Evidence Based Medicine Resources

The Health Sciences Library is pleased to announce the newest additions to our ever-expanding resources: The Cochrane Library of Databases and Ovid's Evidence Based Medicine Reviews Collection, which are available through the Library home page <http://www.upstate.edu/library/>.

1. The Cochrane Library of Databases is located under Electronic Databases at <http://www.upstate.edu/library/ebm.htm> or directly at <http://www.updateusa.com/clibip/clib.htm>. It consists of four major databases:
   1. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - published by Update Software for the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization dedicated to preparing, maintaining, and promoting the accessibility of systematic reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions. The systematic reviews are indexed with the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). The other databases are searchable by using keywords. The Library has created a users' guide which is linked to this Web page. The reviews are presented in two sections:
      1. Complete reviews - includes the full text of the regularly updated systematic reviews prepared and maintained by Collaborative Review Groups. In order to view tables and graphs properly, MetaView must be downloaded first. At the first screen click on MetaView, before clicking on Enter, for directions.
      2. Protocols - reviews in progress. This section provides the introduction, objectives, materials, and methods for reviews currently being prepared. Many also have short bibliographies.
   2. Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness - contains summaries and assessments of systematic reviews which meet the Cochrane Collaboration standards/criteria, but were not created specifically under the auspices of the Collaboration. Abstracts of reviews produced by the American College of Physicians Journal Club up to 1995 are also included.
   3. Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR) - a list of references to controlled trials in health care, contains those records which have been judged to meet the necessary quality criteria. These are likely to be reports of randomized or quasi-randomized trials. The goal is to create a register which will be the best source of information on trials available anywhere.
   4. Cochrane Review Methodology Database - a bibliography of empirical studies of methods used in reviews.
2. Ovid's Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews (EBMR) - the latest addition by Ovid Inc. to its collection of databases. EBMR combines two sources of evidence based information:
   1. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews - the same database that is contained in the Cochrane Library, but with the information reformatted for the Ovid system.
   2. Best Evidence - a database that contains the ACP Journal Club from the American College of Physicians (ACP) and Evidence-Based Medicine from ACP and BMJ Publishing. The editors of Best Evidence screen the top clinical journals to identify studies that are methodologically sound and clinically relevant. They then write a fuller abstract of the chosen articles and provide a commentary on the value of the article for clinical practice.

About the Databases

Both the Cochrane Collaboration and the ACP create reviews of current medical research by surveying the medical literature for articles that are clinically relevant and methodologically sound and by reporting the analysis in a clear and concise way. The Cochrane Database contains topic reviews created from systematic study of hundreds of journal articles, while Best Evidence offers abstracts and commentary on important, individual journal articles. Using these sources, clinicians can quickly understand and apply to their practice important changes in medical knowledge, without having to read and synthesize for themselves thousands of journal articles.

Ovid EBMR Implementation Features

Ovid enhances the value of these resources with its graphical user interface and sophisticated search software. Features include:

• EBM limit in Medline, allowing users to restrict search results to articles which meet Evidence Based criteria.
• Links from Medline to EBMR.
• Links from EBMR to Ovid's collection of full text journal articles.
• Expert topic searches, allowing users to recreate the searches designed by members of the Cochrane Collaboration in order to get the latest Medline information on a topic.

Access to the Cochrane Library and to Ovid's EBMR is available without a username or password, but their use is restricted to students, faculty, and staff of the Health Science Center; therefore it is available only from the hscsyr.edu (139.127.xxx.xxx) domain. If you attempt to connect from a computer outside the HSC domain (e.g., a commercial vendor) you will be rejected.

In addition to this database, other evidence based medicine information can be obtained through the EBM Link on the Library's home page. For further information, please call the Reference Department at 464-4581.

Peter A. Uva
Head of Access Services
Bette Jean Ingui
Reference Services

Librarian Receives SUNY Chancellor's Award

Congratulations to James A. Capodagli, M.L.S., who received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Librarianship at the Fall Faculty Convocation on September 16, 1998, in the Weiskotten Hall Auditorium.

