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Laura Larsson
Clinical Faculty, SPHCM
University of Washington

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The Art of Blogging - Part 1
Overview, Definitions, Uses, and Implications
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George Siemens.
December 1, 2002

The Art of Blogging - Part 2
Getting Started, "How To", Tools, Resources
December 6, 2002

From Weblog to Moblog
By
Justin Hall,
Nov 21 2002





December 2002

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National Health Information Center. National Health Observances calendar
In the interests of keeping healthy all year long and because this is a bad time of the year for weight gain, take a look at the NHIC's National Health Observances calendar. On it you will find days, weeks, and months devoted to promoting our health. Did you know that March 16 - 22 is National Poison Prevention Week? That October 1 - 31 is National Medical Librarians Month? (I couldn't resist this since librarians are soooo helpful in locating healthy information for you).

posted December 30, 2002 11:05 PM

Community Informatics Resource Center (CIRC)

The purpose of the RUPRI Community Informatics Resource Center is "to make policy-relevant information and decision support resources available to community-based decision makers throughout rural America". It "addresses the spatial and temporal dimensions of issues impacting rural America, by incorporating Internet-based geographic information systems, remote sensing technologies, and other data visualization and analytic tools. CIRC's principle goal is to rapidly transform data and static reports into interactive visualization and analytic tools for local decision support". (from: site)

posted December 29, 2002 4:42 PM


Air Force Suicide Prevention Program, A Population-based, Community Approach (PDF version)

This is another in the series of best practices from US.  DHHS. The Air Force, between 1990 and 1995 experienced increases in suicides among Air Force personnel overall, and among both African-American and Caucasian enlisted male subgroups. Risk factors and intereventions were identified and are reported on in this document.

posted December 28, 2002 3:30 PM


Research Ethics Training Curriculum
Developed by Family Health International (FHI) this "Research Ethics Training Curriculum" is intended for an international and multidisciplinary audience of individuals involved at different levels of the research process. The tool can be used for personal or group learning. Five chapters cover the following topics:
  • Principles of Research Ethics
  • Foundations of Research Ethics
  • Responsible Conduct of Research
  • Supervision of Research
  • Special Issues in Research
Get the whole document in PDF (4700KB) or view online as regular HTML files.

posted December 27, 2002 2:50 PM


Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
If the idea that our greenhouse gas emissions have not caused extensive damage to the world's ecosystem, then you might wish to visit this site and read their recent report that states, "the damage already done to the climate by man's greenhouse gas emissions will effect us for the next 1,000 years...".

The report is titled, "Stabilisation and commitment to future climate change: scientific results from the Hadley Centre, October 2002" and is available for download as a PDF file. It is 904KB. 


posted December 26, 2002 2:35 PM


WHO Health Promotion Glossary

This PDF file contains the World Health Organization's definitions of health promotion keywords. It was published in 1998 and can be considered a key reference tool in health promotion. Available in English, Russian, FrançaisEspañol. It is about 581KB in size.

Find definitions of such words/phrases as: Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, Healthy Cities, social support, Jakarta Declaration and so on.  Of importance to those who track such things, is the source of the definition and an explanation of why the term is important in health promotion.

posted December 26, 2002 2:33 PM


Biological Threats to the Public's Health
The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools is a very useful resource. They have created one of the most comprehensive lists of links to Biological Threats to the Public's Health.

Source: Margo Harris, http://www.pnwhealth.com via HEDIR.

posted December 24, 2002 4:30 PM


Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) for Teenagers
Cynthia Kahn, MILS MPH, AAMC, posted the following information on ADD resources for teens on MEDLIB-L, one of the key medical librarian's lists. She aggegated the information for sharing with MEDLIB-L from content given to her by other librarians as the result of a query she posted.

ADD Warehouse : The catalog for the ADD Warehouse lists materials by category such as Adult, Assessment, Children, etc.  Materials in the 'children' category consist of self-help ("Adolescents and ADD") and edutainment ("Eukee the Jumpy, Jumpy Elephant").
http://addwarehouse.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/index.html

adhdezine.com - a free monthly ezine : The ezine lists the top 10 books on teenagers and ADD and ADHD each moonth.  Most are of the self-help nature.
http://www.adhdezine.com/booksteenagers.html

ALA publishes "Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers" annually.  While the books are advertised for 'reluctant' readers, there is no reason not to include ADD/ADHD teens as one of  their target audiences. A press release on the ALA site contains the top ten and the full list can be obtained from the Young Adult Library Services Association, affiliated with ALA.
ALA Press Release :
http://www.ala.org/news/v8n2/2002yalsaquickpicks.html

YALSA Homepage: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/

YALSA Quick Picks Listing (without annotations):
http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/quickpicks/
2002quickpicks.html


