In June 2018, LexiComp replaced MicroMedex as the clinical decision support tool at the University of Virginia Health System.

The Health Sciences Library has arranged for Wolters Kluwer Key Account Manager Nick Soiber to provide demonstrations, abbreviated tutorials, and answers to your questions on September 5, 2018, from 3:00 PM- 5:00 PM, in the MILL (lower floor of the Library).

If you have questions about this learning opportunity, please contact Abbey Heflin, Library Analytics & Metadata Services Manager: aeh6m@virginia.edu

How would you go about answering a quick clinical question? Would you ask a trusted colleague? Maybe consult a peer or superior? Would you Google it??

If your goal is to practice evidence-based medicine, the library can help! We provide useful point- of- care tools that include evidence summaries so that you don’t have to read 5,000 article abstracts to make a decision, or to answer your question. Most people are familiar with UptoDate (and that’s a great resource) but the Library also suggests Essential Evidence+ or ClinicalKey.

Essential Evidence+ provides an easy-to-read “bottom-line” overview on various topics, and even shares the strength of the evidence being presented. You’ll also find Cochrane review summaries (in plain language) so you can get right to the heart of the evidence—helpful when you’re short on time and need to determine the applicability of the information to your patient. Guidelines, decision-support tools, and more are also available. The interface is of minimalist design, but that’s perhaps an advantage when you’re short on time. Crucially, the Essential Evidence+ website is mobile-optimized, and you can also access Daily POEMS.

ClinicalKey presents more like a Google search, giving you the option to search a condition, procedure, or drug. It searches with keywords and, unlike some other POC tools, allows for a quick literature search too, as well.  Clinical topic overviews (CK’s FirstConsult) offer synthesized evidence, and you can easily find practice guidelines and procedural overviews, too. ClinicalKey also provides a collection of images and videos, which is useful for both personal education or for presenting your results. For that extra bit of convenience, ClinickalKey also has an app.

These tools won’t take much time to learn or use – you’re smart, we have faith in you! Still, if you prefer a guided tutorial, we’re happy to help. Get started by filling out a consult form today, or contact Clinical Librarian Kate Joshua: cj9hb@virginia.edu

The newly-published books listed below are recent additions to the Library’s collection. Click on any linked title to browse the table of contents, or to read the full-text. A comprehensive list of the Library's e-books can be found on the Library’s E-Books page.
Would you like to recommend the purchase of a book for the Library’s collection? Please submit your requests via our online Purchase Recommendation form.

      Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, 11^th Ed.

    Breast: Comprehensive Management of Benign and Malignant Diseases, 5^th Ed.

     Cardiac Electrophysiology: From Cell to Bedside, 7^th Ed.

       Cardiology: An Integrated Approach

   Cellular and Molecular Immunology, 9^th Ed.

Please join us in welcoming Arian Abdullah, Biomedical Science Librarian, and Kate Joshua, Clinical Librarian, to the Library staff!

Both Arian and Kate began working at the Library in 2018 (Arian in May, and Kate in June), and they have quickly became an integral part of both the professional and social lives of the Library. We are delighted to have them here, and hope that you enjoy learning more about them.

Arian Abdullah, Biomedical Science Librarian
 

What originally drew you to your field?
I have always loved researching in the library, discovering new information, and reading the literature. Toward the end of my postdoc, I decided that discovering information, reading papers, and connecting users with information tools and resources to support their work really interested me.
 

How does your work relate to the Library’s mission/guiding principles? https://www.hsl.virginia.edu/admin/general/mission.cfm
As the Research Librarian, I will support the library’s mission of knowledge-sharing to support education and research within the University of Virginia Health System. In order to do so, I will consult one-on-one with biomedical researchers on different aspects of the research life-cycle,  and teach workshops that will elevate their skills in discovering biomedical information.
 

What most excites you about your work here?
One aspect that excites me about the work at the Health Sciences Library is that I will be immersed in the research process, the research data, and the scientific literature. In addition, I am looking forward to learning more about the cutting-edge research that our faculty is working on.  I am excited to have the opportunity to teach others how the library is both a crucial component and a partner in their research.
 

What classes/workshops will you lead in the coming year?
As of now, the classes/workshops are not lined up; however, I will most likely teach classes and workshops that introduce patrons to different aspects of the research lifecycle/process, such as: funding tools, research impact measurements, publication analysis, and biomedical databases/tools.
 

Where are you from originally/where did you grow up?
I grew up in Europe, and attended college in the States. I completed my PhD in the biomedical sciences from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY and completed a postdoctoral appointment at Yale University in New Haven, CT. I am thrilled to be at UVA, and Charlottesville is a great town with some really great restaurants, shops, bookstores, and lots of outdoor activities to explore.
 

If you could possess one of these super powers, what would it be? (also feel free to name another one): super strength; super healing; super speed; flight; invisibility
Time travel. I think it would be cool to witness major breakthroughs (first moon landing, DNA discovery etc), as they happened.
 

