CDC has developed a web-based resource kit, which contains the most current information about smallpox.  This resources kit includes a number of materials that can be directly reproduced or may assist with the development of community-targeted materials.  (Note: this kit links to only a partial listing of resources available on the CDC Smallpox Site. More resources can be found in the "In-Depth Information and Resources" section of the website.)

The Resources Kit can be found at: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/reference/resource-kit.asp

CDC will continue to update all Internet and resource material as necessary.

Source: Steve Rauch, Northwest Center for Public Health Practice

posted by Laura Larsson at 2:14 PM

If you're a valued part of a non-profit organization and haven't visited this Website, you're in for a surprise. There is a lot of information here. What's below is only part of the list. Each link is annotated with a sentence or two.

• Children, Youth & Families
• Computers and Information Technology
• Disability-Related Sites
• Donor and Prospect Research
• Education Resources
• Fund Raising/Resource Development
• General Nonprofit Resources and Information
• Government
• Grants and Grant Writing
• Helpful Resources and Tools

Find forms, government resources, databases, availability of funding and even things I don't know about because it would take a long time to explore the site thoroughly.

posted by Laura Larsson at 3:58 AM

The purpose of the Internet Access to Digital Libraries grant is to help health-related organizations provide their health professionals, staff, researchers, librarians and clients with access to digital health information resources and information services of the highest quality.

The phrase 'digital library' refers to a collection of information, data or knowledge, stored on a computer that can be accessed over a network. Examples of digital libraries include collections of published articles and books, electronic health records, curriculum materials, multimedia documents and scientific knowledge bases. Access to a digital library may also involve access to professional library services and expertise, such as question answering, advanced searching, online training and document delivery.

posted by Laura Larsson at 2:58 AM

If you are just getting into GIS and would like more information at a basic level, be sure to visit this site.  Content includes:

• What is GIS?
• Geocoding 101 (using ArcView)
• Geodatabases Explained
• GIS Primer
• Learning GIS
• Power of Mapping
• What's in a Map?
  

Get links to free data, jobs, a reference center, information on remote sensing and other useful content. Find out who GIS practitioners are by visiting one or more of the various communities (email lists and/or forums).

posted by Laura Larsson at 1:59 AM

The RWJ Executive Nurse Fellows Program is a national program supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with direction and technical assistance provided by the Center for the Health Professions, University of California, San Francisco.

The program seeks applications from outstanding nurses in executive roles from health services (including patient care service, integrated delivery systems, health plans, and other health organizations engaged in organizing and delivering health care), public/community health, and nursing education who, along with their employing institutions, are willing to make a three-year commitment to the program. The fellowships are intended to offer participating nurses the experiences, insights, competencies and skills necessary to achieve, or advance in executive leadership positions in a health care system undergoing unprecedented change.

posted by Laura Larsson at 1:23 AM

Public Agenda is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research and citizen education organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1975 by social scientist and author Daniel Yankelovich and former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. It intends to "help leaders better understand the public's point of view on major policy issues" and "help citizens better understand critical policy issues so they can make their own more informed and thoughtful decisions".

For more on such issues as abortion, child care, crime, education, the environment, the family, gay rights, health care, illegal drugs, immigration, Internet speech/privacy, medical research, medicare, poverty and welfare, race, the right to die, and Social Security, visit this site.

posted by Laura Larsson at 1:58 AM

• Antimicrobial resistance information bank -  http://oms2.b3e.jussieu.fr/arinfobank/
• Buruli ulcer - http://www.who.int/gtb-buruli
• Cholera - http://www.who.int/emc/diseases/cholera
• Deliberate use of biological and chemical agents -  http://www.who.int/emc/deliberate_epi.html
• Eradication/elimination programmes -  http://www.who.int/infectious-disease-news/
• Filariasis - http://www.filariasis.org
• Geographical information systems - http://www.who.int/emc/healthmap/healthmap.html
• Health topics - http://www.who.int
• Infectious diseases - http://www.who.int/health-topics/idindex.htm
• Influenza network (FluNet) - http://oms.b3e.jussieu.fr/flunet/
• Integrated management of childhood illnesses - http://www.who.int/chd/
• International travel and health - http://www.who.int/ith/
• Intestinal parasites - http://www.who.int/ctd/intpara
• Leprosy - http://www.who.int/lep/
• Malaria - http://www.rbm.who.int
• Newsletter ( Action against infection) - http://www.who.int/infectious-disease-news/
• Outbreaks - http://www.who.int/disease-outbreak_news
• Poliomyelitis - http://www.who.int/gpv/
• Rabies network (RABNET) - http://oms.b3e.jussieu.fr/rabnet/
• Report on infectious diseases - http://www.who.int/infectious-disease-report/
• Salmonella surveillance network - http://www.who.int/salmsurv/
• Surveillance and response - http://www.who.int/emc/
• Tropical disease research - http://www.who.int/tdr/
• Tuberculosis - http://www.who.int/gtb/ http://www.stoptb.org
• Vaccines - http://www.who.int/gpv/
• Weekly epidemiological record - http://www.who.int/wer/
• WHO pesticide evaluation scheme (WHOPES) - 
• http://www.who.int/ctd/whopes/

Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record 11/08/02

posted by Laura Larsson at 1:43 PM

NLM has redesigned the MEDLINEplus home page http://medlineplus.gov. This redesign went live today, Thursday, November 21.