The amusing thing about this message is that it mentions the word young adult in the description. Since the ADD resources are targeted at teens, this isn't an unreasonable description of that age category.  Believe it or not, the Washington State Department of Health has a filter installed that blocked this message from going to several of its employees.  I was astounded. This may be carrying filters a little too far. This fits in nicely with recent stories of how filters are keeping health information from the public; here we have health information being kept from health professionals. Sad.

posted December 24, 2002 3:00 PM


Safeguarding our Patrons' Privacy: What Every Librarian Needs to Know About the USA Patriot Act & Related Anti-Terrorism Measures

Librarians have been concerned for a long time about maintaining the privacy of the people who use their libraries even in these days of bioterrorism. This RealPlayer movie from Oregon Health & Science University will explain just how librarians are safeguarding your privacy.

To view the movie, open RealPlayer. Under the "File" tab, click on "open". Now cut and paste the  URL http://rmsrv1.ohsu.edu:554/ramgen/lib/patriot.rm in the field next to the "open", then click OK.

posted December 24, 2002 2:59 PM


Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit
This toolkit is authored by Barbara Cohen. ERS E-FAN No. 02-013. 166 pp, July 2002. (PDF format).

This report provides a toolkit of standardized measurement tools for assessing various aspects of community food security. It includes a general guide to community assessment and focused materials for examining six basic assessment components related to community food security. These include guides for profiling general community characteristics and community food resources as well as materials for assessing household food security, food resource accessibility, food availability and affordability, and community food production resources.

Data collection tools include secondary data sources, focus group guides, and a food store survey instrument. The toolkit was developed through a collaborative process that was initiated at the community Food Security Assessment Conference sponsored by ERS in June 1999. It is designed for use by community-based nonprofit organizations and business groups, local government officials, private citizens, and community planners. (Source: Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit Web site). 

posted December 23, 2002 2:29 PM


Births: Final Data for 2001
A new HHS report released today shows a significant increase in the number of women receiving prenatal care -- especially among Hispanic and black women.

The report shows that 83 percent of women received timely (in the first trimester) prenatal care in 2001, up from 76 percent in 1990.   In addition, only 1 percent of women did not receive any prenatal care in 2001.  During this time period, timely prenatal care increased among all race and ethnic groups, but was particularly evident among Hispanic and black women. (Source: HHS Press release, Wednesday, December 18, 2002). 


posted December 23, 2002 2:20 PM


Care of Women in U.S. Hospitals, 2000
A new women's health care fact book from AHRQ shows that pregnancy and childbirth accounted for 4.4 million hospital admissions in 2000, or one of every four hospital stays, and that depression was the second leading reason for the hospitalization of younger women. Other leading reasons for admitting younger women to the hospital include uterine fibroids, gallbladder disease, back problems, and asthma.

These statistics are from Care of Women in U.S. Hospitals, 2000, a fact book that includes a wealth of data on why women of different ages are hospitalized, what happens to them in the hospital, what hospitals charge for their care, and who pays the bill. The report is based on data from AHRQ's Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a powerful database that is part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. It provides national estimates based on a sample of approximately 1,000 hospitals and 7 million hospital discharges.

The new fact book is the third in a series of AHRQ publications that provides detailed statistical information on different aspects of hospital care.

To obtain a copy of the fact book, call the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse at 1-800-358-9295 or send an e-mail to ahrqpubs@ahrq.gov. Go to http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2002/chdeppr.htm to read our press release and http://www.ahrq.gov/data/hcup/factbk3/factbk3.htm to view the publication. (source: AHRQ Electronic Newsletter, December 20, 2002, Issue #82)


posted December 19, 2002 2:10 PM


Rural America at a Glance
Rural America At A Glance is a six-page brochure that highlights the most recent indicators of social and economic conditions in rural areas for use in developing policies and programs to assist rural areas. This brochure is the first in a series of reports that uses current social and economic data, along with recently released information from the 2000 census, to highlight important population, labor market, income, and poverty trends in rural areas. The format of the report incorporates text bullets with charts and maps to make the report easy-to-read and visually interesting. This brochure provides information on key rural conditions and trends for use by public and private decisionmakers and others in efforts to enhance the economic opportunities and quality of life for rural people and their communities. (from announcement).

Released Friday, September 13, 2002

posted December 19, 2002 3:09 PM


Insects on the Web
This site doesn't really have much to do with public health but the site is so beautiful and the insects portrayed so elegantly, that I can't help exclaiming about it. Visit your favorite insects and see them in all their miniture glory. View thumbnails or full-blown images of insects from 14 different insect orders.

I particularly liked his section on Lepidoptera (butterfly) wing patterns (a dense mosaic of tiny individually colored scales forming a myriad of striking color patterns and designs.)

