Health Sciences Information Needs,

Resources and Environment

LIS 528 and MEDED 570

Information School and Medical School

University of Washington

Schedule - Winter Quarter - 2005

Place: 3rd floor, Health Sciences Library and Information Center, Library Teaching Lab.,  Learning Commons

Time:  Thursdays,  11:30-2:20, January 6  - March 16,  2005

Instructors

Sherrilynne Fuller, PhD
Professor,  Information School
Professor, Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Department of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine
Adjunct Professor, Health Services, School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Director, Health Sciences Libraries and Information Center
T 232 Health Sciences Center
Box 35-7155
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
206-543-5531 FAX: 206-543-8066
sfuller@u.washington.edu
Sherrilynne Fuller's Web Page - http://faculty.washington.edu/sfuller/
 
 
Neil Rambo, MLS
Associate Director
Health Sciences Libraries and Information Center and
Affiliate Instructor, Dept. of Health Services, School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Health Sciences Center
Box35-7155
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
email:  nrambo@u.washington.edu
 

Print Resources Will be Placed On Class Reserve in the Learning Commons, Health Sciences Library (3rd floor) and online (as available).     For information regarding accessing print and electronic reserve resources see:  healthlinks.washington.edu/courses/student.html

Required Text:  Introduction to Reference Sources in the Health Sciences by Jo Anne Boorkman, Jeffrey T. Huber, Fred W. Roper.Neal-Schuman Publishers; 4th edition, 2004.    ZWB 100 I56 2004    

 


NOTE:   This syllabus is continually revised.  Before preparing for class please review the online syllabus and be sure you have the latest assignment.

January 6

Sherrilynne Fuller and Neil Rambo

Class Resources -- Introduction

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

 


January 13

Sherrilynne Fuller

The Health Sciences Environment -- People, Organizations, Issues

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

Assignment:

1.  Read Roper and Boorkman, Chapter 7, pp 127-142.

2.  Review:  The Handbook of Academic Medicine: How Medical Schools and Teaching Hospitals Work." The handbook is a comprehensive reference source on the fundamentals of academic medicine.  It explains what medical schools and teaching hospitals are, how they work and interrelate, and what prominent issues they face.

3. Review information about the Unified Medical Language System and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH).

4.  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 20.

    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.  Wermager-P., L.-G.-.W.T.-C. Information needs of rural health care practitioners in Hawaii.    Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 1994. 82(2): p. 197-205
    11. Johnson M., Griffiths R.  Developing evidence-based clinicians.   International Journal of Nursing Practice  2001 Apr;7(2):109-118.
    12. 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.
    13. 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
    14. Mihalynuk TV, Knopp RH, Scott CS, Coombs JB.  Physician informational needs in providing nutritional guidance to patients.  Family Medicine 2004;36(10):722-726/
       

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

Note: UW Training and Development offers a medical vocabulary training class* Winter Quarter that may be of value to you.  See details at:   http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/traindev/catalog/gen/6/Q0180.html. [Course description: This course is designed to develop or brush up on medical terminology for individuals already working in, or who plan to work in, health services. Gain understanding of applicable roots, prefixes, suffixes, proper pronunciation and usage to build a strong medical vocabulary. Explore use of terms in the context of medical reports and records. Content is presented with an interesting, real-world focus so that participants can readily apply their learning.]

January 20

Neil Rambo
(with assistance from Andrea Ryce, National Library of Medicine Associate)

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

Continued discussion of information needs reading assignment from January 13

Selected Reference Links:


HealthLinks Reference Page – main reference pathfinder for HSL site   

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

        http://faculty.washington.edu/momus/cpt/guide.htm

 Bioresearcher Toolkit – essential for bioinformatics research

MedlinePlus (National Library of Medicine) – Evaluating Health Information
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/evaluatinghealthinformation.html

 

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: Choose a health condition and check for information about that topic in several (3-5 or more) information resources from HealthLinks. You may start from the selections listed above. You may use additional resources as needed.

Prepare a “basic” written report (1-2 pages) of your findings. Note 1) health condition researched, 2) resource used, 3) decision process used to select resource (if not obvious), 4) type of information found, 5) user type the information is most appropriate for, and 6) apply evaluation criteria to the resource. (“Basic” can be simple bulleted lists and notes; does not have to be polished.)

Be prepared to share your findings with the class.

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

1. Compare and contrast information resources for health condition information including: types of information provided, and appropriateness by type of user and information need.
 

2. Apply standard evaluation criteria to assess the quality – e.g., relative authority and validity, and appropriateness – of the resource.

