Medicine

Fellowships Awarded to SPH students

Four LSUHSC School of Public Health MPH students were recipients of the New Orleans Schweitzer Fellowships for 2010. Reece Alkire and Meagan Relle are working with Volunteers of America to develop and implement a disease prevention program focusing on homeless veterans. Megan Burns is creating a school gardening program at James Weldon Johnson Elementary School to instruct children on growing, preparing, and marketing fresh produce. Emily Mabile is collaborating with art therapists, teaching children in Central City how to create murals. This art form promotes mental health by empowering children to represent themselves and their schools.

The New Orleans Schweitzer Fellowship Foundaton established in 2007 as part of the U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Program?« . Approximately 200 exceptional students from the nation’s top health and human service schools are selected to follow in Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s footsteps.

TOXNET (TOXicology Data NETwork)

Have you ever wondered about the potential health effects of chemicals used in common household products? Or possibly been curious what chemicals have tested positive as cancer-causing agents?

If so, The National Library of Medicine provides TOXNET (TOXicology Data NETwork) as a product of their Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program.

This ÔÇ£FREE web-based integrated system of databasesÔÇØ is ideal for Health Care Professionals or health-conscious consumers searching for reliable information on ÔÇ£environmental health, hazardous chemicals, toxic releases, chemical nomenclature, and specialty areas such as occupational health and consumer products.ÔÇØ

The five types of informative databases are as follows:

1) Chemical Information- ChemIDPlus

2) Toxicology Data Files
a. HSDB (Hazardous Substance Data Bank)
b. CCRIS (Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information)
c. GENE-TOX (Genetic Toxicology)
d. IRIS (Integrated Risk Information System)
e. ITER (International Toxicology Estimates for Risk Assessment)
f. LactMED (Database of drugs and other chemical and the possible effects in nursing infants)

3) Toxicology Literature Files (bibliographic references)
a. TOXLINE (TOXicology Literature onLINE)
b. DART (Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology)

4) Toxic Releases
a. TRI (Toxic Release Inventory)
b. TOXMAP (Environmental Health e-Maps)

5) ÔÇ£Other DatabasesÔÇØ
a. Haz-Map (Occupational Health Database)
b. Household Products (Information on potential health effects of more than 2,000 ingredients found in common household products)

MedlinePlus Redesign!

Today is the release of the new MedlinePlus!

In addition to the new logo, new features include:

• Frequently used content is easier to find like Health Topics, Drugs & Supplements and Videos & Cool Tools
• Spotlighting popular features such as the Medical Dictionary, Popular Searches and useful NIH databases
• Web 2.0 technologies that help users share content
• Emphasizes search and makes navigation more intuitive
• Rotating image feature at the top of the page displays current interest topics and new MedlinePlus features
• Distinctive color schemes for English and Spanish pages
• Quick links to mobile version and updates via email, RSS, and Twitter on every page

For a closer look visit: http://medlineplus.gov

An Odyssey of Knowledge

The Exhibition Program of the National Library of Medicine produced a new online exhibit, An Odyssey of Knowledge, Medieval Manuscripts and Early Printed Books from the National Library of Medicine. Featuring twenty one medieval manuscripts and five early printed texts scanned at high resolution, the exhibit displays some of the most prized items held by the National Library of Medicine. It gives viewers a rare look at texts that are normally kept under lock and key, containing medical knowledge which spans over two millennia.

THC & HIV

Physiology Department Head, Patricia Molina has been awarded a $4 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health for the study of how cannabinoids produce subtle changes in gene activity that affect how a person responds to HIV infection. The award was announced via EurekaAlert and LSUHSC twitter feed.

As the Times-Picayune reported the grant “will study how marijuana components called cannabinoids produce changes in gene activity that affects the body’s response to the AIDS virus.” The award will be dispersed over five years.

Award Recipients

The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Library was chosen as a recipient for the Historical Preservation and Digitization Award. This $25,000 grant is awarded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine South Central Region.

The title of the project is ÔÇ£Digitization of the Aristides Agramonte Collection on Yellow FeverÔÇØ and will be led by the Principle Investigators, Deborah Sibley and Molly Knapp.

The goal of the project is to digitize 149 rare books and journals identified as the first materials acquired for the LSU medical school library. The books belonged to Dr. Aristides Agramonte, a prominent pathologist and a proposed department chair at LSU before the School of Medicine opened; he passed away before he could begin his position. His collection includes a large number of early publications on yellow fever. Dr. Agromonte is a central figure in the historical Enrique Alferez frieze entitled ÔÇ£The Conquest of Yellow Fever.ÔÇØ This sculpture now hangs in the Library Commons.

