Healthwise, Big Isle lags behind rest of state

Healthwise, Big Isle lags behind rest of state

Big Islanders live shorter lives and face higher cancer, heart disease and suicide rates compared with the rest of Hawaii, according to a recent report on health on Hawaii Island.

Lack of access to doctors and health information, the economy, behavior and being of certain ethnic backgrounds appear to decrease life expectancy and the overall health of Big Isle residents, said Sharon H. Vitousek, an internal medicine specialist and director of the North Hawaii Outcomes Project, which produced the Community Health Profile 2010 report.

North Hawaii Outcomes Project
http://www.nhop.org/

http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/articles/2010/05/26/local/local03.txt

Two new grants from NLM

NLM recently announced two newly-issued grant programs, NLM Information Resource Grants to Reduce Health Disparities and NLM Independent Career Development Award for Biomedical Informatics. Applications for both programs must be submitted through Grants.gov.

The grant program to reduce health disparities solicits applications for projects that will bring useful, usable health information to populations affected by health disparities and the health care providers who care for them. Proposed projects should utilize the capabilities of computer and information technology and health sciences libraries to bring health-related information to consumers and their health care providers. The application deadline is July 14, 2010.

The purpose of the NLM Independent Career Development Award for Biomedical Informatics program is to facilitate the transition of investigators from the mentored to the independent stage of their careers. The award applies to research in clinical informatics, public health informatics or translational informatics. Preference will be given to candidates who received their informatics training at one of NLM’s university-based training programs in biomedical informatics. There are multiple application deadline dates.

Additional information regarding both grant programs is available in this recently published Latitudes article, http://nnlm.gov/psr/newsletter/?p=2883.

Thanks to Alan Carr at UCLA

Testing Link Between Diabetes and Family History

Diet and lifestyle contribute to diabetes, but so does family history. So Australian researchers undertook an unusual experiment: they recruited healthy volunteers from families with and without a history of Type 2 diabetes and overfed them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/health/research/18patt.html?ref=health

A family history of type 2 diabetes increases risk factors associated with overfeeding
D. Samocha-Bonet, L. V. Campbell, A. Viardot, J. Freund, C. S. Tam, J. R. Greenfield and L. K. Heilbronn

Diabetologia
May 2010 online
For UHM only

Library closing at 8pm on Wed, May 19th

The Health Sciences will be closing to the public at 8pm on Wednesday, May 19, 2010, due to staffing issues.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Misdiagnosis common in food allergies

Many who think they have food allergies actually do not. A new report, commissioned by the federal government, finds the field is rife with poorly done studies, misdiagnoses and tests that can give misleading results.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/health/research/12allergies.html?ref=health

JAMA. 2010 May 12;303(18):1848-56.

Diagnosing and managing common food allergies: a systematic review.

Chafen JJ, Newberry SJ, Riedl MA, Bravata DM, Maglione M, Suttorp MJ, Sundaram V, Paige NM, Towfigh A, Hulley BJ, Shekelle PG.

For UHM only cut and paste PMID into PubMed search box
PMID: 20460624

http://micro189.lib3.hawaii.edu/ezproxy/details.php?dbId=2095

H1N1 fact sheet in Asian, Pacific Islander languages

H1N1 fact sheet in Asian, Pacific Islander languages

Thanks to the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, the Get Ready campaign is pleased to provide its fact sheet on H1N1 preparedness in common Asian and Pacific Islander languages.

The health forum translated the Get Ready campaign's popular H1N1 flu preparedness fact sheet (also available in English and Spanish) into 10 languages: Chinese, Chamorro, Chuukese, Japanese, Korean, Marshallese, Samoan, Thai, Tongan and Vietnamese.

http://www.getreadyforflu.org/H1N1api.htm

New cardiology fellowship at the University of Hawaii and Queen's Medical Center

Cardiology demand leads to fellowship at UH, Queen's

A shortage of heart doctors on Oahu has led to a three-year accredited cardiology fellowship under the University of Hawaii and The Queen's Medical Center.The goal of the UH Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship program is to recruit, train and retain cardiologists in Hawaii because 80 percent of doctors end up practicing where they trained, according to a news release from Queen's.

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20100502_Cardiology_demand_leads_to_fellowship_at_UH_Queens.html