 

 


 

January 27

Sherrilynne Fuller

Keys to Reading and Understanding Health Sciences Research

 

It would be helpful to review the Introduction 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:


February 3

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

Neil Rambo, MLS

Ø    Public health: population based approaches to preventing disease and disability and improving health – information needs, resources, and uses

Ø    Public health informatics

At the end of this class session, students will be able to:

1. Compare and contrast the basic approach and strategy of public health with the health care enterprise.
2. Describe the multiple disciplines that comprise the broad field of public health and how those disciplines contribute to the mission of public health.
3. Describe the many roles and settings of the public health workforce and the variety of information needs and uses of each.
4. Describe ways in which public health responds to the needs of society and the era.
5. Describe how public health informatics contributes to the overall mission of public health.
6. Describe current research issues in public health informatics.

 

Suggested Reading List:

Alpi, KM.
Expert searching in public health.
J Med Libr Assoc. 2005 Jan; 93(1): 97-103.
[Not available in PubMed as of 1/28/05. Copy will be placed on reserve.]

Lee P, Guise NA, Sathe NB.
Benchmarking information needs and use in the Tennessee public health community.
J Med Libr Assoc. 2003 Jul; 91(3): 322-36.
PMID: 12883562

Yasnoff, WA, et. al. A national agenda for public health informatics.
J Public Health Manag Pract. 2001 Nov; 7(6): 1-21.
PMID: 11713752

[Dunham PW, O’Carroll P, Rambo N.] Information needs and uses of the public health workforce--Washington, 1997-1998.
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2000 Feb 18; 49(6): 118-20.
PMID: 11243439

The following chapters are recommended from this text (a personal copy will be placed on reserve):

Public health informatics and information systems, PW O’Carroll, WA Yasnoff, ME Ward, LH Ripp, EL Martin, eds. Springer-Verlag New York Inc. 2003.

Chapter 1 – Introduction to Public Health Informatics
Chapter 4 – Governmental and Legislative Context of Informatics
Chapter 6 – Core Competencies in Public Health Informatics
Chapter 18 – Knowledge-Based Information and Systems
Chapter 34 – Epilogue: The Future of Public Health Informatics

 


February 10

 

11:30- 12:45

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:

Required Readings/Resources:

           Health Sciences Libraries Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites (scroll down towards bottom of page).

Look at the Pew Internet and American Life Report summaries dated:

 1/23/2005 -  http://www.pewinternet.org- Search Engine Users -- report #146

 7/16/2003 -  http://www.pewinternet.org -  Internet Health Resources -- report #95

Roper and Boorkman (class required text) -- Chapter 10 - Consumer Health Sources

Be prepared to discuss: Why are these issues for consumers when looking  for health information? What is our role as information professionals
when dealing with consumers looking for health information?
 

ASSIGNMENT:

 You are a librarian who has been asked to review and revise the Patient  Toolkit on the Healthlinks web site:  healthlinks.washington.edu/patient
 
 Keep in mind that this site is available to users beyond the University  of Washington. Review the sites on the CAPHIS "Top 100" (and others with which you may be familiar). Select three sites that you would  recommend should be added to the Patient Toolkit. Evaluate the sites using the criteria suggested by the Health Sciences Libraries. Explain  why you selected the sites and how they would best serve users. Are  there links currently on the Patient Toolkit that you would suggest  removing?  If so, why? Is there anything you would change regarding the navigability/usability of the site?

 

1:00 -2:20


Mark Minie - Bioinformation Specialist/Bioresearcher Liaison - Health Sciences Libraries Navigating Biological

Dataspace: Meeting the Digital Information Needs of Basic Bioresearch Scientists
 

Bioinformatics: The study of the informational nature of living systems starting at the molecular level.
 

Information about biological systems, at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organismal, and population levels is now growing at a hyperexponential rate.  This has led to the development of a vast network of databases for the storage and retrieval of such information, along with the maturation of the field of bioinformatics to encompass the use of computer technology to analyze and thus make sense of this ever-growing and expanding biological dataspace. Using classical bioinformatics tools, biological information such as specific nucleic acid and protein amino acid sequences can be downloaded and analyzed from both public and private data sources. Data about the chromosome locations of specific genes, the sequences of gene control elements and the 3-Dimensional structures of proteins can all now be accessed and studied in the context of the vast body of scientific literature in PubMed. Increasingly, other data about the expression of genes, the pathways gene products are involved in, and the structure and function of cells and organs are also available online. One important consequence of this is the development of discovery science approaches to biology, where important insights into the mechanisms of life can be gained by analyzing digital data without further “wet lab” work. Another new phenomenon is the ability to literally reconstruct microbial life forms directly from sequence data downloaded from online databases--information is both flowing out of biological systems into digital databases and flowing back into living systems from these Internet datasources! New approaches such as Systems Biology allow for new understandings of biological systems using sophisticated computer simulations to model cells and organs. This new era of digital biology has changed the nature of that science, and accessing, analyzing and manipulating such digitized information is
fundamental to basic biological and biomedical research.