Jim joined the Health Sciences Library in 1978 as a reference librarian. Now, in addition to his reference duties, he serves as Head of the Health Information Center (HIC) and as Webmaster of the Library's home page.

The 1998 SUNY HSC Report to the Community, Our Educational Legacy, features a story about Jim and the HIC on page 9.

New Databases

In addition to the Cochrane Library and EBMR described elsewhere in this issue, new resources available through the Health Sciences Library home page <http://www.upstate.edu/library/> include:

• Expanded Academic ASAP: balanced coverage of academic disciplines beyond the health sciences as well as interdisciplinary journals and national news magazines; indexes over 1500 titles; provides online text for over 750 titles.
• Harrison's Online: electronic version of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine--14th ed.--1998; fully searchable, with timely updates to chapters and references; also features late-breaking clinical trial data, links to related web sites, and self-assessment questions.
• Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI): collection of information about questionnaires, tests, and other survey instruments, uses the familiar Ovid search interface. See the full description in the Spring 1998 Synapse, on the Web at <http://www.upstate.edu/library/synapse/syn-4-2-spring98.php>.
• Merck Manual of Diagnosis & Therapy: online version of this standard clinical reference work; corresponds to the 16th edition of the print version, 1992; some information is therefore out of date. The 17th edition will be available in early 1999.
• Residency Information:
  • The AMA's Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database Access (FREIDA), listing 7500 accredited residency programs.
  • The Residency Page, listing by specialty all known medical residencies available on the Web.
  • Links to information about the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and the National Residency Matching Program.

Diane K. Hawkins
Head of Reference Services

News from the Health Information Center

The Health Information Center gratefully acknowledges the receipt of $2000 from the Central New York Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (CNY SIDS) Foundation. CNY SIDS has chosen the HIC as its preferred location for keeping resources and disseminating information on SIDS. Included among these resources are multiple copies of brochures which the HIC will distribute on request, as well as books for borrowing, such as four copies of:

• The SIDS Survival Guide: Information and Comfort for Grieving Family and Friends and Professionals who Seek to Help Them, by Joani Nelson Horchler and Robin Rice Morris, foreword by Lloyd Bridges (Hyattsville, Md.: SIDS Educational Services, 1994). Consumer Health WS 430 H811s 1994.

The HIC has purchased several booklets for distribution to grieving families:

• Healing a Father's Grief, by William H. Schatz (Redmond, Wash.: Medic, 1984). Consumer Health BF 575 G7 S312h 1984.
• Healing Together for Couples Grieving the Death of Their Baby, by Marcie Lister and Sandra Lovell (Omaha: Centering, 1991). Consumer Health BF 575 G7 L773h 1991.
• Parents' Grief: Help and Understanding After the Death of a Baby by Carol Parrott (Redmond, Wash.: Medic, 1992). Consumer Health BF 575 G7 P263p 1992.
• When Hello Means Goodbye: A Guide for Parents Whose Child Dies Before Birth, at Birth or Shortly After Birth, by Pat Schwiebert, Paul Kirk (Burnsville, N.C.: Compassion Books, 1998). Consumer Health WQ 225 S4155w 1998.

The HIC is also using the money to purchase books, videos, and pamphlets to help families who have suffered through the tragedy of sudden infant death. The following videos are already available for loan:

• Building Blocks: SIDS: Helping Children Cope With Death. 23 minutes. (St. Louis: SIDS Resources, 1994). Consumer Health Video WS 430 S943b 1994.
• A Cradle Song: The Families of SIDS. 27 minutes. ([s.l.]: Lawrence Productions, 1990). Consumer Health Video WS 430 F2125c 1990.
• Living On: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. 32 minutes. (Irvine, Calif.: Guild for Infant Survival, Orange County, 1991). Consumer Health Video WS 430 G954L 1991.
• SIDS: A Special Report. 49 minutes. (Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities, 1997). Consumer Health Video WS 430 I19s 1997.
• SIDS: Reducing the Risk. 27 minutes. (Bethesda, Md.: ChildSecure, 1996). Consumer Health Video WS 430 C536s 1996.
• What About Me?: Kids and Grief. 18 minutes. (Northbrook, Ill. Film Ideas, 1992). Consumer Health Video WS 105.5 A8 C536w 1992.

