Android Apps for Medicine

The Software Advice Medical Blog has posted a review of medical apps for Androids.

They looked at over 1,200 “Health” apps in the Android Marketplace and created a list of the best 60 apps organized into 18 categories (such as anatomy, pediatrics, study guides, dictionaries) that were designed specifically for doctors, nurses and students.

So, check it out if you have an Android!

If you have an iPhone, check out our iPhone Medical Apps subject guide.

CDC Survey Finds Nine in 10 U.S. Adults Consume Too Much Sodium

Less than 10 percent of U.S. adults limit their daily sodium intake to recommended levels, according to a new report, "Sodium Intake in Adults – United States, 2005-2006," published today in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report also finds that most sodium in the American diet comes from processed grains such as pizza and cookies, and meats, including poultry and luncheon meats.

According to the report, U.S. adults consume an average of 3,466 milligrams (mg) of sodium per day, more than twice the current recommended limit for most Americans. Grains provide 36.9 percent of this total, followed by dishes containing meat, poultry, and fish (27.9 percent). These two categories combined account for almost two-thirds of the daily sodium intake for Americans.

http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2010/r100624.htm

NOTICE: Library Website URL change

The Health Sciences Library has had to change its URL due to new UH Web hosting requirements.
Please discontinue using: http://www.hawaii.edu/hslib/

The Library's new URL is:
http:// hslib.jabsom.hawaii.edu

Please update your personal Web bookmarks if necessary and any other affected service or Web based tools.

FYI for now, if you go to the Library's old web address, you will be automatically redirected to our new website.

We encourage users to contact the Library if you should discover any broken links or Web pages that are functioning improperly. We will try to fix them as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Rethinking the way we rank medical schools

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/health/17chen.html?ref=health

The Social Mission of Medical Education: Ranking the Schools

1. Fitzhugh Mullan, MD;
2. Candice Chen, MD, MPH;
3. Stephen Petterson, PhD;
4. Gretchen Kolsky, MPH, CHES; and
5. Michael Spagnola, BA

+ Author Affiliations

1. From George Washington University, Children's National Medical Center, and Robert Graham Center, Washington, DC.

Abstract

Background: The basic purpose of medical schools is to educate physicians to care for the national population. Fulfilling this goal requires an adequate number of primary care physicians, adequate distribution of physicians to underserved areas, and a sufficient number of minority physicians in the workforce.

Objective: To develop a metric called the social mission score to evaluate medical school output in these 3 dimensions.

Design: Secondary analysis of data from the American Medical Association (AMA) Physician Masterfile and of data on race and ethnicity in medical schools from the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Association of American Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.

Setting: U.S. medical schools.

Participants: 60 043 physicians in active practice who graduated from medical school between 1999 and 2001.

Measurements: The percentage of graduates who practice primary care, work in health professional shortage areas, and are underrepresented minorities, combined into a composite social mission score.

Results: The contribution of medical schools to the social mission of medical education varied substantially. Three historically black colleges had the highest social mission rankings. Public and community-based medical schools had higher social mission scores than private and non–community-based schools. National Institutes of Health funding was inversely associated with social mission scores. Medical schools in the northeastern United States and in more urban areas were less likely to produce primary care physicians and physicians who practice in underserved areas.

Limitations: The AMA Physician Masterfile has limitations, including specialty self-designation by physicians, inconsistencies in reporting work addresses, and delays in information updates. The public good provided by medical schools may include contributions not reflected in the social mission score. The study was not designed to evaluate quality of care provided by medical school graduates.

Conclusion: Medical schools vary substantially in their contribution to the social mission of medical education. School rankings based on the social mission score differ from those that use research funding and subjective assessments of school reputation. These findings suggest that initiatives at the medical school level could increase the proportion of physicians who practice primary care, work in underserved areas, and are underrepresented minorities.

Primary Funding Source: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

Article and Author Information

• Grant Support: By the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

• Potential Conflicts of Interest: Disclosures can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M09-2257.

To access the full text article:
For UHM students only

Annals of Internal Medicine
PMID: 20547907 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://micro189.lib3.hawaii.edu/ezproxy/details.php?jId=1220

New App for Health Hotlines

*NLM Technical Bulletin, May-Jun 2010, NLM Resource Update: New App for
Health Hotlines

The National Library of Medicine® (NLM) Health Hotlines is now available as an app for the iPhone® and iPod Touch®. Health Hotlines is also compatible with the iPad®.

Health Hotlines is a compilation of organizations with toll-free telephone numbers which can assist the public in locating health-related information. It is derived from DIRLINE®, the NLM Directory of Information Resources Online. DIRLINE contains descriptions of almost 9,000 health and biomedical organizations and resources. Some subject areas included in Health Hotlines include AIDS, cancer, diseases and disorders, maternal and child health, aging, substance abuse, disabilities and mental health.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj10/mj10_sis_reprint_health_hotlines.html

Health Sciences Library closing early July 6 (8am -8pm)

The Health Sciences Library will be closing early. The hours will be from 8am-8pm.