Health Sciences Information Needs, Resources and Environment

LIS528 and MEDED570
Information School and School of Medicine
University of Washington

NOTE:   This syllabus will be revised frequently throughout the quarter.  Before preparing for class please review the online syllabus and be sure you have the latest assignment.

January 5

Sherrilynne Fuller and Neil Rambo

Introductions, Overview, Class Resources

• Introductions
• Course Overview
• Rationale and key concepts
• Course assignments and project
  • Research paper - PURPOSE: To provide an opportunity to utilize a variety of information sources in investigating the information environment and needs of a group of health professionals; to prescribe potential service approaches to meeting their unmet information needs. LIS528/MEDED570 - Research paper
  • A copy of your final paper is to be submitted no later than Tuesday, March 14, 2006. Deliver as an MS Word e-mail attachment to sfuller@u.washington.edu and nrambo@u.washington.edu.
• Class Resources - Introduction
  • PUBMED - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ and other NLM resources
  • Healthlinks -- healthlinks.washington.edu
  • Databases
  • E-journal access
  • Tutorials

• Describe the core content of the various bibliographic health sciences databases available from the NLM and other vendors to support information access in the health and bio-sciences
• Conduct a search of those databases and retrieve relevant information to respond to search question
• Utilize a variety of limit strategies to focus search retrieval
• Know how to keep up with current changes in the NLM databases and interfaces -- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/current_issue.html

January 12

Sherrilynne Fuller

The Health Sciences Environment -- People, Organizations, Issues

• Healthcare Systems and Issues
• Academic Health Sciences Centers and Hospitals - structure, organization

Health Sciences Vocabulary Resources and Application to Searching and Developing Core Health Sciences Databases

• Medical Terminology - What's the problem?
• An approach to dealing with the problem: Unified Medical Language System
• Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

1. Read Roper and Boorkman, Chapter 7, pp 127-142.
2. Read at least three articles from the following list and/OR,PREFERABLY, other articles that you locate regarding information needs of health professionals and be prepared to discuss categories of information needs that health professionals face. Pay particular attention to the different types of information resources required by clinical care providers -- published as well as unpublished and where they tend to look for that information. Be prepared to discuss in class today and on January 19.
   
   1. Blythe, J., Royle, J.A., Assessing nurses' information needs in the work environment. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 1993. 81(4): p. 433-435.
   2. Fox LM, R.J., White N.E. A multidimensional evaluation of a nursing information- literacy program. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 1996. 84(2): p. 182-190.
   3. Forsythe D.E., Expanding the concept of medical information: An observational study of physicians' information needs. Computers and Biomedical Research 1992. 25: p. 181-200.
   4. Gorman, P.N., Information needs of physicians. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1995. 46(10): p. 729-736.
   5. Guise N.B. Advancing the practice of clinical medical librarianship. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 1997. 85(4):437-438.
   6. Guyatt G. Evidence-based health care: a new approach to teaching the practice of health care. J. Dental Educ. 1994 58:648-653
   7. Osheroff J.A., F.D., Buchanan BGF, Bankowitz RA, Blumenfeld BH, Miller RA, Physicians' Information needs: analysis of questions posed during clinical teaching. Annals of Internal Medicine. 1991. 114: p. 576-581.
   8. Patterson, P.K. Blehm R. Foster J. Fuglee K. Moore J. Nurse information needs for efficient care continuity across patient units. Journal of Nursing Administration, 1995. 25(10). p: 28-36.
   9. Smith, R., What clinical information do doctors need? British Medical Journal, 1996. 313: p. 1062-1068.
   10. Johnson M., Griffiths R. Developing evidence-based clinicians. International Journal of Nursing Practice 2001 Apr;7(2):109-118.
   11. Guyatt GH, Haynes RB, Jaeschke RZ, Cook DJ, Green L, Naylor CD, Wilson MC, Richardson WS. Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: XXV. Evidence-based medicine: principles for applying the Users' Guides to patient care. Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. JAMA. 2000 Sep 13;284(10):1290-6.
   12. Norris, T., Fuller S., Goldberg HI, Tarczy-Hornoch P., eds., Informatics in Primary Care: Strategies in Information Management for the Healthcare Provider. New York: Springer, 2002
   13. Mihalynuk TV, Knopp RH, Scott CS, Coombs JB. Physician informational needs in providing nutritional guidance to patients. Family Medicine 2004;36(10):722-726.

• Discuss several current healthcare issues as they relate to health information access and sharing
• Describe the purpose of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Unified Medical Language System
• Describe the features, functions and value of the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and utilize it to construct a precise search Identify information needs of a variety of health professionals
• Identify methods previously used for designing an information needs study of a health professional group

January 19

Neil Rambo

Overview of Health Sciences Information Needs and Resources in the Context of User Types and Needs

Meeting the health information needs of diverse user groups has always been a challenging issue for Health Sciences Libraries.  Health information is context-specific, and must be appropriate to each user’s needs.  There are a wide variety of resources available, in this session we will be evaluating a few selected online resources.    