The HIC would also like to acknowledge a contribution from the Auxiliary of the Health Science Center. The HIC used an Auxiliary grant of almost $2000 to purchase a display cabinet for anatomical and disease models. The models were also purchased through grants from the Auxiliary and may be borrowed from the Library by anyone from the HSC community or the general public.

James A. Capodagli
Head, Health Information Center

"Handy Service Copies":
Document Delivery Service for Journal Articles

This is a new fee-based copy service that provides easy access to the journal collection located in the Health Sciences Library. If you are too busy to photocopy materials or need materials quickly, this service is here to help you. It is available to all Health Science Center faculty, staff, and students. Highlights include:

• Copying from over 4000 titles available in the Health Sciences Library.
• Special rush and fax services for faster delivery.
• Saving time and effort -- you do not have to come to the library to make your own copies.

What is the cost of the service?

• One basic photocopy fee per article: $5.00.
• Additional Fees:
  • Fax: $3.00 per request.
  • Rush: $3.00 per request.
• Payment may be made by HSC Departmental charge cards, checks, or cash.
• For those materials not owned by the Library you may request through our Interlibrary Loan service at no extra cost.

How do I use the service?

• Request forms are available from the Library's Circulation Desk, or call 464-7112 to get a copy of the form faxed to your office.
• Fill out the form completely and drop it off at the Circulation Desk or fax it directly to 464-7199. You may also use a database printout.
• Document requests may also be submitted electronically by e-mail to <photoservice@mail.upstate.edu> or you may go directly to the Handy Service Copies button on the library home page <http://www.upstate.edu/library/>.
• Phone requests are limited to emergency patient care situations only.
• When making a request please include complete citation information, i.e., author, title, source.

When and how will I get the material?

• Your photocopies will be ready within 24 hours from the time the request is received. The Library staff will contact you if there are unexpected delays.
• Rush service will provide the materials within less than 24 hours. Some limits are set on the number of rush requests per day and the number of pages faxed to ensure prompt service for all our users.
• Emergency patient care situations are treated with the highest priority, and service can be provided within two hours in these special situations.
• The Library's Circulation Desk is the pickup point for all materials. You may also request delivery by campus mail or regular outside mail service, but these may take an extra day or two.
• To make sure that every request is handled quickly and efficiently, the Library may set limits on requests. Fax requests may be limited to 30 pages per patron per day. If you bring or send in a large number of requests in one day, these may be processed over several days and the turnaround time may be longer. A member of the Library staff will contact you and let you know the status of your order.

Peter A. Uva
Head of Access Services

In Memoriam

Evelyn Lavine Hoey

August 28, 1919 - March 30, 1998

After a long, happy, and fruitful life, Evelyn Hoey, Director of the Library from 1969 to 1985, passed away this spring.

Evelyn was born into a tiny Jewish community in rural South Carolina. She received her B.S. from Meredith College in 1939, and her library degree from Simmons College in 1940. Her first library job was as a cataloger in a public library. During World War II she served as a librarian in the U.S. Army. After the war she became head librarian at the Union Carbide Gas Diffusion Plant in Oakridge, Tennessee, then moved to Central New York in 1960 when her husband, Reid, became Director of the Onondaga County Public Library. She worked for Rome Air Development Corporation and General Electric before joining what was then called Upstate Medical Center as Associate Librarian in 1966.

Among her professional honors, she was listed in Who's Who in Library and Information Services, Who's Who in the East, and Who's Who of American Women.

During her years as Director, Evelyn had the vision to foresee the growth into a separate department of what is now called "Media Services" and to promote the use of personal computers in the Library. She seized the opportunity in the early 1980s to use and renovate two trailers for the "Learning Resources Center," then sought and received a grant to renovate a microbiology laboratory on the second floor of Weiskotten Hall for a larger and more adequate media center. She was also interested in archives and historical collections, working to organize and record the contents of archived boxes and to identify subjects of photographs and portraits.