The search engine has also been redone and should be more efficient, using concepts as well as words to find results.

Search results are grouped into separate folders for Health Topics, Medical Encyclopedia, Drug Information, and News. In addition, links from the Health Topics pages are also searched.

Source: National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region

posted by Laura Larsson at 4:58 PM

The first data for 2001 from the American Community Survey (ACS) test sites will be released on Friday, November 22, 2002.  The data released will include 2000 to 2001 change profiles for ACS test sites of 250,000 or more population, single year profiles for sites of 65,000 or more population,
and over 100 core tables for sites of 65,000 or more population.

The change profiles and single year profiles will be available on the American Community Survey Web site at
< http://www.census.gov/acs/www/> and the core tables for sites of 65,000 or more population will be available on American FactFinder at <http://factfinder.census.gov>

Source: acs-alert mailing list
acs-alert@lists.census.gov
http://lists.census.gov/mailman/listinfo/acs-alert

posted by Laura Larsson at 4:41 PM

November 2002 - United States Cancer Statistics: 1999 Incidence (PDF 1770K) is a joint publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), in collaboration with the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR). This report is the first set of official federal cancer incidence statistics from each state that meets high-quality data standards

Source: Auburn Steward, MLIS, AHIP, Center for Toxicology & Environmental Health Library

posted by Laura Larsson at 10:37 AM

A note came through in the HUS mailing list that 33 Updated tables are now available. Updated tables include mortality data for 2000 (tables 20-25, 28-33, 35-48), Healthy People 2010 Leading Health Indicators (table 52), NHANES data for 1999-2000 (tables 68-69, tables 70-71 were updated in October), childhood vaccination data for 2001 (tables 73,74), and revised 1998 mental health data (tables 87, 108).

Source: HUS distribution list

posted by Laura Larsson at 10:33 AM

This report "paints a statistical portrait of the availability and use of end-of-life care. For each state and the District of Columbia, the report assigns a grade (A-E) to eight measurement criteria which reflect key aspects of end-of-life care". (Web site) It's a
nationwide report card on care for the dying put out by Last Acts.

Get State Fact Sheets as well as the main report.

posted by Laura Larsson at 3:48 PM

The database contains information about research datasets and instruments with links to PubMed and URLs of providers for access to the tools/data themselves.

posted by Laura Larsson at 2:58 PM

Take a look at the first annual report on the health status of America's women and get current and historical data on some of the most pressing health challenges facing women and their families. Data on health and health-related indicators in three categories: population characteristics, health status and health services utilization. (from Web site)

posted by Laura Larsson at 1:40 PM

This Web site is maintained by HRSA and is intended to provide access to training centers that "assess the learning needs of the public health workforce and provide training to meet them."

posted by Laura Larsson at 11:58 AM

More great resources from the National Library of Medicine, this time on exercise for children. The site is organized according to these headings: latest news, general/overviews, nutrition, research, specific conditions/aspects, journals/newsletters, organizations, statistics, and teenagers.

posted by Laura Larsson at 10:45 AM

The introduction and background states that this site provides: "public health-related preventive nutrition and physical activity. Public health nutrition ("folkhälsonutrition") is an expanding and very interesting field of study, and of growing importance for health and well being of individuals as well as whole populations. Our interests lie in the physiological, psychosocial and environmental aspects of both prevention and promotion of nutrition, physical activity and health."

Get information about the courses, projects, publications and links found on this interesting Swedish site. Their newsletter is available in PDF.

posted by Laura Larsson at 2:05 PM

The National Library of Medicine is pleased to announce the availability of the 2002 edition of the National Library of Medicine Classification. Beginning with 2002 the NLM Classification ( www.nlm.nih.gov/class ) is
published annually in electronic form only. Publication of printed editions ceased with the 5th revised edition, 1999.

The Index to the NLM Classification consists primarily of MeSH concepts used in cataloging. It includes concepts first appearing in the latest edition of MeSH and other older concepts as warranted by literature cataloged. Schedule numbers are added or revised to reflect changes in the biomedical and related sciences.

