Meeting Scheduled for Sept 24

The Western Massachusetts Health Information Consortium (WMHIC) is going through a metamorphosis in 2010/2011. In the past several years, many of our members retired or lost their jobs. Those that remain, and those who are new, have big aspirations.

We hope to engage you in our quarterly meetings. These meetings are an opportunity to network with librarians working in Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties—the counties struggling with some of the most daunting health disparities in the Commonwealth. We are academic librarians and hospital librarians working together to improve biomedical education and clinical care for our neighbors.

And, we need an opportunity to share our struggles and our triumphs.

We invite you to join us in our quarterly meetings (September, December, March, and June). Join our face2face community of health sciences librarians. Each meeting is a time to share what we are doing at our institutions and an opportunity to learn about issues relevant to our field. We are here to support your work as you make a positive impact on those who work, study and reside in Western Massachusetts.

Our next meeting is:

Friday, September 24, 2010
Western Mass Regional Library facility
4 Sandy Lane
Whately, MA
9:00am-12:00pm

Special Guest: Lauri Fennell, Outreach and Education Coordinator from NN/LM NER

We always welcome your ideas on how to improve WMHIC. Please forward to other health sciences librarians!

March 26 WMHIC Meeting

Spring is (sort of) here! us! We will be meeting at the Holyoke Medical Center Auxiliary Conference Center, located at 575 Beech St., Holyoke, MA 01040.

Directions to the Auxiliary Conference Center are located here: http://www.holyokehealth.com/Patient.aspx?id=440

Arrival/refreshments will begin at 9:00. A more complete agenda will follow sometime next week. If you have something you'd like to see on the agenda, please let me know.

I hope to see you all next Friday,

--Rob


Robert DiFazio, MLS
Librarian
Austen Riggs Center
25 Main St., P.O. Box 962
Stockbridge, MA 01262-0962
(413) 931-5259
robert.difazio@austenriggs.net

Beth Roscoe and Dr. Stoddard present work in AZ

Shriners researcher/prosthetist, Beth Roscoe, and plastic surgeon, Dr. Phil Stoddard,

presented their ground-breaking work on cleft palate repair in Scottsdale, Arizona last

month. At the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association conference, Beth and Dr. Stoddard

had a chance to chat with some of the 600-plus physicians and other medical professionals

who care for patients with cleft lip and palate. Dr. Stoddard told me that their poster,

"Accomodating Maxillary Growth by Computer-Aided Design and Manufacture of Serial

IntraOral Appliances -- A NEW Approach in the Treatment for Wide Cleft Lip and Palate",

was well received.

Shriners' Rally

April 19, 2007

Here are a few images from the Shriners' Rally. Hope some from WMHIC were able to make it, I could not - was away. From all I hear it was a perfect day for it and there was a sizeable crowd, including many local politicians. Many former and current patients at the hospital spoke to the importance of keeping the Shriners' Hospital open. Now we have to have confidence that the decision makers will make the right one!

Spring Meeting March 20, 2009

W.E.B. DuBois Library

University of Massachusetts

Amherst MA 01003

Although it was in fact the first day of Spring, it certainly was a bit chillier than we might have liked. On the other hand, as it was Spring Break on the campus, no one had problems finding parking or negotiationg the elevators to get to the 13th floor, and we did have a South facing view!

Emily Alling, Coordinator , Learning Commons & Undergraduate Library Services, presented a lively and informative WEB 2.0 applications session. Many of us are aware of all the tech apps that are out there, but it sets one to wondering just how can we find the time to learn and apply these apps in our own environments. It can get a bit overwhelming at times.

Our visit was capped with a tour of the Learning Commons on the lower level of the library. If you missed the meeting, I would encourage you to stop by the campus and visit the DuBois Library Learning Commons - futuristic. Caveat - go when classes are not in session!

March 20 Meeting Photos ~ More on the way

What's New @ PubMed?

On January 12, Lauri Fennell from NN/LM conducted a information/training session at BHS. There were about 10 folks in attendance. Fran Becker and Karen Dorval provided a very nice coffee klatch opportunity before the session. We all got to meet Ray Marcotte of the Elms who has taken Mary Courtney's spot as the the Elms representative to WMHIC.
Seems there have been a number of cosmetic and functional changes to the PubMed site and more are coming.
Lauri strongly recommended that we begin using the Advanced Search all the time. The single citation match will disappear - if it has not already. Those little icons in the result list are mostly history.
Also, Lauri noted that the whole structure and design of the cite is moving towards the Amazon/Google model and it is the National Technology Information Center that is controlling the functionality of the cite. In her discussion, she emphasized the utility of MyNCBI and regularly consulting the NLM Technical Bulletin. She also made note of the Special Queries page and the "Drug Sensor" and "Gene Sensor", commenting that more of these features are forthcoming.
It would be impossible to detail all of which she made note. For the training packet she distributed go to: http://nnlm.gov/training/resources/pubmedpacket.doc