Last week’s HLABC workshop covered a range of topics. In the morning, Dr. Brasher provided a session on statistics in the medical literature. She recommended a book called The Cartoon Guide to Statistics. The content from her workshop will be posted soon.

In the afternoon, we had three SFU librarians (Sylvia Roberts, Carla Graebner, Andrea Cameron) discuss the difference between statistics and data. They also showed us some of the major publishers of statistical information (intergovernmental, governmental, non-profit, commercial), and where to look for numbers, tables, time series and other files.

Here is some of the content:

Finding Statistics for Your Research:

• Defining Statistics and Data (01:50)
• Understanding Where Statistics Come From (03:35)
• Understanding Who Creates Statistics (02:56)
• Finding Canadian Statistics via CANSIM (11:04)
• CANSIM Shortcut – The Daily (02:39)
• Searching Government Websites (02:27)
• Refining Your Question (03:22)
• Identifying Databases (01:27)
• Census of Canada Website (04:28)
• Closing Summary (00:59)

In the 2013 iteration of LIBR 559M – Social Media for Information Professionals? there was some good discussion of the various Google reader replacements available. The document that was being passed around was crowdsourced but LIBR 559M students added to and improved it considerably. For more information, see Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

To download a current version of this Word file, click rss readers june 2013. Here’s a screenshot of page 1 of 3. Some of the top readers are/were:

Feedly: http://www.feedly.com/

igHome: http://www.ighome.com/

Netvibes: http://www.netvibes.com/en

OldReader: http://theoldreader.com

RSSOwl: http://www.rssowl.org/

iMedicalApps.com posted an interesting piece, “Physician’s 6 month perspective after switching from iPhone to Android” detailing the differences between the iPhone and the Android.  It is the third in a series about the the two devices. The first covers initial thoughts  and the second addresses hardware differences. This most recent post discusses the software differences between the two devices.

Michael Kerr assumed the iPhone would win this comparison hands down when it came to medical software availability.  However it wasn’t as quite of a landslide victory as originally expected.  Kerr compiled a list of daily “must have” apps and compared platform compatibility on a chart.  His chart demonstrated that many of his favorite medical apps were also available on Android and for approximately the same price.  Now, his favorite medical apps may not be your favorite medical apps, but I think it definitely shows that developers are not ignoring the Android.

Android fall short when it comes to very new apps and to what Kerr refers to as the ecosystem.  When Kerr compared platform compatibility with iMedicalApps.com’s 2012 most innovative medical apps list, he found that most of those apps were only available on the iPhone.  It would seem that developers are first creating for the iPhone then developing for the Android.  Regarding the ecosystem, Kerr noted, “people have already invested money in Apple and iOS. Some medical apps are bloody expensive. As well as this, many of these apps are able to be installed onto iPads for the same purchase fee. Android doesn’t currently offer a tablet experience that can match an iPad as yet.”  So people who have had choosing an Android might have to buy all new apps if they had an iPhone or currently have/want an iPad.

Kerr’s post is very informative for doctors who have a choice as to what phone & tablet they can carry.  Doctors in BYOD hospitals can easily weigh the pros and cons of Android and iOS.  Doctors working at institutions which have established a specific operating system like iOS will not have much of an option when it comes to work devices, but may find this useful for their own personal devices if they want to carry two phones.

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Open Medicine

A peer-reviewed, independent, open-access journal.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Herpes zoster as a marker of underlying malignancy

Today, Open Medicine <http://www.openmedicine.ca/> published a study assessing whether a diagnosis of herpes zoster is a risk factor for subsequent malignancy.

Both herpes zoster—more commonly known as shingles--and cancer are associated with suppression of the immune system; however, it has been unclear what, if any, association there is between an earlier finding of shingles and later diagnosis of a malignant tumor.

“This is, we believe, the largest study to date examining this association,” explains Dr. Karl Iglar, lead author on the paper published today, “Herpes zoster as a marker of underlying malignancy”. The research team looked back over records of adult patients with no previous diagnosis of cancer (or HIV) to identify 542 575 such patients with herpes zoster.

“The incidence of cancer was significantly greater among individuals with herpes zoster than among those without herpes zoster, for both men and women and across all time intervals studied (up to 5 years),” the authors wrote.

The study is one of the first to take a population-based approach to looking at a potential association between shingles and cancer. Unlike previous studies of the suspected association, the present study found a significant increase in cancer rates for both men and women and across the age span studied (18+). The authors found that incidence of cancer rises shortly after a herpes zoster episode—risk goes down as more time passes following the shingles attack—and that haematological cancers are the most strongly implicated.

