In This Issue:
"ClinicalTrials.gov"
Launched
49
High-Tech Projects
New
Version of PubMed
Marcetich
Named Head of Index Section
New
Policy on Clinical Alerts
NLM
Long Range Plan in Place
New
Regents Named
"Racism,
Sexism and Poverty are Hazardous to Our Health"
Lakota
Officials and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Leaders Visit Library
MEDLINEplus
Adds Medical Encyclopedia
"PubMed
Central" Debuts
NLM
"Adopts" D.C.'s Woodrow Wilson Senior High School
Hospital
and Health Administration Index
Images
from the History of Medicine Rescanned
NLM's
"Breath of Life" Exhibit Extended Through March 2001
In Every Issue:
Names
in the News
Products
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NLM
In Print
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NLM Announces Initiative to Help Public Use Online Health
Information
49 High-Tech Projects Will Aid the Underprivileged
Noting that "the Internet offers us one of the best opportunities
for improving access to reliable, up-to-date health information,"
Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D., Director of the National Library of
Medicine, announced January 14th that the Library was funding 49
electronic health information projects in 34 states. These diverse
initiatives span rural, inner city, and suburban areas.
"The projects we are supporting will increase Internet access in
a variety of settings, from middle schools serving low income and
educationally underserved students to shopping malls and senior
centers," Dr. Lindberg said. "These are imaginative and
well-targeted projects that will help us determine how we can best
provide millions of Americans who are still not connected to the
Internet with access to health information. They will stimulate
medical libraries, local public libraries, and other organizations
to work together to provide new electronic health information
services for all citizens in a community."
Henry Foster, M.D., Senior Advisor to President Clinton on Teen
and Youth Issues, said that "Many of the contracts will focus on
making computers available in community-based centers and teaching
computer skills to minorities and low- income populations --
individuals who lack access to computers and hence fail to gain the
needed computer skills essential to contemporary American living.
From Native Americans in Wyoming, to minority populations in the
lower Mississippi Delta, to those isolated in Appalachia, these
consumers will soon have access to Web-based health information. We
hope that the skills consumers learn through these projects will
enable them to make better informed health decisions." Dr. Foster is
also a member of the Library's Board of Regents.
For example:
- The Wyoming Medical Center will build partnerships with
libraries in the local counties. The 13-county area covered by
this project encompasses nearly half the population of Wyoming,
including many Native Americans.
- In Atlanta, Emory University Health Sciences Center Library
will team up with a hospital, a regional library, and the Cascade
United Methodist Church in training librarians to help consumers
search for health information, and develop a consumer health web
site.
- The Preuss School, in La Jolla, California, is a new charter
school for a select group of 150 sixth, seventh, and eighth
graders. Geared to low-income and educationally underserved
students, the school's mission is to prepare them for admission
and graduation from a university. The University of California at
San Diego Biomedical Library will team up with the middle school's
faculty to create and integrate into the curriculum a health
website especially geared to these students.
- The University of Missouri plans to reach out to consumers at
a location where they frequently congregate -- the shopping mall.
The University sponsors a Consumer Information Center in the
Columbia (Missouri) Mall that will be expanded to include more
health care links.
- The Massachusetts General Hospital will join forces with
community-based organizations in the area to create a Health
Resource Center that will provide online healthcare information
for an exceptionally diverse population of residents.
- The State University of New York Health Science Center in
Syracuse will team up with an organization serving older adults to
offer consumer health information services to the senior
population in that city and surrounding six counties. Project
organizers will teach older adults how to access the World Wide
Web to find health information and will develop a Web-based
tutorial.
On the NLM Web site (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/) there
are descriptions of each of the 49 projects, including the name of
the project director, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses.
The projects total more than $1 million and will run variously from
one year to 18 months. |