AIDS Information and Outreach in the Virtual World of Second Life

The Alliance Library System (ALS) is pleased to announce that the National Library of Medicine has awarded ALS a $60,000 grant for a project entitled "AIDS Information and Outreach in the Virtual World of Second Life." The project includes the creation of a new island with a community AIDS/HIV library/resource center. The resource center will provide information support and outreach to the Second Life community and beyond about AIDS/HIV and its prevention. The new island will also be home to a garden space where narratives about the AIDS/HIV experience can be shared through art, audio, video, poetry, essays, and more. The project runs from October 1, 2008 – March 31, 2010.

This is the fourth grant awarded to ALS for the provision of consumer health information in Second Life, and will also fund a continuation of current efforts. The project coordinator will be Carol Perryman, known inworld as Carolina Keats.

For more information on the Alliance Library System, please see www.alliancelibrarysystem.com or contact Lori Bell at lbell927@gmail.com, or in Second Life as Lorelei Junot.

For more information about this project, please contact Carol Perryman at cp1757@gmail.com or in Second Life as Carolina Keats.

Updated study finds 56% of Americans seek health information - up from 38%

A tremendous jump in health information seeking between 2001 and 2007 is reported in a new report by the Study for Seeking Health System Change. Full content of the study's findings is available online. Looking at the graph above, I find it interesting that overall, people are reporting they use media sources, peers, and the internet at about the same rate to learn more about health issues - a very significant change in the way we look for health information.

The most striking finding on the impact of health information is that four of five information seekers found information that helped them to better understand how to treat an illness or condition. This positive impact on consumers’ health knowledge was consistently high across demographic subgroups (HSC Tracking Report No. 20).

The authors conclude that increased health information seeking by consumers may be a result of the awareness that physicians have less time, and call for health policy organizations to find ways to make good health information easier to find.

I disagree somewhat with the recommendation: There is fantastic information available now. To begin with, MedlinePlus.gov serves as a huge portal source to many, many other top-quality health association sites. Where I find gaps is in the consumer awareness of resources, and perhaps in the complexity of the resources. I have seldom encountered a consumer who is familiar with MedlinePlus, and when I introduce it, they are usually astounded and impressed (and perhaps, a bit intimidated) by the sheer volume of information. If I were Health Information Czar :) I'd launch a major publicity campaign on behalf of MedlinePlus, with TV and radio spots, with personal narratives, individual accounts of how people found information through that site that empowered them as partners in their own healthcare. Got Healthinfo?

Looking for Health : a workshop on finding good health information

Class is in session!

This great image, kind courtesy of Ewa Dobrogowska
thanks so much!

I'm pleased with the number of people who showed up to this first class on the brand new Virtual Ability Island! Today was also the first time I have tried using voice AND a serial chat feeder AND slides, along with typed chat, for teaching. Let me just say that it's clear to me that I am no teenager, multitasking with ease and grace.

One idea that has resulted from this class is that we need to have a group (oh no, another group!) for Healthinfo Island and Virtual Ability Island classes, workshops and events. I'm trying to find a script that I can insert into a poster ('touch here to be notified about classes') or other object.

Upon request, I am also linking here to the class transcript. Note that because I didn't get permission, I have 'anonymized' everyone except me, calling all class participants 'A'. As I did this, I thought it was probably a good practice even if people do give permission.

Food recalls

This image is from a terrific website on child nutrition programs.

Living in the US it's hard not to be aware of the whole Hallmark foods fiasco, where abuse was filmed and made public. It is also becoming more difficult to close your eyes and awareness to the reality: this was very likely only the tip of a giant iceberg, merely the most visible element of a serious problem here and elsewhere.
For example, here's a PDF document put out by the California Department of Public Health: Products made with Hallmark/Westland Recalled Beef.

Just how big a problem is this? What is a 'regular' person to do? There's some great information out there right now that can help you make better choices.

One of these is the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website, FDA Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts. In their own words, the site "includes the most significant product actions of the last 60 days, based on the extent of distribution and the degree of health risk." Here, you'll find how to report problems, the 'straight scoop' on media reporting, and the site provides links to older, archived information. Another link on this page leads to FDA Patient Safety News, where you can search the site for reliable and current information.

A 'gateway' site to federal food safety sites, the News & Food Safety Alerts page contains links to health warnings, regulatory compliance information, and more - including some interesting pages designed specifically for kids.

Finding reliable information on food safety and nutrition is not so difficult when you have access to sites like FirstGov for Consumers - check this out for lots of very accessible links.

Grey literature

Sounds mysterious, doesn't it, maybe veiled in ghostly whisps of... cobwebs or something, or as if it's a publication done after the ink ran out.

Actually, 'grey lit' is a term used to describe publications that are hard to locate. They are not often available through the 'usual suspects - databases and other searchable sites. Instead, these are the occasional reports, the self-published items. Grey lit covers a lot of ground, when you think about it. Neither fish nor fowl, grey lit is nonetheless worth knowing about, if only because there's a test (ok, no there's not). But I think after you glance through this all too brief list, you'll agree with me that these documents are worth knowing about.

Here's a sampling of resources from the latest Grey Literature Report (itself, a grey lit report! - don't you love it?)

From the AARP: Prescription drugs and Medicare Part D : a report on access, satisfaction, and cost

From Active Living Research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Designing for active living among children - a document on childhood obesity

From the AHQR (Agency for Health Quality Research - National healthcare quality report 2007 - one of the United States' most important annual reports, this is one that's quoted pretty much everywhere.