The new online environment offers many advantages over print, including hyperlinks between terms and the MeSH Browser and class numbers; however, the biggest improvement will be in NLM's ability to keep the Classification current with changes in MeSH.
------------------------------
Source: National Network of Libraries of Medicine, Pacific Northwest Region

posted by Laura Larsson at 12:55 PM

The Washington (state) Division of Alcohol & Substance Abuse (DASA), publishes this summary of reference data and policy
on substance abuse annually.

The "Trends" report presents summaries (mainly statistical) on substance abuse costs, prevalence, impact, treatment & prevention, and policy implications, often comparing Washington state to national figures.

Source: Nancy Sutherland, ADAI, University of Washington

posted by Laura Larsson at 7:55 PM

Expect no postings until the APHA Annual Meeting held in Philadelphia, PA is over. I'll be having too much fun running the APHA Technology Theater.

posted by Laura Larsson at 7:55 PM

Initially distributed in hospitals this newsletter will become available from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Web site. This monthly will be available in both English and Spanish.

posted by Laura Larsson at 7:55 PM

A new on-line information center
designed to address the health needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives has been recently launched. The site is located off HealthFinder in the Just For You section. In addition, special content for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Blacks, and Hispanics has been organized for use by anyone interested in this information.

posted by Laura Larsson at 7:55 PM

WAIMH (the World Association for Infant Mental Health) is an international interdisciplinary association to promote scientific, educational and clinical work with infants and their caregivers. WAIMH sponsors an journal that might be familiar to you, "Infant Mental Health Journal" and a world congress -- the most recent was held in Amsterdam. Abstracts for the 8th Congress are available online.

Colleen Huebner is setting up a Washington State Chapter and welcomes potential members.

Source: Colleen E. Huebner, PhD, MPH, President, WA-WAIMH colleenh@u.washington.edu


posted by Laura Larsson at 4:15 PM

Promoting Digital Opportunities for All

posted by Laura Larsson at 2:55 PM

Help change health policy. "The site enables users to search the status of specific bills, send emails to their Congresspersons, access health resolutions and policy statements of sponsoring organizations, identify advocacy training opportunities, and provides tips for working with the media."

posted by Laura Larsson at 2:55 PM

Improve health care quality through better data.

Source: Yuki Durham, University of Washington

posted by Laura Larsson at 12:55 PM

On behalf of the Secretary for Health and Human Services and the Department, Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Eve E. Slater has initiated a program to showcase best practices in public health from around the country to foster an environment of peer learning and collaboration.

This month the featured topic is Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) for Adolescent Substance Abuse. It is with great excitement we share these best practices to foster an environment of peer learning and collaboration.

The file is available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) and an HTML version of the report is available on the Best Practice Web page on the Office of Public Health and Science Web site at http://www.osophs.dhhs.gov/ophs/BestPractice/

Public health programs are encouraged to submit short reports about successful initiatives that have measurable outcomes for consideration. Guidelines for the reports, including where to send them, are provided online at the address above.

Source: DBaker@OSOPHS.DHHS.GOV via the ASHBESTPRACTICES@LIST.NIH.GOV list.

posted by Laura Larsson at 2:15 PM

MIT has begun putting up some of its courses in preparation to making all of them available to the public. This gives the public, especially those with appropriately-aged teens, the opportunity to view the quality of the courses.

I looked at several of the sites but this one seemed the most interesting to me. It teaches in a compressed format how to use relational databases and GIS in public management. The instructors have included a case study and information on how to work with the Census data. The next to the last lecture is titled: GIS, Spatial Analysis and Internet Mapping. I wanted to see what they meant by Internet mapping since it was a term I hadn't heard before. All lectures are available. The lectures in this course were quite sparse.

To see all available lectures, visit the MIT Open Courseware site.

posted by Laura Larsson at 10:25 PM

The Institute of Medicine released a study focused on assessing the past and current state of education and training for public health professionals, identifying future practice needs, and developing a framework for future public health professional
education. New areas of study are recommended. These are: informatics, genomics, communication, cultural competence, competency-based participatory research, global health, policy and law, and ethics.

The content can be read online. The summary is available for reading in PDF format.

posted by Laura Larsson at 11:25 AM

"The Online Dictionary of Mental Health is brought to you by Human Nature as a global information resource and research tool, compiled by Internet mental health resource users for Internet mental health resource users,  covering all of the disciplines contributing to our understanding of mental health." Lists the top ten bestsellers on mental health issues from Amazon.com.  Gives mental health news.

I wouldn't call this a dictionary, tho', because it's mostly Websites that may or may not define the concept you're searching for.  Still, it's very good at providing annotated sites. A commercial site.

posted by Laura Larsson at 12:58 PM

For those needing an introduction to SPSS, this is the one to try. Covers key topics in statistics.

posted by Laura Larsson at 12:55 PM

This site is supported by supported by The Trust for America's Health. The purpose of the Trust for America's Health, a national non-profit organization, is to protect the health and safety of all communities from current and emerging health threats by strengthening the fundamentals of our public health defenses."