“The general conclusion that can be reached,” says Dr. Iglar, “is that both physicians and patients should be attentive to the risk of cancers especially in the first six months following an episode of herpes zoster.”

For more information, please visit Open Medicine <http://www.openmedicine.ca/> and see the attached paper.

Karl Iglar, MD, CCFP, is a Family Physician with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital and an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. Alexander Kopp, BA, is a Senior Analyst with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario. Richard H. Glazier, MD, MPH, FCFP, is a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences; a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto; a Scientist at the Centre for Research on Inner City Health in the Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital; and a Clinician Scientist and Family Physician in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Ontario.

For more information, please contact:

Kate Taylor,
Communications and Public Affairs
St. Michael’s Hospital
TaylorKa@smh.ca
416.864.6060 x 6537

To register to receive e-mail updates or RSS feeds from Open Medicine, please visit: openmedicine.ca

<http://www.openmedicine.ca/>

 

 

Topics: media release; cancer; virus

Background: Both herpes zoster and malignancy are associated with an immunosuppressed state. However, the association between herpes zoster and the subsequent development of a malignancy is unclear. This study aimed to assess if a diagnosis of herpes zoster is a risk factor for subsequent malignancy.

Methods: Utilizing a physician billing database, individuals 18 years of age and older with a diagnosis of herpes zoster and without a prior cancer diagnosis or human immunodeficiency virus infection were included in the study. Individuals with a herpes zoster diagnosis were matched one-to-one to those without a herpes zoster diagnosis, and both were examined for the development of cancer.

Results: There were 542,575 individuals diagnosed with herpes zoster. Compared with controls, they were more likely (p< 0.001) to have a history of myocardial infarction, asthma, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension.  The incidence of cancer was significantly greater in individuals with herpes zoster compared to those without  in both men and women and across all time intervals studied. The greatest adjusted hazard ratio was seen 180 days after a herpes zoster diagnosis (1.19, CI 1.12-1.25); this decreased as the time from herpes zoster diagnosis increased. The greatest relative increase in cancer incidence following a herpes zoster diagnosis occurred in individuals diagnosed with lymphoma.

Interpretation: There is a risk of developing a malignancy following an episode of herpes zoster in both men and women and in all age groups 18 years and over. The risk is greatest in the first 180 days following a herpes zoster diagnosis.

You may now browse the 2013AA Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Release on the UMLS Terminology Services (UTS) from the Applications menu, Metathesaurus Browser.

Two new SNOMED CT downloads are available.

A colleague tweeted this article, “Are Physicians Truly Engaging with their Patients? by Nancy Finn” about physicians, EMRs and meaningful use.  According to the article, “as of March, 2013, 160,890 eligible professionals had received Medicare incentive payments and 83,765 professionals had received Medicaid incentive payments” for achieving stage 1 one meaningful use. While they were able to achieve stage 1, are they ready for stage 2? How are they changing their practice patterns to achieve stage 2?

The article states stage 2 requirements are:

• Provide patients with their health information (via a web portal) on 50% of occasions and have at least 5% of these patients actually download, view or transmit that data to a third party.
• Provide a summary of the care record for 50% of transitions of care during referral or transfer of patient care settings.
• Provide patient-specific education resources identified by Certified EHR technology to more than 10% of patients with an office visit.
• Engage in secure messaging to communicate with patients on relevant health information.
• Make available all imaging results through certified EHR technology.
• Provide clinical summaries to more than 50% of patients within one business day.

Finn wonders if “a majority of physicians remain steadfast in dominating the physician/patient relationship, convinced that engaging patients in their care is a burden? Or are many of them beginning to realize that engaging the patient in their health care decisions will make health care more efficient and cost effective, and improve patient outcomes?”

The librarian in me wonders if there are ways we can help physicians meet stage 2 requirements.  I know with EPIC a physician can send a request for a librarian to provide patient education information to the patient through their portal.  I know specifically of one librarian who got a message in Epic to do that.  She logged in, provide links and contact information to appropriate free patient ed resources to the patient.  The patient got the information through My Chart and was so happy that she emailed the librarian thanking her for the information.  Another nice thing about this patient ed transaction, EPIC noted that patient education information was sent to the patient and included that in her chart for the doctor to see. 

I’m not trying to say that doctors shouldn’t help provide patient education information, but I also know that in a hospital environment things can be hectic, confusing, scary, etc. for the patient.  They may have gotten information from the doctor but not understood it or wanted more detailed information.  Using the librarian to provide patient education material through EPIC (and EPIC notes that it was provided) has got to help both doctors and patients.