Kate Joshua, Clinical Librarian

What originally drew you to your field?
I was (am?) the obnoxious kid that asks too many questions. How else do you learn that the Goliath frog can be 3ft long and that banging your head into a wall actually does burn calories! After lecturing a friend about tiger shark mating season,* she suggested I become a librarian (and also that I be quiet). It started as an odd desire to stockpile random facts, but once I realized I could help others discover and engage information too, librarianship seemed fitting. I pursued medical librarianship because it’s multifaceted and I figured that it’d be a challenge. Also, I was pretty aimless after college, everyone was sick of hearing me talk, and science is dope.

How does your work relate to the Library’s mission/guiding principles? https://www.hsl.virginia.edu/admin/general/mission.cfm
I think my work directly relates to the mission because it is driven by a commitment to service. I try to listen and respond in a way that makes sense for users, not for me. In a clinical setting, the job is never really done – you listen, respond, try to anticipate, and then repeat. That cycle in clinical communities may directly impact patient care, so if you are not user-centric, it’s nearly impossible to be successful.
 

What most excites you about your work here?
The energy here is bright and I see possibility. There are opportunities to be creative while helping to improve care, and I want to provide information services that are more collaborative with, and accessible to, users. I’m excited to see how I can be of service, but it starts with getting to know the individuals who make up this community.
 

What classes/workshops will you lead in the coming year?
I’d love to lead classes on varying levels of search strategies/techniques, using mobile tools to answer 5 minute clinical questions, and maybe moderate a discussion about digital literacy and healthcare. It’ll depend largely on what users want and need. If someone let me, I’d hold an open forum on zoology and medicine (i.e. sharks and immunotherapy, elephants and dementia, etc) but that’d just be me happily babbling and sharing animal pics for 90 minutes.
 

Where are you from originally/where did you grow up?
I was born on Aquidneck Island, RI, but I grew up mostly overseas, and mostly on islands.
 

If you could vacation in any work of fiction (book, movie, etc), which one would you choose?
Maybe The Busy World of Richard Scarry? I loved the colours. It’s not peak vacation fantasy, but as a kid I identified with the little cat whose best friend was a worm who wore just one Converse sneaker, and drove around in an apple car. Like, a car made out of a hollowed-out apple.  #lifegoals
 

*November-January. Also, did you know they are ovoviviparous?!

This review of "Policy File" was written by Nick Patler.

According to its website, “Policy File Index is a unique resource for U.S. public policy research in that it grants users access to timely, updated information from over 350 public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, advocacy groups, and other entities” (https://search.proquest.com/policyfile/productfulldescdetail?accountid=14678).

Policy File Index is an organic database designed to continually expand, with content updated daily and hundreds of new records added weekly. Researchers are able to directly access timely reports, papers, documents, and other sources, as well as draw on policy research that dates back to 1990.

One value that the Policy File Index offers healthcare professionals is that it provides them with direct links to the ways in which health/medical issues intersect with public policy. In this sense, the index can help health professionals play an important role in the policy process as well as stay abreast of the latest public health research and advocacy.

Researchers can use either basic or advanced search. The latter offers the ability to hyper-focus on a topic or policy by selecting such categories as subject headings, field codes, document type, organization type, organization political leaning, and language:  
 

The Policy File Index website also includes ten organizational types, allowing researchers to search the organizations that make up the index:

For healthcare professionals, the most obvious of the ten organizational types may at first glance appear to be “Scientific, Technical and Medical.” However, a search under this heading reveals few healthcare/issue related organizations. The healthcare professional searching for related organizations may be better served by searching instead under the heading “Societal.” Here there are at least ten health organizations/think tanks, such as the Center for Studying Health System Change, the Public Health Advocacy Institute, and many others that incorporate healthcare/issues within their larger body of research and orientation. The “U.S. Domestic” heading also includes health related organizations and think tanks.
 

To conclude, as social, economic ,and political issues continue to intersect with healthcare issues, Policy File Index may become an increasingly important resource for healthcare professionals

Over the next five months, the Harrison Small Library on UVA Grounds will be home to the exhibition “UVA Health System: 200 Years of Learning, Research, and Care.” This exhibition explores how trends in U.S. history and the history of the health sciences have shaped the development of the UVA Health System, while examining some of the events and personalities that make UVA’s story unique.

Visitors will view collection highlights from the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry, and the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Among the many items featured are an iron lung that was used in the UVA Hospital during the mid-20^th century. There are bloodletting instruments from the 19^th century, and a nursing student’s uniform from the 1950s. Visitors can also view a digital model of Thomas Jefferson’s Anatomical Theatre and a short film of a surgery being performed at the hospital in 1927.

These and other items help to tell the story of how the Health System grew from a school with a single professor into a world-class academic medical center and regional health care network. The exhibition also takes a closer look at some specific topics in this 200-year history including medical and nursing education, patient care, biomedical research, wartime service, and racial inequality.

“UVA Health System: 200 Years of Learning, Research, and Care” will be on display in the Main Gallery of the Harrison Small Library from July 26, 2018 to January 4, 2019. For more information about the exhibition and related programs contact Dan Cavanaugh, Alvin V. and Nancy Baird Curator of Historical Collections, at dmc7be@virginia.edu. You can also read more about the exhibition at uvahealth200.lib.virginia.edu

This exhibition was produced with the support of the University of Virginia Bicentennial with funding provided by the Alumni Board of Trustees.