The site is a really rich source of information on chronic diseases. Find headlines, state data, rankings of states, research and related resources. Nice site on disease clusters and community action. A good advocacy group with useful information on how to be community active.

posted by Laura Larsson at noon

I didn't find the search engine particularly helpful, but the site does allow you to find a directory of current state health officials and their agencies, public hotlines, and a query box of preformatted searches that you can run against all the state health agencies. This is very nice. Also find an Alumni Directory of Former State Health Officials by state, by last name or by expertise. I'm not exactly sure what good this latter is except that it does list individuals and give where they worked and for which years.

Plan on spending some time on their Public Health Informatics page. There you will find Community and Information Access, Data Standards, Immunization Registries, State Reports, and Surveillance and Statistics.

posted by Laura Larsson at 3:30 PM

This new journal is "ready to receive papers on the application of geographic information systems and science in public health, healthcare, health services, and health resources." This journal is edited by Richard Hoskins, well-known Epidemiologist from the Washington State Department of Health.

If you are in the field and have written an article you'd like considered for publication, submit your article online.

Posted by Laura Larsson at 3:15 PM

"This handbook provides basic facts regarding foodborne pathogenic microorganisms and natural toxins. It brings together in one place information from the Food & Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service, and the National Institutes of Health."

Find your favorite nasty bug. I'm partial to the parasitic protozoa and worms, but also found mushroom toxins interesting since I occasionally venture into the woods to collect and eat those fungus.

posted by Laura Larsson at 2:20 PM

:The Center for Domestic Preparedness of the U.S. Department of Justice and American Military University have teamed to develop five online academic courses that comprise a new Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Certificate Program."

"This five-course certificate program offers the first responder the opportunity to study current information in an online environment minimizing the interruption to important, ongoing duties and responsibilities."

Courses offered:

• GM160 Emergency Response to Terrorism 
• GM260 Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Hazards
• GM261 Weapons of Mass Destruction Incident Command 
• GM262 Federal Response to Weapons of Mass Destruction
• GM263 Regulatory Issues in Weapons of Mass Destruction Response

posted by Laura Larsson at 1:45 PM

The Washington State Department of Health catalog of educational materials has gone digital. This year's edition is available in a CD format and online in Word format.

The digital catalog is easy to navigate and has great features and conveniences that weren't possible in paper form, such as active links to DOH web pages with .pdf files of materials, camera-ready art materials, and links to other web sites. This feature will give users the option to print an item directly from their desktop, or to go on to learn more about the topics covered. Publication of the catalog in a CD format compared to paper copies saved $9,000 in printing costs that will be used to translate, publish, and distribute other DOH educational materials.

Come have a look on the H.E.R.E website. You will see instructions for how to download the catalog to your desktop, and how to order CDs if needed.

Source: Heidi Keller, Director, DOH Office of Health Promotion

The National Library of Medicine invites you to preview a new web site, Tox Town, at http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/

Tox Town is designed to give information on:

• everyday locations where you might find toxic chemicals
• non-technical descriptions of chemicals
• links to selected, authoritative chemical information on the Internet
• how the environment can impact human health
• Internet resources on environmental health topics

Tox Town uses color, graphics, sounds and animation to add interest to learning about connections between chemicals, the environment, and the public's health. Tox Town is a pilot project to explore how best to provide environmental health information to a general audience. Tox Town looks at an ordinary town and points out environmental hazards that may be in that town. Users can click on a town location, like the school, and see a cutaway view of that building. Toxic chemicals that might be found in the school are listed, along with links to selected Internet resources.

In this first release, Tox Town gives information on eight chemicals and eleven locations in an imaginary small town. Plans to expand Tox Town include adding more chemicals and adding new scenes, such as an urban community and a farming region.

For further information and to send comments, please contact: Cindy Love, Office of Outreach and Special Populations, Specialized Information Services, National Library of Medicine.

I love courses especially when they link to the course manual [PDF and Word formats] and mock exam questions.  

Although a little dated this site does have some interesting information for health educators.

In this article, Alison Stirling, the author, discusses how to use computers for health promotion, gives you ideas for getting connected and once you do, how to use lists and the Web to get information. Lastly, she discussed new opportunities for health promotion using the Web. I also like the Glossary of Online Terms. Likely you already know these terms, and there are other sites with this information, but the information is accessible as you read the document.

The rest of the site is also quite interesting. From this site you can find linked the following definitions and key papers on health promotion:

• World Health Organization Health Education & Promotion - Background on HP
• The Health Promotion Glossary of the World Health Organization (WHO) 
• The Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion
• The Jakarta Declaration on Health Promotion into the 21st Century
  

Since this is a Canadian health educator, most of the resources are Canadian. She's also included a list of Canadian Health Services Research Organizations. For those doing Community Mapping, this site has several sites doing mapping.