Here's a really hot topic: Individual health insurance 2006-2007 : a comprehensive survey of premiums, availability, and benefits

Reducing poverty : what has worked, and what should come next This Canadian report finds areas for targeted intervention: "Six dossiers that require attention: education among the poor; Aboriginal poverty; the mentally ill and physically handicapped; the ghetto poor; high effective tax rates on the “near poor”; and in-work benefits such as earnings supplements."

Another very hot area: Whose data is it anyway? : expanding consumer control over personal health information


The school foods report card 2007 from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)

Share the Health: Training People with Disabilities and Chronic Medical Conditions on how to Locate Quality Health Information

The Alliance Library System (ALS) is pleased to announce that the Greater Midwest Region/National Library of Medicine has awarded ALS a $35,000 grant to provide consumer health information to people with disabilities and chronic illness, in Second Life.

Partnering with ALS in the project will be Virtual Ability, Inc. (VAI). VAI presence in Second Life has included their ongoing work as The Heron Sanctuary, which provides a community of support for people with disabilities.

The grant, called Share the Health: Training People with Disabilities and Chronic Medical Conditions on how to Locate Quality Health Information, will fund a new island with an orientation and training center for people with disabilities and chronic illness. It is the third grant awarded to ALS for the provision of consumer health information in Second Life, and will also fund a continuation of current efforts.

For more information on this project, please contact Carol Perryman at cp1757@gmail.com, or in Second Life as Carolina Keats.
For more information on the Alliance Library System, please see www.alliancelibrarysystem.com or contact Lori Bell at lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com

309-694-9200 ext. 2128, or in Second Life as Lorelei Junot.

For more information on the Greater Midwest Region/National Library of Medicine, please see http://nnlm.gov/gmr/.

For more information on Virtual Ability, Inc., please see www.VirtualAbility.org or contact Alice Krueger at akrueger@virtualability.org or in Second Life as Gentle Heron.

CDC Health Information for International Travel 2008

Thanks to Resource Shelf, a great blog I've got feeding into my Google Reader, I learn about so many weird, wonderful things - this one's filed under part 2, as a useful source of information. The kind of thing that when you need it you really need it, and otherwise, you tend to forget it. The CDC Yellow Book for 2008 is an annually updated resource.

Things you'll find (picking almost at random, this resource is comprehensive:

• Seeking health care abroad
• Travel while breasfeeding
• Animal importation and reentry
• Travellers with disabilities

Find health warnings by country, browse the table of contents, search for specific topics, check out the maps (what regions present the greatest risk of diarrhea? What vaccinations are required?) Find it here, bookmark it, use it when you need it - and bon voyage!

What's New in Consumer Health?

Le Lavement, Abraham Bosse. Interior scene in which an apothecary brings a clyster to a bedridden woman while a maid brings a chamber pot-chair. Image courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
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Debut: a casual, occasional summary of new sites, reports, and news pertinent to consumer health information. NOT limited to SL.
Purpose: interest & awareness

I keep seeing these things and wondering if they'd make a good display at Healthinfo Island. However, there's already so much there that another display - not sure it would be the best way to do this. So this is a trial balloon. Maybe I'll put an RSS feed on the Island, - but I'd prefer to have contributions from the community. Ideas?

Meanwhile, today I have 2 new things to mention. First is the Google Health 'teaser' complete with images written up on their blog. Competing with MSN to the starting gate, Google's trying to build a personal health portal that would let consumers upload their own health records, list meds, even request an appointment. Now in beta with the Cleveland Clinic, the concept promises much (debate, revenue potential, linking of personal health info to quality resources, legal and confidential concern). It's going to happen, but the development will be slow and massively publicized. Something to watch. Meanwhile, there are existing if more limited applications currently available (I cannot recommend any but here's a Wikipedia article, if you're interested), with what looks like a fair bibliography (how's that for cautious wording?) if you want to know more.

Second, a new report about 50 US top hospitals has been issued and is available on the web (note that it's PDF). Criteria for grading is provided, including infection rates. From the intro:
"Among the Medicare beneficiaries admitted to U.S. hospitals during 2004 - 2006, 171,424 lives may have been
saved if all hospitals performed at the level of Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence.
For the same time period, 9,671 patients may have avoided an inhospital major complication if they had
been treated at Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence.
HealthGrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals are those hospitals that have consistently ranked among the top five
percent in the nation for clinical quality. These elite organizations represent the best of the best and set the
quality standard for American hospitals."

Disclaimer: I have not completely read this report or the white paper on methodology.

Further disclaimer: Rating healthcare institutions based upon such things as infection and mortality rates may be questionable. How are regional and local differences considered? Are the patients treated generally sicker (or less sick) than the patients for other hospitals, and does that affect the ratings? I would take the claims with a judicious grain or two of salt. Turns out that the report does not include military hospitals, and uses data from Medicare patients only. Does this bring up further questions? At any rate, knowing about the criteria doesn't hurt. It's something that might empower you as a US healthcare consumer (and that's what consumer health librarianship is all about).

An even further disclaimer: Rating hospitals overall is sort of like rating a cleaning product intended for all surfaces. Usually you will be concerned with whether it leaves streaks on your windows - and some will be great for floors, but lousy for upholstery. Mortality, infection, and return rates per procedure (for instance) are probably more meaningful to the individual planning for surgery.