Delivering health information statewide via the Internet in a collaborative environment: impact on individual member institutions.
(9/924)
The Arizona Health Information Network (AZHIN) is a statewide member-driven organization committed to improving access to information for health sciences students and practitioners. Members include several hospitals and hospital systems, an academic health sciences center, and other diverse health care organizations. AZHIN offers its members unlimited Web access to ten well-known health sciences databases. This paper explores the impact that AZHIN has had on its member institutions. A survey asked members to reflect on AZHIN and its possible effects on the visibility of the librarian within the institution, relative dollars spent on AZHIN and range of resources available, Internet connectivity within their institution, access to AZHIN and other Internet resources, teaching, and benefits of collaboration. Results indicated that AZHIN members have access to a wider range of resources than they would otherwise. There are financial savings for some. Internet connectivity and AZHIN membership can provide the librarian with a broadened role and increased visibility. The availability of MEDLINE and other AZHIN resources encouraged some institutions to install Internet connectivity more quickly. Teaching library users has increased. Overall, AZHIN members recognized many benefits of their collaboration. (+info)
Mapping the literature of dental hygiene.
(10/924)
Despite the long history of the dental hygiene profession, little research has been conducted on the characteristics of its literature. In this study, the bibliometric method was used to identify the core journals in the discipline and the extent of indexing of these journals. The study was a part of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project to map the allied health literature. Five journals were found to provide one-third of all references studied. Forty-two journals yielded an additional one-third of the references. MEDLINE had the best indexing coverage with 87% of the journals receiving indexing for at least one-half of the articles included. Limited coverage was provided by EMBASE/Excerpta Medica (11%) and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (9%). The findings identified titles that should be added by indexing services as well as those that should have more complete coverage. (+info)
Mapping the literature of diagnostic medical sonography.
(11/924)
Diagnostic medical sonography has been evolving as a recognized allied health occupation since the early 1970s, but no bibliometric studies of the literature of the field have been published. This study, part of the Medical Library Association Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's Project for Mapping the Literature of Allied Health, attempted to identify the core journals in diagnostic medical sonography and determine how well these journals are indexed by MEDLINE, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL). Citation analysis was done using the three journals listed for the field by the Brandon/Hill list. Characteristics of two of these three journals affected the results to the extent that more data should be gathered to reach conclusions about the literature of diagnostic medical sonography as a whole. Results of the analysis do suggest that the literature of echocardiography, which is a special area of diagnostic medical sonography, is indexed much more completely by MEDLINE and EMBASE/Excerpta Medica than by CINAHL. Suggestions are made for librarians making collection development decisions in this area of allied health. (+info)
Mapping the literature of occupational therapy.
(12/924)
Occupational therapy, formally organized in the United States in 1917, is considered an allied health field. Mapping occupational therapy literature is part of a bibliometric project of the Medical Library Association's Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section's project for mapping the literature of allied health. Three core journals were selected from the years 1995 and 1996 and a determination was made of the extent to which the cited journal references were covered by standard indexing sources. Using Bradford's Law of Scattering three zones were created, each containing approximately one-third of the cited journal references. The results showed that three journals made up the first zone, 117 journals the second, and 657 the third. The most cited journal was the American Journal of Occupational Therapy. In the second zone, journals from twelve disciplines were identified. While MEDLINE provided the best overall indexing, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) was the only database that indexed the three most cited journals plus nine of the currently active titles in occupational therapy. MEDLINE could improve its coverage of occupational therapy by indexing the journals of the British, Canadian, and Australian national associations. (+info)
Mapping the literature of perfusion.
(13/924)
Perfusionists select and operate the equipment necessary for monitoring, supporting, or temporarily replacing the patient's circulatory or respiratory function. There are over 3,000 perfusionists working in U.S. hospitals, medical and perfusionist groups, and as independent contractors. The purpose of this study was to identify the core literature of perfusion and to determine which major databases provide the most thorough access to this literature. This paper is part of the Medical Library Association Nursing and Allied Health Resource Section's project to map the literature of the allied health professions. It uses a bibliometric methodology to identify core journals. A group of forty-three journals was determined to make up the core journal literature of perfusion. MEDLINE provided the best overall indexing coverage for these journals, but librarians and perfusionists will wish to supplement its use with the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature in order to access the journals written primarily for perfusionists. The study results can guide purchasing and database searching decisions of collection development and reference librarians, encourage the database producer to increase coverage of titles that are unindexed or underindexed, and advise perfusionists of the best access to their core literature. (+info)
Public health professionals in the Midwest: a profile of connectivity and information technology skills.
(14/924)
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess Internet connections and information technology skills of public health workers in the Midwest. METHODS: A questionnaire was mailed to 713 local health departments (LHDs) in the ten states of the Greater Midwest Region. RESULTS: Three hundred forty-four LHDs (48%) responded. Overall, 85% own a computer that would allow Internet access. Half provide Internet access to some or all staff. Of these, two-thirds use e-mail and half search the Web. One-half are linked to the State Health Department, and 30% are linked to other local health departments. Over half use CDC-Wonder; less than 20% search MEDLINE. Two-thirds of the respondents expressed an interest in MEDLINE training, and three-fourths are interested in learning more about the Internet. Sixty-nine percent of respondents planned to enhance electronic communication capacity within the next year. CONCLUSIONS: Public health practitioners need timely, convenient access to information to aid them in improving the health of the American public. A majority of public health departments in the Midwest are technically capable of connecting to the Internet. This technological capability, combined with an expressed desire by public health agencies to have workers become computer literate, suggests an important role for health sciences librarians. (+info)
Use of MEDLINE by rural physicians in Washington state.
(15/924)
Studies have suggested that rural physicians do not use MEDLINE to aid their clinical decision making, and yet rural physicians appear to be a group that would benefit greatly from the use of MEDLINE because of their isolation from libraries and colleagues. This study was undertaken to understand why a population so likely to benefit from the use of MEDLINE is not using it. The study confirmed that rural physicians regard colleagues, reference texts, and journal articles as the most important information sources. However, a surprising number of rural generalist physicians in Washington, 40 percent of respondents, use MEDLINE, and most possess the requisite awareness, resources, and ability to use MEDLINE. Of those who use MEDLINE, 70 percent consider it a valuable clinical tool. (+info)
Recombinant versus urinary follicle stimulating hormone for ovarian stimulation in assisted reproduction.
(16/924)
The recent availability of recombinant follicle stimulating hormone (rFSH), with its high level of purity and batch-to-batch consistency has made it an attractive alternative to urinary FSH (uFSH) for ovarian stimulation. Several trials have compared the two preparations, but none had sufficient power to detect a clinically meaningful difference in pregnancy rates. The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical pregnancy rates per started cycle by pooling data from randomized trials which compared the use of rFSH and uFSH in treatment cycles using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). A thorough search of the literature identified 12 trials which met the inclusion criteria. In four trials, both IVF and ICSI were performed, in seven trials only IVF was performed and in one trial only ICSI was performed. Data were extracted and pooled using the principles of meta-analysis. There was no significant heterogeneity of treatment effect across the trials. The common odds ratio and the risk difference (and their 95% confidence intervals), obtained by pooling the data using a fixed effects model, were 1.20 (1.02-1.42) and 3.7% (0.5-6.9%) respectively, in favour of rFSH. The pregnancy rate with the alpha preparation of rFSH was statistically significantly higher than with uFSH in IVF cycles. The overall conclusion from this meta-analysis is that the use of rFSH in assisted reproduction is preferred over uFSH. (+info)