Evidence-Based Public Health Resources

10 Essential Services of Public Health

Evidence-based public health research differs from clinical research in that it focuses on decision making for populations to promote health and prevent illness, while clinical research focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of  individuals.

The evidence gathered in public health research is  more likely to come from observational studies  in a wide array of disciplines than from randomized controlled trials.

One of the components of Evidence-Based Public Health research practices is to engage the broader community in decision making. The people who will use the research to make decisions are often policy makers whose decisions can potentially impact the health of many people. Politics is always a player when it comes to public health decision making.  Decisions need to be made but they also need to be evaluated and open to revision as new evidence becomes available.

Crucial skills for public health researchers are the ability to formulate useful research questions and to critically appraise  public health literature for validity and relevance .

What can be used as evidence for making informed public health decisions? Here are some of the many useful resources available:

Evidence-Based Practice for Public Health a good place to start if you are already familiar with the principles of evidence based practice.  Includes the Community Guide to Preventive Services , public health recommendations that cite evidence from systematic reviews  in a clear easy to understand format

Health Services/Technology Assessment Text (HSTAT) searchable collection of full text government documents compiled by the National Library of Medicine to support  health care decision making. Includes: Evidence Reports (AHRQ), Protocols (SAMHSA), Preventive Medicine  Recommendations (USPSTF) and Consensus Reports (NIH)

NACCHO: Nat’l Assoc. of County & City Health Officials- Model Best Practices database of model and promising practices for local public health services

PHP partners: Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce -  web portal designed to meet the needs of a broad variety of public health researchers

Subject specific databases:

AGRICOLA agriculture, food safety, human nutrition

Environmental Health and Toxicology includes TOXNET databases

ERIC: Education Resources Information Center

FASTSTATS – AtoZ – easy to use directory of government public health statistics

HSRPROJ: Health Services Research Projects in Progress access to ongoing grants and contracts in health services research

MEDLINE/PubMed Search and Health Disparities & Minority Health Information Resources

NCJRS: National Criminal Justice Reference Service – Abstracts and Full- text database violence prevention , substance abuse, juvenile justice etc.

POPLINE population, family planning and related research

We hope you like our new Website

Let us know what you think about the recent changes on our website. Use our Help form to send us your comments, questions and suggestions for new features. Check out our directory of  e- Books licensed by UCSF which you can now browse by Subject and Title.

The Library and UCSF@SFGH have both moved to Drupal an open source content management system used by the the UCSF School of Medicine, and several other UCSF websites as well as the White House We are grateful to Mark Cepeda and Beth Berrean of the School of Medicine for migrating the content form our old website to Drupal and for their expert training and assistance.

ResearchRaven

This week’s resource of the week helps users find up-to-date calls for publications, papers, conference presentations and funding opportunities. ResearchRaven is a product of the Samaritan Health Services Center for Health Research and Quality, and is available free of charge for “all who are engaged in research and other activities aimed at improving individual and community health.”

RSS technology, combined with a user-friendly interface, make ResearchRaven a particularly useful resource for the health sciences researcher. The ResearchRaven database has four sections: conferences, calls for papers/conferences, calls for papers/publication and Leaman’s Lexicon, a humorous, off-the-cuff guide to buzzwords and concepts in the health sciences.

From the homepage users can see exactly how many new entries have been added in each section, as well as total entries to date. Users can browse by topical category, date added or submission expiration date. Each individual posting can be sent directly to a colleague via email, or shared with a group via del.icio.us, twitter, stubleupon or citeUlike.

ResearchRaven’s “Find Funding” page links directly to their sister-site ScanGrants, also a product of Samaritan Health Services. ScanGrants utilizes a similar structure and interface to provide current information on a vast array of funding opportunities for those in the health sciences.

Conference organizers and publication editors can submit announcements about publishing or research opportunities directly to ResearchRaven via their Submit Announcement page.

New Computers and Classes at the Library

The library has recently acquired 8 new computers that have been placed in the MTC room located in the back of the library.   These computers are available to all SFGH & UCSF faculty, staff and students.

The library is also happy to offer 4 classes in the next 2 months.  For more information on any of the following classes, or to sign up for these classes please call 206.3114.

Classes, Dates & Times:

• Online Information Resources for SFGH’s DPH Staff

Friday, May 14th                2:30 pm – 4 pm

• Problem-Based Approach to the New PubMed

Wednesday, June 2nd      11 am – Noon

• Using RefWorks to Organize Your Research

Thursday, June 10th         2 pm – 3:30 pm

• Keeping Up: Using Technology to Stay Current

Wednesday, June 16th      2 pm – 3 pm

Health Care Reform Signed Into Law

President Barack Obama signed health care reform into law on March 23, 2010 that will expand health care coverage to 32 million American who are currently uninsured.  You might be wondering how this might impact your health coverage. For those who already have health insurance through work will not see much significant change, but for those who don’t have insurance, own a small business or are on Medicare, there will be significant change to make health care accessible for all. Here are a few changes that might impact you. For more information on the health care reform bill, you can visit the White House website or the official Health Reform website.

If you currently don’t have health insurance, insurance companies cannot reject coverage regardless of your health status and cannot increase rate or drop your coverage if you’re sick. There is also a limit on much one will have to pay to receive health care coverage and depending on your income, you will get a tax credit for paying for that coverage.

Health insurers cannot deny health insurance to children because of pre-existing conditions, and the same for adults by 2014.

For those who already have health insurance through their work, nothing much will change. The cost of your premium might decrease a little but your coverage will still be the same.