77 oilspill links (con’t)

Continued from here
Mental Health
69. Traumatic Incident Stress: Information for Deepwater Horizon Response Workers and Volunteers ÔÇô CDC

70. Mississippi Dept. of Mental Health ÔÇô oil spill resources

71. Alabama Dept. of Mental Health – Gulf Coast Oil Crisis Assistance

72. Louisiana Dept. of Mental Health

73. The Gulf Oil Disaster: Developing a Positive Outlook in the Face of Tragedy (American Psychological Association)

74. Shore Up Your Resilience to Manage Distress Caused by the Oil Disaster in the Gulf (American Psychological Association)

Mobile apps
75. Oil spill tracker & reporting tool for Android phones

76. MoGo: Mobile Gulf Observatory: Oiled wildlife tracker & reporting tool for iPhone

77. Deepwater Horizon Response Text Message Alerts

And for a little lagniappe, the best related t-shirt money can buy**:

** Solely the opinion of the author. LSUHSC-NO in no way supports, condones or authorizes the purchase of above product.

unhappy anniversary ya’ll. See you in 154 days.

77 oil spill links

courtesy NASA

1. Oil Spill Human Health Research Coordinating Group at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans

General public
2. CDC – Information for Coastal Residents – discusses the effect of the spill on food and water, and describes various oil smells and what health effects you may experience from inhaling them

3. CDC – Dispersants Quick Facts for Coastal Residents: Corexit 9500, 1,2-Propanediol, & other chemicals in the Gulf

4. Light crude oil and your health: CDC

5. Gulf Oil Spill Information for Pregnant Women (CDC)

6. Oil spill issues- Public information: what to do and why (FAQ from the Louisiana Dept. of health and hospitals) ÔÇô English

7. Oil spill issues-Public information: what to do and why (FAQ from the Louisiana Dept. of health and hospitals) ÔÇô Spanish

8. Oil spill issues-Public information: what to do and why (FAQ from the Louisiana Dept. of health and hospitals) ÔÇô Vietnamese

9. What you should and should not do in areas affected by the oil spill (Louisiana Dept. of health and hospitals) ÔÇô English

10. What you should and should not do in areas affected by the oil spill (from Louisiana Dept. of health and hospitals)- Spanish

11. What you should and should not do in areas affected by the oil spill (from Louisiana Dept. of health and hospitals) ÔÇô Vietnamese

12. Questions and Answers about the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf Coast (EPA)

13. Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill ÔÇô Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

14. Oil spill resources ÔÇô Louisiana Dept. of Public Health

15. Resources for individuals affected by oil spill ÔÇô Louisiana (food banks, support for children, BP claims/workforce assistance, homeowners insurance support and more )

16. Pubmed Search on oil spills and health

17. Odors from the BP Oil Spill (EPA) ÔÇô describes the different aromas & health effects, how to report

18. Table of Chemical Constituents Commonly Found in Crude Oil (CDC)

19. Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection ÔÇô Deepwater Horizon Response ÔÇô hotlines, FL response phone numbers, maps & surveillance

20. Disasterassistance.gov: file a BP claim

21. Gulf Oil Spill Health Hazards: chemicals and health effects (From Sciencecorps.org)

22. Crude Oil Spills and Health (National Library of Medicine)

23. Children and the oil spill ÔÇô American Academy of Pediatrics:

24. Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Update (FDA): seafood safety

25. Volunteer ÔÇô Louisiana

26. Volunteer ÔÇô Mississippi

27. Volunteer ÔÇô Florida
28. Volunteer – Alabama

29. What are tarballs and how do they form? (NOAA):

30. Health and Safety Aspects of In-situ Burning of Oil (NOAA)

31. Oil Well
Fires (U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine)

32. Exposure to Oil Fires/Oil Fire Smoke (U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine)

33. Shoreline Assessment (NOAA) Photographs demonstrating oil spill terminology: Oil distribution Surface oiling, Surface oiling types, Sediment types, Shoreline types, Cleanup methods

Response workers
34. Safety and Training of Oil Spill Response Workers (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences) awareness-level health and safety resource training tools in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese for response workers

35. Gulf Oil Spill 2010: Information for Response Workers (CDC)

36. Deepwater Horizon Guidance for Workers (NIOSH/OSHA)

37. Reducing Occupational Exposures while Working with Dispersants During the Deepwater Horizon Response (NIOSH/OSHA)

Maps
38. Beach advisories/status map ÔÇô Louisiana

39. Beach advisories/status map ÔÇô Florida

40. Beach advisories ÔÇô Alabama

41. Beach advisories-Mississippi

42. Beach advisories-Texas

43. Federal Fisheries Closure and Other Information (NOAA)

44. Where the oil is: A daily status of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (US Fish and Wildlife Service)

45. NOAA interactive map: Environmental response management application (ERMA) ÔÇô (Very, very cool!)

46. Air monitoring on the Gulf Coast (EPA) air quality maps, reports

47. Coastal Water Sampling (EPA): maps, location analysis

48. Coastal Sediment Sampling (EPA): maps, analysis

49. Oil spill trajectory hindcast/forecast (Ocean Circulation Group and the Optical Oceanography Laboratory at College of Marine Science, University of South Florida)