Diverse user types in a Health Sciences Environment:

• Health care providers/Clinicians
• Researchers
• Educators
• Students
• Administrators
• Patients/Family members
• Health care consumers/General public

 Selected Reference Resources:

• HealthLinks Reference Page
• HealthLinks Browse Databases Page - all pertinent databases to health sciences users
• Care Provider Toolkit - including all tabs within the main page (Nurse, Pharmacist, Patient, etc.)
• User Guide to CPT - good overview of Care Provider Toolkit from a family physician’s point of view
• Bioresearcher Toolkit - essential for bioinformatics research

Evaluation:

• MedlinePlus (National Library of Medicine) - Evaluating Health Information
• Criteria for evaluating online resources       

•  Scope - What kind of information is this resource providing?

• Coverage - How comprehensive is this information?

•  Audience - Who is the intended audience for this information?

•  Currency - When was the resource published? How up-to-date is this information?

•  Authority - How trustworthy is this information?

Assignment:

Objective: To compare and contrast a variety of information resources for types of information provided, and type of user and information need for which it is most appropriate. To apply standard evaluation criteria to the resources consulted to assess the quality of health information.

Approach: Define a health question (i.e. Asthma, Alcohol Withdrawal) and search the question in at least 3 different databases (i.e. PubMed, UpToDate, Web of Science, BIOSIS, CINAHL and MedlinePlus).  You may use additional resources as needed.

Prepare a basic written report (1-2 pages, bulleted lists and notes are OK) of your findings. For each resource consulted, note the following:

1.      health condition researched,

2.      type of information found in each database,

3.      which user type(s) the information is most appropriate for,

4.      compare and contrast the databases used, and

5.      apply evaluation criteria to the resource.

Be prepared to share your findings with the class.

At the conclusion of this session students will be able to:

• Compare and contrast information resources for health condition information including: types of information provided, and appropriateness by type of user and information need.
• Apply standard evaluation criteria to assess the quality – e.g., relative authority and validity, and appropriateness – of the resource.

January 26

Sherrilynne Fuller

Keys to Reading and Understanding Health Sciences Research

• Clinical Research Methods - Introduction
• Clinical Trials
• Epidemiological Studies
• Case Studies
  • Meta-analysis -- what is it and how does it work?
  • Evidence Based Practice

It would be helpful to review the Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice Resources webpage developed by the HSL before class. There will be in-class activities including reading clinical trial reports and discussing the methods and findings.

At the conclusion of class the student will be able to:

• Define and describe the importance to clinical research of the following concepts: randomization, double-blinding/single-blinding, control, placebo, statistical significance, retrospective versus prospective, patient compliance, patient dropouts.
• Locate and retrieve from PubMed several clinical trial reports on the same general clinical problem and compare and contrast the design and methods.
• Describe the key differences between a clinical trial, an epidemiologic study, a case study.
• Explain the rationale for evidence based practice in healthcare and describe the role of librarians and other information specialists in supporting evidence based practice.

February 2

Patrick O’Carroll, MD, MPH
Regional Health Administrator, Public Health Service Region X
US Department of Health and Human Services
Affiliate Associate Professor, UW Dept. of Epidemiology

Public health and public health informatics

and

David Masuda, Lecturer, Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics

Electronic Medical Records and Electronic Health Records -- Is there a difference?   Why does it matter?

February 9

Joanne Rich, HSL Information Management Librarian

Pharmaceutical Information Needs
Drug Information Resources

Resources for completing the assignment and preparing for class discussion:

February 16

Gail Kouame - Consumer Health Outreach Librarian - National Network of Libraries of Medicine/Pacific Northwest

Consumer and Patient Health Information

Objectives:

At the conclusion of the class the student will be able to:

• Discuss differences between "consumer" and patient health information needs

• Identify criteria to evaluate resources for consumers and patients.

• Identify criteria to evaluate resources for health professionals to support patient information needs

• Discuss where  consumers go to find health information and the problems they encounter in this process

• Discuss aspects of  "health literacy" as it relates to consumers' understanding of health information?

• Discuss the role of librarians and other information professionals in developing resources and services to support consumer and patient health information seeking and use.

Assignment :  (due at the beginning of class 2/16)

There are three assigned readings to read in advance.  They are available from e-reserves (Search e-reserves by Fuller;  the first link will be to the 3 readings.  You will need to log in w. your UW netid )

 Based on the health professional group you have chosen for your final project, select three (3) web sites that you would suggest a member of that health profession should recommend for their patients to consult for health information. Use the criteria described at:

 http://healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/navigating/#three

 Do a thorough analysis (addressing all of the criteria described at the above link) of each of the web sites you've selected to explain why you chose them. Include an explanation at the end of your paper briefly explaining your research process and any insights you gained as a result of searching for quality consumer health information on the Web. The written assignment should not exceed 4 pages.   Email the completed assignment to Gail Kouame (gmarie@u.washington.edu) as well as Neil Rambo (nrambo@u.washington.edu) and Sherri Fuller (sfuller@u.washington.edu).