Are there other ways that librarians can help doctors and their institutions meet stage 2 requirements? Please comment with your ideas.

 

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This is unbelievably awful:

http://cjonline.com/news/2013-06-03/former-employee-files-suit-against-washburn-library-dean

Former Washburn University librarian Michelle Canipe contends in a recently filed lawsuit that Washburn Dean of Libraries Alan Bearman was abusive to her and other employees, even punching one in the face and head.

 

I take it back. It’s not unbelievable. I think most of us know someone who works somewhere made horrible by an abusive boss. I know a few someones who work in libraries with bosses nearly this bad.

Just wanted to take a minute to express my admiration for Michelle Canipe and her colleagues for DOING something.

 

Some of this week's items: Grand opening of the library of the future / Copyright Debate Hits the House of Commons: Opposition Won't Support C-11 Due to Digital Locks / CANARIE Supports Arctic Research - CANARIE Appuie la recherche dans l?arctique / Research for the masses / Whatever happened to the Digital Economy Act? / À qui appartiennent nos gènes?

Some of this week's items: Harper Government Invests in Research Excellence at Canadian Post Secondary Institutions Creating Jobs of the Future US intelligence wants to predict human behavior with ?data eye in the sky? Canadian universities must reform or perish Digital Public Library of America planning initiative to hold public plenary meeting in Washington, DC on October 21, 2011 Princeton bans academics from handing all copyright to journal publishers

Some of this week's items: The Writers Union of Canada, U.K. society representing 50,000 book authors, along with Norwegian, and Swedish writers? unions, join literary property rights suit against HathiTrust and five U.S. universities / ITHAKA ?Sustainable Scholarship / University research essential to Canada?s prosperity - La recherche universitaire : essentielle à la prospérité du Canada

Some of this week's items: The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) applauds the government for recognizing education as a fair dealing purpose in its latest version of the Copyright Modernization Act / L?Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada (ABRC) a salué la reconnaissance de fins pédagogiques comme utilisation équitable d?une oeuvre, dans la plus récente version de la Loi sur la modernisation dudroit d?auteur / Tories vow to push through copyright overhaul as written / National Science Foundation taps Carolina researchers to develop national data infrastructure / U-M Library Orphan Works Project undaunted by lawsuit / Virtual museum' to showcase Rideau Canal

Some of this week's items: IFLA Presidential Newsletter September 2011 / Sheikh's version: Ex-chief statistician picks apart cancellation of long census / Jean-Pierre Côté désigné lauréat 2011 du Prix de reconnaissance pour services exceptionnels Ron MacDonald décerné par le RCDR / Copyright confusion dogs European digitization push / Comprehensive Brief on Open Access to Publications and Research Data / Document d?information sur le libre accès aux publications et aux données de recherche

Some of this week's items: Data Sharing Shortfall / New resource to help university communities improve learning experience, outcomes / Une nouvelle ressource aidera le milieu universitaire à améliorer l?expérience et les résultats d?apprentissage / U.S. colleges hit with copyright infringement complaint from Canadian writers / Cinq universités américaines poursuivies pour violation du droit d?auteur par des auteurs américains, australiens, britanniques et québécois / E-learning in university: the digital natives are restless / Amazon 'to launch book rental service'

Some of this week's items: Long-awaited copyright bill returns, but top court to wade in too / Pirates of academe? We laugh / The Big Deal: Not Price But Cost / Rallying Cries vs. Reality: Profits and Publishing Meet Academics and Idealism

Some of this week's items: Qui contrôle Internet ? / RLUK Develops Journal Subscription Analysis Tool / Federal investment in research spurs growth and innovation / Lawful Access Legislation: 8 In 10 Oppose Internet Surveillance Without A Warrant / Fair Use Face-Off, Canadian Edition

Some of this week's items: Librarians at University of Minnesota Make an Impact with Data Management Program / UC Libraries expand access to orphan works / UBC?s University Librarian first Canadian to head global group / British Libraries Push Back

Some of this week's items: Britain revamps 300-year-old copyright laws / KU establishes first coalition of institutions practicing open access / Call to action: Sign the Berlin Declaration / Rogue Downloader's Arrest Could Mark Crossroads for Open-Access Movement / British Library Group Develops Cost-Benefit Tool to Analyze Journal Pricing / What is wrong with Scientific Publishing and can we put it right before it is too late?

Some of this week's items: Stratford digital program nearly fully subscribed / DuraSpace to Bring Cloud-Based Platform ?Direct-to-Researchers? / Rebelling against Access Copyright / British Research Libraries Say No to ?Big Deal? Serials Packages / Europe lines up hefty science-funding hike