Mulford Library Blog

By Janice

MedlinePlus recently released a new version of the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia that includes approximately 400 new Patient Instruction pages, covering pre-operative information and instructions, discharge instructions, self-care instructions, and questions to ask your doctor.
The Patient Instruction pages are available in both English and Spanish, and you will be able to find them in the MedlinePlus search engine (at the home page)  and A-Z index pages for the Encyclopedia. Additionally, you will see links to related Patient Instructions in the side-bar of many encyclopedia articles.

As the Swine Flu continues to make headlines, here are a few noteworthy health-related web resources on the topic:

The Home Page of the Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) has links to current Swine Flu Information.

A green box in the right column contains these hyperlinks:
**[Daily Updated] Information with general swine flu information, updates on the situation (including Guidance for Professionals), and general case statistics
**Investigation with case counts and related links
** Things you can do (for the general public)

You can even follow CDC emergency updates on Twitter.

The National Library of Medicine recently released a brand new MedlinePlus page on the Swine Flu. Consult this page for the latest in consumer/patient info.

Due to the importance of this public health emergency, EBSCOhost publishing and the DynaMed editors are currently providing free access to their Swine Flu clinical summary.

Please do not hesitate to contact Mulford Reference Assistance for further information.

The  National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) On-line is published by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.  It is a national probability sample of hospitals in the U.S. and its territories. Patient information is collected from each NEISS hospital for every emergency visit involving an injury associated with consumer products. From this sample, the total number of product-related injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms nationwide can be estimated. This web access to NEISS allows certain estimates to be retrieved on-line. These estimates can be focused by setting some or all of the following variables (and an example of each):

• Date (one year maximum range; e.g., how many injuries were treated in 1996)
• Product (e.g., how many bicycle injuries occurred)
• Sex (e.g., how many injuries occurred to women)
• Age (e.g., how many injuries occurred to people aged 35-55)
• Diagnosis (e.g., how many lacerations occurred)
• Disposition (e.g., how many people were admitted to the hospital)
• Locale (e.g., how many injuries occurred at a school)
• Body part (e.g., how many injuries involved the knee)

For example, the following query could be made: number of males between the ages of 50 and 70 treated in hospital emergency rooms between February 1999 and October 1999 for injuries associated with use of a ladder at home. The response would include the actual number of cases/injuries in the NEISS sample, and an estimate for the entire nation.

WISQARSTM: Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System

WISQARSTM (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) is an interactive database system that provides customized reports of injury-related data from the national Center of Health Statistics (NCHS) and the violent death data from NCIPC’s (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control) National Violent Death Reporting System.

Includes data on fatal, nonfatal, and violent injuries. Offers tutorials and frequently requested charts, tables, and reports

Please contact Mulford Reference Assistance with your informational and research needs.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently developed a new booklet and Web site to help provide reliable sources of health information to seniors and their family members.

These tools aim to help evaluate health information and make wise decisions in choosing products and services that work, are safe, and are scientifically sound.

Who Cares: Sources of Information About Health Care Products and Services strongly suggests seniors and their families and caregivers to talk about all health-related decisions with your doctors and other trusted health care providers.

These sources also help one to:
* find links to agencies and organizations that provide reliable information about generic drugs, hormone therapy, caregiving, surgery to improve vision, alternative medicine, hearing aids, Medicare fraud, and medical ID theft;
* learn how to spot misleading and deceptive claims; and
* find out who they can contact to ask questions, enlist help, or raise a concern about a health product or service that isn’t living up to its promise.

Please do not hesitate to contact Mulford Reference Assistance with any questions or for further assistance. Let us work for you so your time can be better allocated!