February 23

11:30 - 1:00
Sherrilynne Fuller
Professional Practice Issues/Opportunities Evaluation

Professional Practice Issues/Opportunities

• Credentialing and Continuing Education
• Ethics
• International Issues and Practice
• Professional Associations (and student memberships/upcoming meetings):
• American Medical Informatics Association -- Fall and Spring Meetings
• Medical Library Association (MLA)

• Pacific Northwest Chapter MLA
• Washington Medical Librarians Association

Consider becoming a student member of  MLA or American Medical Informatics Association

Background readings for class discussion:

• Scan several recent issues of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association and the Journal of the Medical Library Association;   what are some of the professional issues being addressed (in editorials)  as well as  key research topics?
• Look at the American Medical Informatics Association Home page
• What are some of the Public policy issues of importance to AMIA? 
• Read:  Editorial - The Informationist -  and Resulting letters to the editor
• Read: Shearer BS, Seymour A, Capitani C, EDS. Symposium: patient-centered librarianship: the informationist and beyond: a symposium to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Philadelphia Regional Chapter of the Medical Library Association. J Med Libr Assoc 2002 Jan; 90(1):21-85
   
• Be prepared to discuss the following in class:
• What are three current issues facing health sciences librarians and other health sciences information professionals?
• How are these issues different from/similar to those facing librarians and information professionals in other fields

Evaluation

Two excellent resources  for developing evaluation strategies are:

1.  Friedman CP, Wyatt JC.  Evaluation Methods in Medical Informatics.  Springer, 1997   W 26.55 A7  E92 1997

        Provides an introduction to:  challenges of evaluation in medical informatics, evaluation as a field, studying clinical information systems, structure of objectivist studies, basics of measurement, developing measurement technique;  design, conduct and analysis of demonstration studies; subjectivist approaches to evaluations, organizational evaluation of clinical information resources;  proposing, reporting and refereeing evaluation studies; study ethics...

2. National Outreach Evaluation Resource Center  -- [Susan Barnes, Acting Director. OERC  National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest.  

            Librarians and health educators conduct programs to improve access to health information. The OERC provides assistance in developing well-planned evaluation to help target and measure outreach success.   Provides links to a number of evaluation tools and other very useful resources

1:15 - 2:20
 

Nanette Welton, Head, Information Resources, Health Sciences Libraries
Scholarly Communications - Resource Challenges in a Digital Age

Objectives:

At the conclusion of the class the student will know:

·        What is Scholarly Communications and how it relates to the digital age

·        Issues in Scholarly Communications in the current environment

·        Major players in the area of Scholarly Communications

·        How the digital age has affected Scholarly Publications

·        Role of Open Access and Copyright in digital age

·        What is the Creative Commons?

·        What are Institutional Repositories?

·        NIH Proposal – Final Policy Statement

Required websites to review for discussion:

• SPARC - Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resource Coalition  - Start with the What’s New page to learn current topics in Scholarly Communications.  Be sure to read the About page as well to give you background on SPARC. 

• Scholarly Publications and Communications on Healthlinks – Review this page, and the links. 
  • The link to the NIH public access policy has several sections.  The What’s New section is again interesting.
  • Current Awareness – take a look at the daily updated blog by Peter Suber
  • Links section – briefly look at the first three different publishing models that are being tested in this new environment.

• UW Libraries Scholarly Communications – Review this website, especially the first section:  Overview of Scholarly Communication Issues and Options for a short overview of the various components of the issues.   

We will also talk about Copyright and Licensing as it pertains to the Digital Environment.

Be prepared to discuss:

·        How you think the issue of copyright might affect you as an author? 

·        As a publisher - what issues concern you most about open access and
scholarly publication?
 

March 2

Student Presentations

March 9

Student Presentations - Continued

Course Summary/Discussion
Course Evaluation

March 16 (finals week)

Student Presentations (if needed)

Students with Disabilities

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services: 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from DSS indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to me so we can discuss the accommodations you might need in the class.   

Academic accommodations due to disability will not be made unless the student has a letter from DSS specifying the type and nature of accommodations needed.

Grading Criteria

General grading information for the University of Washington is available at:

http://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/front/Grading_Sys.html

The iSchool has adopted its own criteria for grading graduate courses.  The grading criteria used by the iSchool is available at:  http://www.ischool.washington.edu/resources/academic/grading.aspx

Academic Conduct:

The following paragraphs discussing academic integrity, copyright and privacy outline matters governing academic conduct in the iSchool and the University of Washington.   

Academic Integrity:

The essence of academic life revolves around respect not only for the ideas of others, but also their rights to those ideas and their promulgation. It is therefore essential that all of us engaged in the life of the mind take the utmost care that the ideas and expressions of ideas of other people always be appropriately handled, and, where necessary, cited.  For writing assignments, when ideas or materials of others are used, they must be cited. The format is not that important–as long as the source material can be located and the citation verified, it’s OK. What is important is that the material be cited.  In any situation, if you have a question, please feel free to ask.  Such attention to ideas and acknowledgment of their sources is central not only to academic life, but life in general.

Please acquaint yourself with the University of Washington's resources on academic honesty http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm).\

Updated 2/16/06