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How Will Technology Shape the Future of Health Care?

Do the Dead Tell Tales After All?

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Public Libraries and Consumer Health

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New Exhibit's Brewing at HMD

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NLM Pioneer Dave McCarn Dies

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In January, 200 public and medical librarians gathered in Washington, DC for the first consumer health conference cosponsored by the National Library of Medicine, the Public Library Association and the Medical Library Association. "The Public Library and Consumer Health: Meeting Community Needs through Resource Identification and Collaboration" provided public librarians with an introduction to health information resources, information on establishing and maintaining a consumer health library, training in searching health and medical information databases, and information on partnerships and funding opportunities. The two-day conference also provided librarians who have a mutual interest in consumer health the opportunity to share experiences and to network with their peers who work in other settings.

Dr. Tom Ferguson, adjunct associate professor of health informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center and editor and publisher of the Ferguson Report, was the keynote speaker. In his presentation, the Empowered Medical Consumer, Dr, Ferguson identified the states of response to new technologies: ignore, resist, substitute, innovate and transform. He then described eight key trends in online health including prosumers, patient-helpers, online disease clubs, open source health, type 1 cyberdocs, online patient services, qualityware and communityware. Dr. Ferguson emphasized the roles librarians can play in empowering consumers and offered specific guidelines for medical and public librarians.

Following the keynote address, Heidi Sandstrom, Coordinator of Consumer Health Information Services for the Pacific Southwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, addressed many practical issues related to consumer health information provision. In her presentation, Consumer Health Information Overview: What Is It? What Drives It? And Why Is It Important to Public Libraries? Ms. Sandstrom focused on issues related to literacy, confidentiality, and cultural diversity. Language and economic barriers to health information were also addressed.

Carla Funk, Executive Director of the Medical Library Association, introduced MLA's new consumer health credentialing program that is available to medical or public librarians. Workshops included Planning and Managing the Consumer Health Library, Consumer Health Information on the Internet, National Library of Medicine Information Resources, Fundraising and Grantwriting Strategies, and Finding and Understanding Evidence-Based Literature.

The first day of the conference concluded with a reception that featured informal displays of consumer health-related resources by 14 health and medical associations, government agencies and library vendors. In his welcome remarks on the second day of the conference, Dr. Donald A.B. Lindberg, Director of the National Library of Medicine, reiterated the importance of librarians' contributions when he stated that "interactions with librarians can unquestionably enhance understanding of health and medical issues." Two NLM- sponsored panels followed Dr. Lindberg's presentation. Introducing the panel on Promoting Health Literacy through NLM/Public Library Partnerships, Becky Lyon, Deputy Associate Director for Library Operations, outlined the history of NLM's relationship with public libraries through the Public Library Pilot Project and the current Health Information for the Public subcontracts. Panel members J. Sara Paulk (Tifton-Tift County Public Library, Georgia), Jane Fisher (New York Public Library) and Bernie Todd Smith (Rochester, NY General Hospital) shared their experiences developing and providing consumer health information resources through collaborations supported by NLM funding.

The conference concluded with a panel on Funding Health Information Access facilitated by Angela Ruffin, PhD, head of NLM's National Network Office. Conference participants received practical information about library funding opportunities from Joyce Ray, Director of the Office of Library Services, Institute of Museum and Library Services and Stephen J. Downs, Director of the Technology Opportunities Program of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Harriett Henderson, PLA 1999- 2000 President and Director, Montgomery County (MD) Department of Public Libraries, and Joanne Gard Marshall, Dean and Professor, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, moderated the conference.

Many conference attendees participated in a special tour of NLM that featured the "Breath of Life" Exhibit.

This article was contributed by the late Cecilia Durkin, a consumer health librarian with NLM's National Network Office. Ms. Durkin lost her battle with cancer in May 2001. A note about her life and career appears in the "In Memoriam" section of this newsletter.