Evelyn arranged for the Library to participate in the New York State Interlibrary Loan network (NYSILL) via microcomputer in 1982, replacing the old teletype (TWX) punched paper tape system. When she saw the new system work successfully, she discontinued rental of the TWX machine and directed that all ILL transactions be done via computer. She also encouraged use of the same microcomputer to replace the existing punched card circulation system.

Upon her retirement in 1985, Evelyn continued her interest in computers. She purchased a multimedia home computer, attended computer instruction courses, and read magazines and books to become skilled in using her computer for word processing, spreadsheets, and Internet use. She kept in close daily contact with her brother and other family members by e-mail.

Evelyn was a person of great kindness, a keen sense of humor, and a variety of interests and hobbies. For many years, she ran errands and did grocery shopping for several homebound colleagues, even though she dreaded driving during slippery winter conditions. She had a sincere interest in others, encouraging her handyman to continue his education and attend college. Neighborhood children, as well as neighbors, stopped to talk with her when she took her dog, Chrissie, out on daily walks. She was very interested in antiques, collecting many different pieces of mercury glass. She loved gardening the most of her many interests, working in her yard and maintaining her flowerbeds almost daily, as weather permitted. She was also interested in politics and finance, traveled extensively, and sewed.

In her last year, Evelyn returned several times to the Library to visit with long-time staff and friends. The Library grew in size and use of technology during her time as director. She made a substantial contribution and will be missed.

FastMed Improves Response Time

FastMed, the Health Sciences Library's local version of Ovid's Web-based bibliographic databases and full-text resources, is now available to faculty, staff, and students of the Health Science Center. It may be used in the Library at the public workstations adjacent to the Reference Desk, which have been updated to run all Web-based databases available to Library users, or from any workstation on the campus network.

Recognizing the need to keep pace with new technology and the evolving preferences of our users, the Library has subscribed to OvidWeb, a World Wide Web gateway that allows online access to the Ovid databases, since January 1997. However, by mid-1997, increasing demand for the popular resource, intensified by enthusiastic use by incoming residents, resulted in a growing number of failed connections, as the number of simultaneous users exceeded our license restrictions.

To overcome the limitations imposed by the OvidWeb license restriction and to improve response times, the Library, with the help of the HSC Division of Information Management and Technology, installed OvidNet NT Web server software and the biomedical bibliographic databases. The new system, called FastMed, was put up on the Library Web page <http://www.upstate.edu/library/> in June. It can also be reached directly via <http://libovid.hscsyr.edu/>.

FastMed delivers a noticeably faster response time for HSC community users, since it runs on the local Intranet and does not have to compete for transmission time on Internet service lines. FastMed can support a significantly increased number of simultaneous users. Although FastMed currently does not have links to full text journals, the Library plans to install this additional access in the future.

The public computers adjacent to the Reference Desk are now updated to run all Web-based databases available to Library users. For your convenience, we have left two computers with access to Ovid in the old way (blue screen, text-based) to give you time to learn how to use the new Web version. But all public computers in Reference will be changed to the Web version by January 1, 1999. Classes are scheduled for training.

Help and guides are available at the Reference Desk.

Patricia W. Onsi
Associate Director

World Famous Psychiatrist Presents Third Library Lecture

A small but enthusiastic audience, a few from as far away as the Southern Tier and Long Island, warmly greeted the Health Science Center's own Thomas S. Szasz, M.D. on April 13 in Room 318 for the Third Health Sciences Library Lecture, "Psychiatry and the Concept of Disease: Reconciling Psychiatric Theory with Psychiatric Practice."

Using humorous slides as illustrations, and fielding questions with acumen and rapier wit, Szasz discussed the controversy which has surrounded him since he became internationally known as the author of The Myth of Mental Illness and 22 other books. Szasz's lectures often become debates, and this one was no exception.

Each of the Library Lectures is preserved on audiotape and kept in Special Collections.

This event also commemorated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Medical Library Association on May 2, 1898.

