Transcript Delivering NIH and Other Web-based Consumer Health Information

MEDLINEplus and
Consumer Health Initiatives
at NLM/NIH
October 20, 2000
Annual Meeting, Mid-Atlantic Chapter
of the Medical Library Association
Adam Glazer, Reference Librarian
National Library of Medicine
Overview
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MEDLINEplus
NLM Gateway
ClinicalTrials.gov
AgePage
Electronic Health Information Projects
HEALTHINFOQUEST
Consumer Health: An Online Manual
The Public Library and Consumer Health:
Meeting Community Needs Through
Resource Identification and Collaboration
MEDLINEplus
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History and development
Components and technology
Content arrangement, selection guidelines
Evaluation and feedback
Future plans
What is MEDLINEplus?
http://medlineplus.gov
• Service to organize health information
on the Internet
• From the National Library of Medicine/
National Institutes of Health
Why MEDLINEplus?
• General public searching MEDLINE
• NLM’s main Web site
– 90% of searches for medical terms
– Diseases, drugs, conditions
• Customer service questions
– Health reference
October 22, 1998
• Public Library pilot project
• 22 health topics
• Where did the topics come from?
– MeSH
– Planetree
– Consumer health Web sites
– User searches
• 116,000 hits first month
October 22, 1998 - September 21, 1999
September 22, 1999 - August 23, 2000
August 24, 2000 - present
MEDLINEplus Today
• Comprehensive health resource
– 414 topics (diseases, wellness issues)
– Links to organizations, libraries, directories
– Drug information
– Encyclopedia
• Over 2.5 million page hits/month
Statistics
Major Components
• Health Topic pages
– Links - full text on NIH and other sites
– Prepackaged MEDLINE searches
– ClinicalTrials.gov links
• Drug information via USP DI®
• Medical encyclopedia via adam.com
Technology
• Database of records (Oracle)
– Includes information on sites and contacts
– Over 13,000 records
• Web-based input system (Cold Fusion)
– Remote access
• Authorities and rules
• Review and approval process
• HTML generated nightly for Web
MEDLINEplus System
Health Consumers
with Web browser
Selectors/Maintainers
with Web browser
Input system
(Cold Fusion)
MEDLINEplus Web site
medlineplus.gov
Static HTML files
Nightly
process
creates static
HTML files
Oracle database
for input and
maintenance
Quality Checks
• Broken links fixed nightly
• Individual records reviewed before
approved
• Pages reviewed before release to
public
• Pages reviewed after release
MEDLINEplus Strengths
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User-driven topics
User-driven design
NIH collaborations
Authoritative information
Private
Semi-annual topic evaluation
Nightly link checking
Selective, not comprehensive
resource
User-Driven Topics
• Customer driven
– NLM Web page usage and search log evaluation
• NLM Web medical topic searches >90%
– Pilot project with public libraries
• Builds on NLM strengths
– Selecting and organizing information
– MEDLINE
• Created looking at several vocabularies
– NLM’s Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
– Planetree Classification
– Other consumer health Web sites
– What users are searching
Content Arrangement
• Multiple access points (A-Z, categories)
• Related categories; related topics
• Topic pages have table of contents
arrangement; point to full text information
• Prepackaged MEDLINE searches
using PubMed
• Links to ClinicalTrials.gov
Selection Issues
• Abundant health information on the Web
– Not always authoritative
– Often with agenda
• Nature of Web sites: constant change
Selection Guidelines
• Linked from “About MEDLINEplus”
• Emphasis on resources from
government health organizations,
especially NIH Institutes
• Collaborate with NIH Institutes on
content development and review
Selection Guidelines (2)
• Must be authoritative, accurate and well
maintained
• Educational, not selling product
• NLM contacts organizations about
– displaying advisory boards
– technical issues (frames)
NIH Collaboration
• Focus on NIH information
• Information Officers and staff
– Organizations
– Sites
– Topics and arrangement
• Institute staff reviewing topic page
30 Most Requested
September 2000 (1-15)
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Diabetes
Shingles
Fibromyalgia
AIDS
Skin Diseases
Breast Cancer
Foot/ankle Injuries
Thyroid Diseases
Multiple Sclerosis
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Parkinson’s Disease
Back Pain
Knee Injuries & Disorders
Gallbladder & Bile Duct
Diseases
• Sexually Transmitted
Diseases
• Sleep Disorders
30 Most Requested
September 2000 (16-30)
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Arthritis
Depression
Heart Diseases
Anemia
About Your
Medications
• Spinal Stenosis
• Mouth & Throat
Disorders
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Cancer (general)
High Blood Pressure
Insect Bites & Stings
Sinusitis
Bipolar Disorder
Stroke
Nutrition
