve listened to say school is “boring,” which is usually translated as “not relevant to my life and experience.” Imagine the possibilities if a student has a family member or friend who faces a health  issue, and this student can help ameliorate the situation. If this program proves successful, it could serve as a model for other school districts around the country. And it might, just might, help reduce the rate at which healthcare costs are increasing, at least in this area. Good luck, Harrison High School!

Here are a few examples of what’s being discussed (tweeted about) on health literacy (#healthliteracy) on Twitter:

• The non-profit organization Health Literacy Missouri (@HealthLitMO) just published a paper titled “Health Literacy Essential to Successful Implementation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)” bySusan Kendig, JD, MSN and Arthur Culbert, PhD. The paper points out that our current health system’s incentives for health care organizations “rewards volume and intensity of services, resulting in fragmentation and higher costs with little attention to value.” It goes on to document how health literacy is directly related to health outcomes.
• @apdolan has sought the thoughts and input of others on how the new Google+ might be used for health activism for an upcoming blog posting.
• @alixefloyd cheered and linked to an article in the NY Times about how more medical schools are screening their applicants for people skills.
• @ACUnderserved publicized information about a “Health Literacy Innovators Award Contest” sponsored by Health Literacy Innovations, a privately held company that “creates tools to help eliminate medical mistakes and confusion due to low health literacy.”

At first, even this author was skeptical of Twitter. But when one can sample what is of current interest on any given topic instantly, it becomes clear the value this platform has.

What topics do you follow on Twitter? If you have used it for research or to take the pulse of people on a particular subject, how helpful have you found it to be? Tell us!

Satish Misra, MD, of the iMedicalApps blog has a two-part series of posts examining this issue, and asking for opinions from readers. The first posting points out:

In the past ten years, there has been a growing movement to restrict marketing of drugs to physicians by pharmaceutical companies. As a result of programs like the PharmFree project, traditional marketing avenues like free samples, sponsored dinners, and so on have become far more limited. And so naturally, pharmaceutical companies have looked to new avenues through which to reach physicians.

Using Epocrates as an example, Misra evenhandedly explains how free medical apps allow pharmaceutical companies to support physicians in their work while doing market research and sales at the same time. In his second article, Misra briefly examines Skyscape and several of its free apps that allow “life science companies…to reach thousands of HCPs in a new venue and format.”

As a library working with students in the healthcare professions (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, etc.), one of our goals is to help them develop information literacy skills: the ability to critically evaluate information provided via the Web and other electronic formats. When presented with information, it is important to apply a certain set of evaluative principles, as represented by the term “the C.R.A.A.P. Test:”

• Currency: timeliness of the information
• Relevance: importance of the information for your needs.
• Authority: source of the information
• Accuracy: reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content.
• Purpose: the reason this information exists

Such an evaluation system should be applied to “free” medical apps as well.

The Eccles Health Sciences Library has a list of free and fee medical apps for all of the major mobile platforms. Do you have a favorite application? Tell us about it!

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched a “National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy,”  which seeks “to engage organizations, professionals, policymakers, communities, individuals, and families in a linked, multisector effort to improve health literacy.”

The Eccles Health Sciences Library and the Health Literacy Interest Group are offering two webinars on this topic this spring, one on health literacy itself, and the second on the National Action Plan. Here are the details:

Health Literacy in the Real World: Awareness, Ideas, Solutions

• When: March 17, 2011
• Time: 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
• Where: HSEB 4100 B & C
• Info: Poor health literacy is a major issue in the United States. We see examples of how it affects patients, providers, and the healthcare system every day. This session will look at some of the problems created by poor health literacy, discuss programs and ideas to help improve it on both the patient and provider side, and review some solutions. The upcoming IHA Health Literacy Conference will be reviewed, as well as a discussion of the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy.

National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy

• When: May 4, 2011
• Time: 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
• Where: HSEB  4100 B & C
• Info: The Institute for Healthcare Advancement is hosting its 10th Annual Health Literacy Conference: “Health Literacy = Effective Communication: Translating Ideas Into Practice” May 4-6, 2011 in Irvine, California. You can attend a pre-conference session “virtually” to discuss the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy. Join in the social media discussion and hear how other organizations around the country are using the National Action Plan, and join the discussion with information about what you’re doing or suggestions for others.

Both webinars are FREE, and faculty, staff and students are welcome to attend.

Reference:
¹U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2000. Healthy People 2010. 2nd ed. With Understanding and Improving Health and Objectives for Improving Health. 2 vols. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

[M]ost people don’t realize the trade off. For example, citizens turn a blind eye to the fact that online searches create traceable records that make them vulnerable to questioning by the FBI, or that government agencies can track their phone calls, airline travel, online purchases, and more.

This campaign is intended to get people to “think critically and make more informed choices about their privacy.” Need more convincing? Watch the video!

Choose Privacy Week Video from 20K Films on Vimeo.

The CDC has created a free “Health Literacy for Public Health Professionals Online Training” program to help educate public health professionals about issues with health literacy (patients and the public lack of health literacy) and their role in addressing it.

The CDC is offering a free online course which can be accessed any time any where you have a computer with Internet access and 1-2 hours of spare time. After taking the course health professionals will have a better understanding of the significance of health literacy and will learn practical steps to deal with health literacy daily.

This course qualifies for continuing education credit for nurses, physicians, pharmacists, health information specialistis, etc.

This online course must be completed before 9/14/2011 to receive credit.

The current default in PubMed displays multiple items in the Summary format, 20 per page, and sorted by items recently added at the top. To change this, access My NCBI, click on “PubMed Preferences,” then “Result Display Settings.”

“The Krafty Librarian” blog correctly points out some of the shortcomings of this system in general:

The folks over at NCBI, NLM, and everybody else tinkering with PubMed to make it “more user friendly” for average users fail to realize the name MyNCBI means absolutely nothing to the average user. The average user is used to MyCart, MyFolder, MyResults, MySaved, etc. Think Amazon.com, that is what people are used to using, not cutesy names for things like MyNCBI. They don’t think MyNCBI is where they save stuff and where they can save filters for more tailored results. I think you would get more average people using the very strong MyNCBI features if you labeled it something else. Heck I would venture to guess most “average” users don’t even know about filters because they are hidden behind MyNCBI.

The next step that NLM could and should take in this area is to make the system sensitive to institutional users. Every online service wants you to create your own myWhatever account: iGoogle, myYahoo!, etc. Why not allow for institutions to set the display preferences for search results? The Eccles Health Sciences Library can link PubMed search results to full-text items in its collection, but the end-user has to be trained to manually change the display settings from “Summary” to “Abstract” to see these results. This presents the user with icons that link to our collection. If a user searches PubMed from an institution such as ours it should automatically display links to full-text within our collection.

Here is a screenshot of her guide:

Eccles Health Sciences Library has begun using this service as well. Campus Guides is the larger, campus-wide version of LibGuides, and our guides cover topics ranging from anatomy to toxicology. Course-specific guides can easily be created as well; check out one created for Suzanne Stensaas’ “Dental Neuroanatomy” class. Faculty and others interested in creating their own course-specific guide are encouraged to contact the Library, or you can post a comment on this blog.

Update 9/14/11: the blog post cited at the beginning of this article is no longer available. You can browse their current guides, find one you like, and then contact them to get a copy.