Assignment:
 

Review the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) web site at...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 

As well as the NCBI Advanced Course for Bioinformation Specialists web site at...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Class/NAWBIS/.Test/modules.html
and the bioinformatics.org Web site at...
http://www.bioinformatics.org
and also the new HealthLinks BioResearcher Toolkit at...
http://healthlinks.washington.edu/Bioresearcher
 

For a glance at the future, see...
http://www.entelos.com/aboutUs/index.html
http://www.venterinstitute.org/research/#syntheticbiology

Be prepared to walk through basic NCBI tools online and other online resources in pursuit of biological information and to discuss in class the paradigm shift biology and medicine are currently undergoing as a result of the confluence of information technologies and the development of in silico biology. Specific examples of how to retrieve sequence, structure and expression data, in particular as they relate to fundamental questions about human disease processes will be shown and discussed. Additionally, novel findings and approaches to biology presented by BioDataSpace will be discussed.

NOTE: A short (less than 5 minutes) online diagnostic quiz will be given both at the beginning and end of the class.

Background reading:

1. Bioinformatics Computing by Bryan Bergeron. Prentice Hall, 2002
 

2. Genomes - by Terence A. Brown Wiley-Liss, 2002 3. Bioinformatics : A Practical Guide to the Analysis of Genes and Proteins by Andreas D. Baxevanis and B. F. Francis Ouellette Wiley Interscience, 2001.
 

4. A Primer of Genome Science - by Greg Gibson, Spencer V. Muse

5. Bioinformatics for Dummies - by Jean-Michel Claverie and Cedric Notredame

6. Songs of Distant Earth - by Arthur C. Clarke

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

1. Identify a gene using a BLAST search on a defined amino acid sequence

2. Locate the best curated/annotated publically available information source about that gene and its products

 3. Determine possible role of that gene in human disease and identify possible clinical testing resources to test for that gene

 4. Locate that gene on the human chromosome map

 5. "Pull" the complete DNA sequence of that gene from the Human genome data

6. Locate and view the 3-D structure of that gene's product(s) or related gene products

7. Answer questions about that gene's expression pattern in Human tissues

8. Locate information about that gene's product(s) in a biochemical pathway

9. Identify possible animal models for studying that gene and its product(s)

10. Locate a detailed recent review article on that gene and its product(s)
 


 

February 17 

Joanne Rich,  HSL Information Management Librarian

Pharmaceutical Information Needs

Drug Information Resources

Assignment:

Objective: Compare a variety of drug reference tools, both print and electronic, for types of information available and type of user/information need for which it is most appropriate, format , ease of use.

Approach:

Review and use as resources for completing the assignment: 

  1. Roper and Bookman Chapter 9, Drug Information Sources
  2. Snow, B. Drug information:  a guide to current resources - ZQV 4 S674d 1999 (on course reserve)
  3. Malone, Patrick M et al, eds. Drug information: a guide for pharmacists. NY: McGraw-Hill
    2001. QV 737 D793 2001 (on course reserve)
  4. See Pharmacist Toolkit on HealthLinks (under Care Provider Toolkit) for list of core drug information resources   
  5. Rx -- Finding Drug Information -- Interactive Tutorial  -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED before you start the assignment.

Choose three different types of drugs:  1) prescription  2) over the counter medication   3) Herbal remedy or supplement.       A nice tie-in is to select drugs used to treat the disease studied in the previous reference assignment.    Review  information types contained  in a variety of  reference sources (at least 10).     Include online and print resources for both consumers and health professionals.    Prepare a brief (3-5 pages) summary report listing the tools studied as well as key comparative points about each.    Discuss your findings in class.

Remember that HealthLinks provides access to a number of online drug resources which can be used for this assignment - but don't assume all the resources you need to use will be online.


February 24

11:30- 1:00

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:

 

 

 Interesting background article, but not required reading:

Beyond Core Journals and Licenses:  The Paths to Reform Scientific Publishing

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?
 

1:15 - 2:20

Sherrilynne Fuller

Professional Practice Issues/Opportunities

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  -- led by Catherine Burroughs, Acting Associate Director,      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...

                                 

 


 

   


March 3

Student Presentations

 


March 10

Student Presentations  -- Continued

Course Summary/Discussion

Course Evaluation

 

 

March 16 (finals week)

Student Presentations (if needed)