Lymphoma
MEDLINE Searches
• “Canned” searches created by NLM
Reference Staff
• Tailored for the consumer
– Current, English, clinical
– 20-70 references
– Cover selected aspects of topic
• Search PubMed each time
Canned PubMed Search
Consumer Health Titles Subset
consumerj[sb]
• Alternative Medicine
Review
• Breastfeeding Review
• FDA Consumer
• Harvard Health Letter
• Harvard Heart Letter
• Harvard Men's Health
Watch
• Harvard Mental Health Letter
• Harvard Women's Health
Watch
• Health News
• Johns Hopkins Medical
Letter, Health After 50
• Medscape Women's Health
• Mayo Clinic Health Letter
ClinicalTrials.gov Links
• Introduced - February 2000
• Mutual links through MeSH
MEDLINEplus
MeSH
ClinicalTrials.gov
Online Tour
Released September 13th
Frequently Asked Questions
Released September 13th
Feedback and Evaluation
• Customer Service (phone, E-mail)
• Comment link on every page
Comments - Jan - Sep 2000
N=1195
Link requests
21%
Suggestions
16%
Technical
6%
Miscellaneous
9%
Health
information
41%
Compliments
7%
Recent Comments
“I am very impressed with your website.
The layout is very clear and easy to
navigate... Now that I have visited, I will
surely return. Many thanks to you and
your staff for the creation of a truly
worthwhile site.” (9/21/00)
Recent Comments
“Your information has been very helpful
to my wife and I and we want you to
know we greatly appreciate it. Thank
You!!!” (9/18/00)
Recent Comments
“I wanted to tell you what a wonderful
web site you have created and continue
to develop. You have helped me, my
students and our patients/families more
than you might know… I wish there
was a way to better thank you.” (9/3/00)
Experience to Date
• Over 13,000 records in system
• Over 1000 organizations
– over 400 for display
• Over 100 organizations contacted
• Sites change
• Hard to keep up
Future
• Health news
• Patient education
modules
• AgePage (National
Institute on Aging)
• Additional drug
information
• Share links with
local / regional Web
sites
• Terminology server
to improve
searching
• Spanish language
• Consumer health
libraries from
DOCUSER
• Cooperation:
sharing health
resources
Coming Soon - Health News
Full News Story
Topic with News
Summarizing MEDLINEplus...
MEDLINEplus is:
• Selective
• Highly reviewed
• Private
• Responsive
• Growing
NLM Gateway
http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/
• Launched October 16th
• A single Web interface that searches
multiple NLM retrieval systems
• Includes limits for consumer health
(MEDLINEplus)
ClinicalTrials.gov
http://clinicaltrials.gov/
• Provides patients, family members,
health care professionals, and
members of the public easy access to
information on clinical trials for a wide
range of diseases and conditions
• Collaborative effort between NLM, other
NIH institutes and the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA)
AgePage
• Cooperative effort between the National
Library of Medicine and the National
Institute on Aging
• Reflects NLM’s efforts of reaching out
to special populations
Electronic Health Information Projects
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Announced in January 2000
Projects will run from 12 to 18 months
More than $1 million invested
Projects target people who lack access to
computers and computer skills
• Originally involved 49 projects; four more
were recently added
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/press_releases/ehip.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nno/hipprojects.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/hipprojects2.html
JAMA 2000 Apr 5;283(13):1675-6.
HEALTHINFOQUEST
http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/healthinfoquest/
• Series of pathfinders primarily for public librarians
and health educators
• Joint effort of
– King County Library System (Bellvue, WA)
– NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region (University of
Washington Health Sciences Library and Information
Center)
Consumer Health: An Online Manual
http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/scr/conhlth/manualidx.htm
• Includes information about
– Planning a consumer health library
– Evaluating consumer health Web sites
– Consumer health materials in Spanish
• Coordinated by the NN/LM South Central Region
(Houston Academy of Medicine--Texas Medical
Center Library)
The Public Library and Consumer Health:
Meeting Community Needs Through
Resource Identification and Collaboration
http://www.pla.org/consumerhealth.html
• January 10-11, 2001 at the Hyatt Regency, Washington, DC
• Presented by the Public Library Association (PLA), NLM and
MLA
• Provides library staff with an introduction to health information
resources, collection development and searching health and
medical information databases
• Examples of collaborative projects that public libraries can
model will be presented
• Special tours of NLM will be offered
• Get the word out to your local public libraries!
For more information...