Current Projects at the Health Sciences Library

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Project: Integrating Targeted MedlinePlus Health Prescriptions into Clinic Practice Workflow

Name/Title: Caryn Scoville, Information Services Librarian - Head of Interlibrary Loan

Collaborators: Dr. Robert Hodge, Dr. Emily Coberly, Dr. Sue Boren, Dr. Wade Davis, Bin Ge, Rebecca Chitima-Matsiga

Beneficiaries: Physicians and Patients

Years Covered: 2007-2010

Brief Description: A pilot project will examine the effects of sending patients an email with links to specific consumer health information following clinic visits. Both patient and physician satisfaction will be studied.
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Project: MAHEC Digital Library

Name/Title: Deb Ward, Director, Health Sciences Libraries

Collaborators:
Primary: Susan Centner and others at Mid-Missouri Area Health Education Center and Phelps County Regional Medical Center. HSL Librarians Diane Johnson, Rebecca Graves, Barb Jones, and MaryEllen Sievert also contributed to this project.
Secondary: The six additional Area Health Education Centers and the three AHEC Program Offices in the state of Missouri as well as the health sciences libraries at AT Still University and St. Louis University.

Beneficiaries:Health-related program students and faculty involved in rural rotations for health internships; unaffiliated health care providers in underserved areas of the state.

Years Covered: Grant funding received from National Library of Medicine, 2002 – 2005. PI on the project was Susan Centner, of the Mid-Missouri AHEC. Deb Ward's role in project was co-creator and consultant, now Chair of the MDL Alliance. MDL is now self-sustaining, with primary funding from the Area Health Education Centers and Program Offices.

Brief Description: The MAHEC Digital Library is an aggregation of information services and electronic health information resources for students and faculty of rural training programs and health care providers of all types who lack affiliation with an information provider. The MDL provides educational opportunities for users to provide instruction in database searching and its application to evidence-based clinical practice. Reference, Interlibrary Loan, and Educational services are provided by the J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, and potentially by the two other academic library partners. All services are provided through a portal managed at the Mid-Missouri AHEC in Rolla. This is a highly collaborative project involving multiple institutions with mutual goals. The MDL is administered through the Phelps County Regional Medical Center, Directed by the Project Director in Rolla, and is jointly guided by the MDL Alliance, a cooperative group of the Missouri Area Health Education Centers. The MDL is fee-based, and will operate in perpetuity as long as funding is sustained by its members.

A recent enhancement of the MDL is the participation of a group of Missouri health sciences librarians in the Missouri Health Literacy Enhancement Project, funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health. The MDL is a part of this project.

Relevant Link(s):
About the MDL
MDL Portal
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Project: Health Literacy Missouri Project

Funded by: The Missouri Foundation for Health

Name/Title: Deb Ward, Director, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library; Barb Jones, NN/LM Liaison; Richard J. Rexroat, Head, Technical Services; Amanda Sprochi, Health Sciences Cataloger; Shelley Worden, Collection Development Librarian.

Collaborators: University of Missouri Center for Health Policy, Missouri State University in collaboration with the MAHEC Digital Library, and the St. Louis Collaborative.

Beneficiaries: Missouri health professionals and the citizens of the state of Missouri.

Years Covered: 2007- Present

Brief Description: MU is one of three institutions collaborating to build an infrastructure that will become an interactive and comprehensive health literacy resource for the entire Missouri Foundation for Health service region. Several project team members also participate as members of the Health Literacy Missouri Librarian Expert Group (LEG), chaired by Susan Centner, Project Director, MAHEC Digital Library. Deb Ward and Susan Centner also serve on the Resource Inventory Committee, under the Health Literacy Missouri Coordinating Council. The Librarian Expert Group reports to the Resource Inventory Committee.

HSL project tasks include developing a format for categorization, developing and identifying search strategies for resource collection activities, developing criteria for resource evaluation, and developing recommendations for resource/inventory central collection. A database will be designed, a unit record for the materials will be created, information resources will be gathered, the information resources will be cataloged and access to the materials will be identified.

Relevant Link(s):
Health Literacy Missouri Resource Inventory
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Project: National Institutes of Health Research Grant: meta-analysis of interventions to increase exercise and physical activity among healthy adults

Name/Title: E. Diane Johnson, Head of Information Services

Collaborators: Vicki Conn, Principal Investigator

Beneficiaries: Physicians and Patients

Years Covered: 2006-2008

Brief Description: Identify all research studies on the effects of interventions to increase exercise and physical activity in healthy adults, extract and analyze findings to inform practice.

Relevant Link(s):
Personal Profile of Vicki Conn
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Project: Translating PubMed's Clinical Queries for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine

Name/Title: Kate Anderson, Specialized Services Librarian

Collaborators From: University of Missouri, Kansas State University, Washington State University, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Beneficiaries: Clinicians and Researchers

Years Covered: n/a

Brief Description: Finding relevant literature is crucial to both research and clinical practice. Locating the evidence to support veterinary medicine (and, by extension, human medicine via translational and One Health initiatives) is a non-trivial challenge. This project is investigating how PubMed's Clinical Queries -- designed to support human medicine -- work with the veterinary literature.

Relevant Link(s):
Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine Association
PubMed's Clinical Queries