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.

Google Fast Flip

Ever wished for an easier way to browse the news online? One of the latest gizmos to come out Google labs is Google Fast Flip, a “web application that lets users discover and share news articles.” Instead of navigating from site to site, or even using an RSS reader, Google Fast Flip users can “flip” through content much like flipping through a magazine. Content is grouped under categories like Popular, Politics, and Business, but account holders can customize some options. Users can also share content via email, mark articles as “Like,” and post items to Facebook and Twitter. Give it a try!

Google Health

Google Health is another of the many applications created by Google to help us simplify our life.   This site provides users with one location to store their conditions, medications, allergies, test results and other medical documentation unique to them.  Users can also import medical records, explore online health records and find a doctor.  Users of Google Health can link their profiles to a variety of third party services who can view their medical profile and provide them with health suggestions.  It is important to remember that once you link your profile to these entities they will be able to view your information such as medical records or prescription histories if you have provided them.

Health Videos

MedlinePlus provides a great way to keep up with health issues in the news with HealthDay TV. Look for it in MedlinePlus’ health news section. Each weekday a new video will be posted, covering the latest news in medical research in an easy-to-understand format. On Saturdays, a summary video will be posted as a wrap-up of the previous week’s headlines. These videos are only available on the English version of MedlinePlus.

PubMed has a new look!

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has released a preview of the new PubMed interface. The NLM is hoping that with a cleaner, stream-lined interface PubMed will better facilitate scientific discovery, and be more user-friendly. While overall the new interface appears to be a success, it is important to remember that it always takes some time to get used to a new interface, and this is not a finished product.

A couple things to note when you are exploring the re-designed PubMed:

• Limits, Details and History can now be accessed using Advanced Search

• Links to other NCBI resources can be found at the bottom of each page

• The “Using PubMed” section of the homepage links to a number of different tutorials.

For more information on the PubMed redesign take a look at the NLM Technical Bulletin go tour watch the 30 minute PubMed redesign webcast.

The next PubMed Basics class at the library Nov. 4,  11 – noon, will focus on the using the new version of PubMed. Register now

Pillbox: identify unknown medications

Check out Pillbox a new visual search tool that is currently being developed by the National Library of Medicine in conjunction with the FDA.  The interface looks great and is easy to use.  It includes high resolution images of tablets and pills that you can search  by: imprint , shape, color, size, and scoring. It displays thumbnail images of all the possible matches and as you enter more search criteria it will update your results.

Once you find the image you are looking for, additional information is provided, including brand/generic name, ingredients, and the National Drug File identification number. Links are provided to NLM drug information resources, such as FDA-approved label information (DailyMed) and the Drug Information Portal, which searches all NLM drug information resources.

This beta version has a big warning label that says not for clinical use because it is still in development. Here is what NLM has to say about when it will be approved for clinical use:

“The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has made substantial efforts to accurately connect each image to the appropriate medication. However, the images contained within Pillbox are not part of the Food and Drug Administration-approved Structured Product Label (SPL) (drug label) and have not been verified by each manufacturer. In fall 2009, the NLM and FDA will initiate a pilot program to begin large-scale photography of prescription solid dosage medications, working with manufacturers to have these images submitted for inclusion with the FDA-approved drug label. Once the images in Pillbox have been verified by manufacturers this warning will be removed.”

Looking for computer software texbooks

I was looking for how-to manuals for Microsoft Access recently when I discovered that UCSF has licensed a database called Safari Books Online
” over 8,000 vetted learning and reference resources from leading publishers like O’Reilly Media, Addison-Wesley, Peachpit Press, Apress, Manning and Talented Pixie”

The collection focuses on computer technology and also includes graphic design, and business management titles. You can browse by category or search for books on everything from Adobe Photoshop to Unix. From the Safari website: http://search.safaribooksonline.com/home, you can read and even download chapters from any computer on the UCSF network or thorough your VPN@UCSF remote access account.

You can also find links to these online books by searching the UCSF Library catalog by keyword. Example: search keyword ‘photoshop’ – look for [electronic resource] in your search results. You can also search by title and use the option on the results page to limit your search to “Online Books”

Now, I really have no excuse not to learn how to use Photoshop.

Influenza Evidence Based Information

Featured Resource of the week- 9/21/09

Influenza Evidence Based Information from Ebsco Publishing

With the flu season just around the corner this is a timely resource. Hopefully we’ll all be  prepared for a swine flu epidemic that doesn’t materialize.  EBSCO is making Influenza related content from their databases DynaMed, Nursing Reference Center, and Patient Education Reference freely available on the web.