Have fun and point your kids to this site. All kids love bugs.
posted December 19, 2002 3:06 PM


Profiles in Science
"This site makes the archival collections of prominent twentieth-century biomedical scientists available to the public through modern digital
technology. The collections have been donated to the National Library of Medicine and contain published and unpublished materials, including
books, journal volumes, pamphlets, diaries, letters, manuscripts, photographs, audio tapes, and other audiovisual materials."
Personally, I love this site. The only problem I have with it is that there aren't enough scientists added yet. I'll wait. It's certainly worth it.
posted December 19, 2002 3:01 PM


Surviving Information Overload
Despite what we've heard about how overloaded we are, many people truly are  overwhelmed with information.  This article by Genie Tyburski in ABA Law Practice Management, October, 2002,  provides some tips on managing email by  eliminating spam through specialized filters. In the area of searching for content, she reminds us that there are Web tracking services that can re-run searches automatically for you if you need searches run on a regular basis. The service will  send you the results.

Need news? Lots of news? Then point yourself to AllTheWebs news search engine to begin getting content on topics of interest.  Weblogs such as this one also filter information (but watch out for long-winded blog owners). Try news feeds such as Newzcrawler (www.newz crawler.com).

She tells us how to find dictionaries, reduce pop-up ads, just as she gets going, ends the article. Still you'll get a lot of good ideas for reducing infoglut from the article.


posted December 19, 2002 3:00 PM


NIH SeniorHealth
Trust NIA and NLM to come out with a high quality Website targeted at our honored, but perhaps not as healthy as they could be, elders. The site is attractive and contains valuable health-related information. I found the Exercise for Elders section (of three sections including Alzheimer's Disease and Caring for Someone with Alzheimer's) quite useful in my thinking about getting started exercising. The exercises seemed doable. Apparently more topics are to follow.



The site is visually pleasing and the graphics well-coordinated with the text. The only issue I have with this site is that even with a 56K modem it takes 3-5 minutes to download a 22 second movie. Fortunately they've included transcripts of the movie content for those of us who are too impatient to wait that long for such a short message.

Great work NIA and NLM!


posted December 16, 2002 2:20 PM


Evaluation in health promotion: Principles and perspectives. 
This book is generally regarded as one of the definitive texts on health promotion evaluation by health educators.

From the description, "It comprises an extensive compilation and discussion of the theory, methodologies and practice of evaluating health promotion initiatives in Europe and the Americas. The book takes three perspectives in examining the issues. It includes a retrospective examination of the evolution of health promotion evaluation. This provides the context for assessing and understanding the current state of evaluations of initiatives addressing settings, policies and systems for promoting health. Finally, the chapter authors and the Working group as a whole make many recommendations for improvement that provide a look into the future." Visit the WHO Web site for a more complete description of the book.

This book is for sale for Sw.fr. 122.-.

Bibliographic/order information:

Edited by Irving Rootman, Michael Goodstadt, Brian Hyndman, David V. McQueen, Louise Potvin, Jane Springett and Erio Ziglio

WHO Regional Publications
European Series, No. 92
2001, xxvi + 533 pages
ISBN 92 890 1359 1
Order No. 1310092


posted December 16, 2002 12:49 PM


Building on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada

In English and French get the final report and background papers, including Aboriginal Health Partnerships and Catastrophic Drug Transfer. Authored by Roy Romanow, the former premier of the province of Saskatchewan, the report calls for new ways to provide for stable federal funding to the provinces. The outcome "must be to transform Canada’s health care system and have it focus squarely on primary health care. Canadians should have access to an integrated continuum of care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no matter where they live."

In addition, five new targeted funds should be established to:

  • Improve timely access to care in rural and remote areas
  • Improve waiting times for diagnostic services
  • Help remove obstacles to renewing primary healthcare delivery
  • Provide a foundation for a national home care strategy, and
  • Allow provinces to shield citizens against catastrophic drug costs
posted December 16, 2002 12:45 PM


HEDIR  (Health Education Discussion List)

This is a Website that promotes a list by the same name. The HEDIR list is run by Mark J. Kittleson, Ph.D., Southern Illinois University. The list is intended for health educators only.  Before you subscribe, be sure to read the About memo as it tells you about the HEDIR policies and procedures. Archived messages are stored on the site but they are only up-to-date as of June 2002.
posted December 15, 2002  2:28 PM


The Wayback Machine: Internet Archive
Can't find something that was once up on a government site because it's been removed? You know, things on condoms and topics related to contraception... It's possible you may find past versions of the missing and changed documents at The Wayback Machine's Internet Archive. If you know the approximate URLs and a date, you might be able to find it there ...