50. OSHA’s Efforts to Protect Workers: interactive maps showing OSHA presence and chemical sampling in the Gulf

51. Oil spill crisis map (Louisiana Bucket Brigade and Tulane University)

Surveillance
52. NIOSH Report of BP Illness and Injury Data (April 23 ÔÇô June 6, 2010)

53. Press Release: REPORTING OF OIL SPILL-RELATED ILLNESSES & INJURIES TO THE LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HOSPITALS (call 888-293-7020 or fax 225-342-8117)

54. Number of Patients Reporting Possible, Suspected, or Known Exposure to Oil in Baldwin and Mobile Counties (Alabama) by Week – link removed Jan.7, 2011
55. Monitoring and sampling information (BP)

56. The Oil Spill and Calls to Poison Centers – American Association of Poison control Centers (so far theyÔÇÖve received 621 exposure calls & 459 information calls. Louisiana has the highest number of calls):

57. Gulf oil spill health surveillance (CDC)

Chemicals and Dispersants
58. Oil Spill Dispersant (COREXIT ?«EC9500A and EC9527A) Information for Health Professionals

59. COREXIT?« EC9527A Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)

60. COREXIT?« EC9500A Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)

61. COREXIT?« EC9500A Technical Product bulletin (primary distributors, special handling information, physical properties like specific gravity, pH, toxicity, analysis for heavy metals etc )

62. COREXIT?« EC9527A Technical Product bulletin (primary distributors, special handling information, physical properties like specific gravity, pH, toxicity, analysis for heavy metals etc )

63. NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards

64. NIOSH Topic Page on 2-butoxyethanol (COREXIT EC9527A contains between 30-60% of 2-butoxyethanol, a dispersant chemical):

65. 2-butoxyethanol from the Hazardous Substances Databank: human health effects, emergency medical treatment, animal toxicity studies, environmental exposure, pharmacology, chemical properties, occupational exposure, etc.

66. 2-butoxyethanol from HazMap ÔÇô exposure assessment, adverse effects

67. Pubmed search on 2-butoxyethanol

68. Dispersants: a guided tour (NOAA)

Continue to #69-77, because our blogging software leaves much to be desired.

Soccer Tournament Fundraiser

This Saturday (July 3rd) the Murphy Memorial Match will be held at the Lyons Playground at Louisiana and Tchoupitoulas from 3-7 p.m. to raise money for Nicole Murphy’s family. Nicole Murphy was a third year medical student who was killed by a suspected drunk driver while in South Africa at the World Cup. Her brother suffered a head injury in the same accident and money is being raised for an ICU plane to bring him home. Daniel Murphy, Nicole’s father, is a graduate of the School of Medicine in Shreveport. The Times-Picayune has the full story.

new app: NEJM This Week

Free for a limited time! This new iphone app pushes recent content from the New England Journal of Medicine including:
ÔÇó Articles published online in the last seven days, including the current issue and Online First
ÔÇó Classic Images in Clinical Medicine
ÔÇó Weekly audio summaries
ÔÇó A selection of four full-text audio reads of Clinical Practice articles
ÔÇó A selection of four procedure videos from the Videos in Clinical Medicine series

Access NEJM This Week on iTunes.

Resources for Residents

Welcome new Residents! Here is a list of resources we hope you will find useful.

Library home
http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/library/
Off campus access
http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/library/ss&d/remote.html
LIbrary Resources – where to start
http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/library/resources/default.htm
Core materials for medicine – ebooks & print resources
http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/library/resources/guides/coretext.html
Mobile/smartphone resources
http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/library/resources/guides/pda/index.html
Evidence-based practice resources (point of care databases)
http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/library/resources/guides/EBM.html
Help/contact us
http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/library/services/help.html

Once again, welcome!
Kathy Kerdolff – School of Medicine Liaison (504-568-6102)

Bringing Nicole & her Brother Home

The Murphy family is raising money for an ICU medical jet to bring Nicole Murphy’s injured brother, as well as her body back to Louisiana.

Local Surgeons & the Oil Spill

WWL-TV featured a story on a couple of local surgeons, including LSUHSC’s own Kamran Khoobehi offering some ideas on how to stop the oil leak, using surgical techniques. Love the out of the box thinking!

MedlinePlus Redesign coming this Summer!

Features to look forward to:
ÔÇóEmphasizes search and makes navigation more intuitive
ÔÇóWeb 2.0 technologies that help users share content
ÔÇóDistinctive color schemes for English and Spanish pages

Iconography of Contagion

Drink Only Approved Water

The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine has a new online exhibit, the Iconography of Contagion, an exhibition of twentieth century health posters. The exhibition offers some posters from NLM’s collection as well as an historical perspective on their necessity.