Small businesses will get tax credits to cover employees’ premiums.

Kids can be covered under their parents’ insurance plan till the age of 27.

Lifetime caps on the amount of insurance an individual can have will be eliminated.

UCSF Profiles

Check out the new UCSF Faculty directory UCSF Profiles developed by the CTSI: Clinical & Translational Science Institute to promote collaboration and networking among UCSF researchers and others outside UCSF.  It provides an easy way to search for faculty publications or look up who at UCSF is doing research on a specific subject.  It’s well designed and provides easy access to  information that would take a fair amount of searching to find in other ways.  I hope it catches on  because it will become  more useful as faculty edit and add to their profiles.

UCSF Profiles combines  information from the UCSF Directory with publication information from the PubMed database. You can look up any faculty member and the search results will show you their profile and a list of articles they have authored or co- authored. On the right side of the screen you will see a list of keywords form their published articles, co-authors, similar people ( those whose articles are indexed in PubMed  sharing the same keywords) and other members of their UCSF departments.

UCSF Profiles includes faculty and  researchers with ‘academic leadership appointments’ and there are plans to include other UCSF personnel in the future.  Faculty have the ability to log in to their profile via  MyAccess and add personal information, edit their publication list and create their own networks of collaborators.

From the CTSI website:

“UCSF Profiles is UCSF’s version of the ground-breaking, open source, research networking software product “Profiles”, developed by Harvard Catalyst, Harvard’s CTSA-funded organization. As a member of the Profiles family we are part of a growing community of universities using the open source product. UCSF is Harvard’s first partner in deploying “Profiles” and have invested in ensuring that the product is adaptable by other institutions. In addition, UCSF is continuing to collaborate closely with the Harvard team to significantly contribute to the growth and further development of Profiles.”

I’m interested to see how this project unfolds.

DynaMed

Faculty, staff and UCSF students—are you looking for a clinical reference tool that will provide point of care information?  If so, DynaMed may be just what you’re looking for. The library offers both desktop and pda/smartphone access to DynaMed, a frequently updated, evidence-based resource that provides summaries on over 3,000 topics including health conditions, diseases, and drug information.

Searching and navigating DynaMed is simple and quick thanks to the clinically organized content, easy-to-use browse features, full-text searching and cross link navigation that, with a single click, takes users to related topics. A review in the Journal of the Medical Library Association states that DynaMed’s concise yet substantive content would likely be found very useful by its target audience of primary care practitioners and health science students.

UCSF/SFGH staff, faculty and students interested in downloading DynaMed on their smartphone/pda can email, phone or stop by the library for an access code. Please include the type of device (iPhone, Blackberry, Treo, etc) you are using in your message.  You can also access DynaMed via the library’s homepage on any UCSF/DPH networked computer.

SFGH Natural Foods Program

Capay Valley Farm and SFGH have partnered up to bring farm fresh produce delivered to SFGH. For most of us who work or live outside the city, it can be hard to make time to visit farmer’s markets or go grocery shopping for fresh fruits and vegetables every week. The SFGH Natural Foods Program produce delivery service offers two options, the Peck or the Bushel, depending on how much produce you want. From now until the end of February, you can stop by the cafeteria on Friday afternoons from noon to 5pm to check out the selection and you can purchase a sample Peck box for $16 without having to commit for the 4 week delivery when you sign up.

The Peck is a selection of 7 different seasonal fruits and vegetables and weight about 8-10 lbs. In the Bushel, you will get 10 different season fruits and vegetables weighting about 12-15 lbs worth of produce. You can pool some of your coworkers together to order a Bushel package so you can get more variety and split the cost of the package.

To learn more about the SFGH Natural Foods Program, visit the blog.

To learn more about Capay Valley Farm, click here and be sure to check out their recipes page for tasty suggestions on how to cook and use the produce.

UCSF Library Book Delivery

The UCSF libraries now offer book delivery between locations! Books can be requested from the Parnassus, Mission Bay, and SFGH libraries, as well as dropped off at any location for return. Books usually arrive within 3 business days. You will need a UCSF library borrowing account. Once that is set up, simply search the library catalog and then fill out the form.

Health & Fitness Applications for the iPhone/iPod

It’s the end of year and time to make those New Years resolutions. One common resolution that is on everybody’s list is to exercise, eat right and to lose weight. Here are a couple of iPhone/iPod touch applications that can help you do just that. Some applications are free but some are well worth the money if they’re going to keep you  in shape and help you lose weight.  All the applications listed are available for the iPhone or iPod Touch but some applications are also available on the Blackberry.

Lose it! – Use this application to set goals and track the calories you’re consuming. The interface makes this application easy to use and you can add your friends for support and motivation. You can also sync the information to an online account to keep track of your progress.

Nike + iPod – The Nike sport kit tracks your run or cardio workout with a sensor that can be added to any shoe, not just a Nike + shoe although the Nike + shoes have a built in pocket. The sensor keeps track of your time, distance, pace, and calories burned and sync the data automatically when you connect your iPod or iPhone back to your computer.

iFitness – Tired of doing the same old workout routines? This application is like having a personal trainer with custom workouts and pre-set routines with videos to show you the correct form for doing the exercise.

Dietician – This application creates meal plans and figures out what meals you should be eating and creates a grocery list.

Mynetdiary.com – This website and application helps you log the foods you’re eating quickly while also providing useful information on what you’re eating. In addition to just giving you the calories, it also tracks 36 nutrients so you know the benefits of what you’re eating.