All Synapse Issues Now on the Web

The Synapse has always appeared in both print and electronic versions. The earliest electronic versions (Vol. 1, No. 1 [July 1995] - Vol. 2, No. 2 [Spring 1996]) were on the HSC Gopher and subsequent issues have appeared on the World Wide Web. All electronic issues are accessible through links on the newsletter's homepage, <http://www.upstate.edu/library/synapse/index.php>. Until the recent discontinuation of support for the Gopher, which means that <gopher://micro.ec.hscsyr.edu/11/Libraries/hsclibrary/Newsletter/> is no longer a viable address, these links led to either Gopher sites or WWW sites. But all are now at WWW sites. All back issues which had been on the Gopher have now been recoded in HTML and migrated to the Web.

The Sharon Quist Memorial Medical Library

On May 13, 1998, the Oneida Healthcare Center in Oneida, New York, held a dedication ceremony to name its library after Sharon Quist, who died of cancer in 1997 at the untimely age of 48. Sharon served OHC and several other hospitals for eight years as the Circuit Medical Librarian for the region, with her office in the SUNY Health Sciences Library. This is a fitting memorial to Sharon, who was admired by all who knew her for her professionalism, expertise, friendliness, and optimism as she helped patients and families make informed decisions about their health and illnesses.

"Now We Are a Team!"

The Academic Affiliation Agreement between the Veterans Administration and the Health Science Center which brought the services of VA Librarian Kay Root to the HSC in the spring of 1996 is a prototype. It was the only such agreement in the country until this year, when the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, VA Library merged with the medical library of the University of South Dakota School of Medicine and several small hospital libraries to form the Wegener Health Sciences Information Center.

Kay (left) and HSC Associate Director for Collections and Systems Pat Onsi (right) reported on the Syracuse VA/HSC agreement at the centennial meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA) in Philadelphia last May, declaring "Now we are a team!" Their presentation focussed on the advantages to both institutions of a VA librarian working at SUNY in exchange for SUNY providing library services to the VA.

Library Presents Teleconference on Evidence Based Medicine

"Evidence Based Health Care in Action" was the title of the distance learning teleconference held in Room 318 of the Library on September 16. It showed the practical importance of the prompt delivery of relevant information from medical journal literature to the point of clinical care. "Evidence based medicine" (EBM) is founded upon the principle of using "evidence" from current research to inform current clinical practice; but since there are about 17,000 new medical books each year and 20,000 medical journals, and since only about 4000 of these journals are indexed on Medline, physicians and other health care professionals often have difficulty keeping up with the literature they need. EBM uses careful database management and high technology to narrow the "evidence transfer gap" between the time of published research and the time of the incorporation of research results into usual clinical practice. Since librarians often play a key role in this transfer process, the Medical Library Association (MLA) awarded continuing education credit for the teleconference.

There were 31 attendees at our site, one from as far away as Elmira. The Library subsidized the cost. Since our own satellite dish was damaged in the Labor Day windstorm, the Educational Communications Dept. arranged to feed the transmission through the HSC Clinical Campus in Binghamton. They and all the other staff who worked so hard to make this session a success are to be commended, especially the Site Coordinator, Rosemarie Bundy.

Room 318 has been the site of several other distance learning events recently, including "The Digital Library: An Oxymoron?" on May 12, which earned participants two continuing education credits from the Medical Library Association. Kay Root organized HSC participation in this satellite video conference and colloquium featuring Jean-Claude Guedon and a panel of medical librarians.

---

Take a guided tour of the Library. Call Bette Jean Ingui at 464-7192.

---

The Library is seeking duplicates of the Health Science Center yearbook, the Auricle, especially for the years 1969, 1978, and 1981. If there are any copies out there which might be donated to the Library, we would be so pleased to have them. To donate these or any other items to the Library please contact Rosemarie Bundy in the Collection Development Office: 464-7109 or 464-4257; fax: 464-7199; e-mail: <bundyr@upstate.edu>.

Also, the Department of Historical Collections is interested in acquiring any materials which might help to document the history of the Health Science Center and its predecessors, Upstate Medical Center (1950-1986), Syracuse University College of Medicine (1871-1950), and Geneva Medical College (1834-1871). These materials would include posters, pamphlets, reports, letters, memos, circulars, flyers, or any other ephemera produced by this institution. If you have any such materials to donate, or if you know where any such materials may be found, please contact Eric v.d. Luft, Curator of Historical Collections, 464-4585, e-mail: <lufte@upstate.edu>.