From the site: "The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form".

posted December 14, 2002  4:24 PM


American Obesity Association
Losing weight is hard to do as many Americans have experienced. If you visit this site you will see many links to potentially useful methods for losing weight. This information changes daily as new information comes in. Professionals will be interested in the site because it includes research, treatment and prevention information.

For the public, find help through education, consumer protection and visit the section on discrimination for examples of discrimination in healthcare, education and employment. Get stories of people who have been affected by obesity and their desire to do something about their overweight. Still for every success story, there are many more failures.


posted December 14, 2002  4:04 PM


Smallpox - NIH
Announced Friday, December 13, 2002, this Web site is said to be comprehensive. It does appear so. Get lots of information about Smallpox basics not only from this site but elsewhere including the World Health Organization, MEDLINEplus and healthfinder. Not only is the public informed about this dreaded disease but primary care practitioners, public health professionals, and the military has been laid out for use. Get information on the CDC's Smallpox response plan, clinical trials, laboratory issues, vaccine and vaccination information and reference materials.

The government appears to be ready for any bioterrorism event.

posted December 14, 2002  11:40 AM



Birth Control Methods (FAQ)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are generally valuable resources for those needing detailed information about a topic. The National Women's Health Information Center presents a FAQ explaining various birth control methods, and their pros and cons. Interestingly enough, there is also a FAQ on emergency contraception.

posted December 09, 2002  4:40 PM


"Preparing for Bioterrorism: The Critical Importance of State and Federal Partnerships"

Remarks by Tommy G. Thompson, Secretary, HHS at the Annual Conference of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Nashville, Tennessee,September 11, 2002.
Thompson said, "Without state, local and federal partnerships … without public and private partnerships … and without partnerships between national associations like ASTHO and the Department of Health and Human Services, everyone is placed at greater risk."  

He went on to tell participants about a new Web site providing free CE credits in bioterrorism preparedness for physicians. This site, located at the Center for Disaster Preparedness at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is located on the Web at: www.bioterrorism.uab.edu.
posted December 07, 2002  

Controlling Anger -- Before It Controls You

"APA public information brochure outlines various techniques to help those who experience intense anger learn how to better control it."

posted December 06, 2002  


United States Counties

The National Association of Counties collects a lot of county-level information such as county officials, courthouse addresses, county seats, cities in a county. Find county codes and ordinances, county policies, model programs, and codes of ethics.

Click on a state or on a drop-down box to select the state and then the county. Find out what the population was over the past three censuses, get elected official names and email addresses and the URL of the county's Web site. Of special interest to GIS folks is the Census Bureau Tiger Map and County Profile.

posted December 06, 2002  

 

Carseat and Car Safety

Children that are not properly seated and strapped in while they are being driven around are expecially vulnerable to being hurt or killed in an automobile accident. This site provides you with information on Carseat Basics: Selection and Use, Carseat Features Buying Guide, Why Rear Facing is Safest, and related links to injury prevention, carseat resources and car safety resources.

posted December 05, 2002

Bioterrorism Training 

Archived webcast links for the entire series of CDC bioterrorism broadcasts since October 18, 2001 can be found at the CDC's Bioterrorism Web site. Content ranges from introductory material to complex laboratory training materials. Get videos and information on satellite downlinks here.

posted December 04, 2002  

U.S. Cancer Statistics: 1999

A new report, U.S. Cancer Statistics: 1999, has been released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute. It contains the most comprehensive federal data available on cancer incidence, including state-specific information.

posted December 04, 2002 

16th annual Maternal and Child Health Leadership Conference. Translating Research into MCH Public Health Practice:  Eliminating Health Disparities. Hotel Allegro, Chicago, IL. April 27-29, 2003

This conference is intended for "public health professionals, community advocates, physicians, nurses, nutritionists, dietitians, health educators, social workers, administrators, policy advocates, researchers, MCH program planners and evaluators, child and family advocates, and private sector professionals concerned about the health and well-being of children and families".

posted December 03, 2002    

Recent Entries

National Health Information Center. National Health Observances
calendar

Community Informatics Resource Center (CIRC)

Air Force Suicide Prevention Program, A Population-based, Community Approach

Research Ethics Training Curriculum

Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research

WHO Health Promotion Glossary

Biological Threats to the Public's Health

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) for Teenagers

Safeguarding our Patrons' Privacy

Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit


Births: Final Data for 2001

Care of Women in U.S. Hospitals, 2000

Rural America at a Glance


Insects on the Web

Profiles in Science


NIH SeniorHealth

Evaluation in health promotion: Principles and perspectives. 

Building on Values: The Future of Health Care in Canada

HEDIR (Health Education Discussion List)

The Wayback Machine: Internet Archive

American Obesity Association

Smallpox - NIH




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