Holly Shipp Buchanan

Medical students learn over distance using virtual reality simulation.

Introduction: This article presents the results of a demonstration project that was designed with the goal to determine the feasibility and acceptability of medical students in using distance technology and virtual reality (VR) simulation within a problem-based learning (PBL). Methods: This pilot project involved students from the Universities of New Mexico and Hawaii and compared (1) control groups consisting of medical students in a tutor-guided PBL session using a text-based case, (2) distance groups using the same text-based case but interacting over distance from multiple sites, (3) groups using a VR simulation scenario integrated into the case without interaction over distance, and (4) combination groups interacting over distance from multiple sites with integration of a VR simulation scenario. Results: The study results suggest that it is possible to successfully conduct a PBL tutorial with medical students from two institutions with the integration VR and distributed distance interaction in combination or independently. The addition of these modalities did not interfere with learning dynamics when compared with traditional tutorial sessions. Conclusions: These findings suggest the feasibility and acceptability by students in the use of VR simulation integrated into a PBL learning session, as well as multipoint distance technologies that allowed interaction between students and tutors in different locations. The authors believe that these modalities can be applied where students and tutors from different institutions are in separate locations and can be used to support interactive experiential learning in a distributed network or on site and suggest areas for additional research.

Benchmarking reference services: step by step.

This article is a companion to an introductory article on benchmarking published in an earlier issue of Medical Reference Services Quarterly. Librarians interested in benchmarking often ask the following questions: How do I determine what to benchmark; how do I form a benchmarking team; how do I identify benchmarking partners; whats the best way to collect and analyze benchmarking information; and what will I do with the data? Careful planning is a critical success factor of any benchmarking project, and these questions must be answered before embarking on a benchmarking study. This article summarizes the steps necessary to conduct benchmarking research. Relevant examples of each benchmarking step are provided.

The Latin American Social Medicine Database: a resource for epidemiology

Latin American social medicine (LASM) has become a widely respected and influential field of research, teaching and clinical practice, yet its accomplishments remain little known in the English-speaking and -reading world. Important publications have not been translated from Spanish and Portuguese into English, and the majority of LASM journals are not indexed in MEDLINE or similar bibliographic databases. The field’s development also suffers from technical difficulties of publication and distribution within Latin America. In LASM, a perspective emphasizing the social origins of illness and early death has focused on sources of these problems in relations of economic and political power. This orientation has contributed to the analysis of inequity in health and to alternative proposals for change. For instance, LASM analyses critically some of the dominant reform strategies in public health systems, offers proposals for alternative health policies and fosters research on the microand macro-political processes that affect health and health services. Likewise, LASM focuses on economic production in studies of the labour conditions that affect workers’ health. LASM uses theories and methods that distinguish its efforts from those of public health. In particular, LASM emphasizes the social and historical context of health problems, social determinants and the linkages between research and the development of responsive political ‘praxis’. In these ways, LASM offers innovative approaches to some of the most important problems of our age. Some Latin American medical and public health literature is indexed in Literatura Latinoamericana y del Caribe en Ciencias de Salud (LILACS, Latin American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences), an Internet-accessible database maintained by the Latin American regional library of medicine in Brazil, Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (BIREME, Regional Library of Medicine). Although the LILACS database, supported by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), has improved access to the Latin American biomedical and public health literature, several features limit this database’s applicability to LASM. As examples, the LILACS database covers only about half of the key journals in LASM, does not include an abstract unless it appeared in the original publication, and usually does not provide translation of Spanish or Portuguese abstracts into English. This project’s overall objective is to develop and implement an Internet-based information system to maximize access to LASM literature and to facilitate continuing publication and distribution efforts in this important field. We have constructed the system to target investigators, educators, clinical practitioners, public health professionals, historians, social scientists, specialists in Latin American studies and professionals in library and information science. In particular, we have aimed to improve access to LASM for epidemiologists who focus on the social determinants of health outcomes. Although we have reported preliminary work on these efforts, this article provides an overview of the project as a whole and clarifies its relevance for epidemiology.

Benchmarking Reference Services

Benchmarking is based on the comma sense idea that someone else, either inside or outside of libraries, has found a better way of doing catah things and that your own librarys performance can be improved by finding out how others do things and adopting the best practices you find. Benchmarking is one of the tools used for achieving continuous improvement in Total Quality Management (TQM) programs. Although benchmarking can be done on an informal basis, TQM puts considerable emphasis on formal data collection and performance measurement Used to its full potential, benchmarking can provide a common measuring stick to evaluate process performance. This article introduces the general concept of benchmarking, linking it whenever possible to reference services in health sciences libraries. Data collection instruments that have potential application in benchmarking studies are discussed and the need to develop common measurement tools to facilitate benchmarking is emphasized.

The Latin American Social Medicine database.

BackgroundPublic health practitioners and researchers for many years have been attempting to understand more clearly the links between social conditions and the health of populations. Until recently, most public health professionals in English-speaking countries were unaware that their colleagues in Latin America had developed an entire field of inquiry and practice devoted to making these links more clearly understood. The Latin American Social Medicine (LASM) database finally bridges this previous gap.DescriptionThis public health informatics case study describes the key features of a unique information resource intended to improve access to LASM literature and to augment understanding about the social determinants of health. This case study includes both quantitative and qualitative evaluation data. Currently the LASM database at The University of New Mexico http://hsc.unm.edu/lasm brings important information, originally known mostly within professional networks located in Latin American countries to public health professionals worldwide via the Internet. The LASM database uses Spanish, Portuguese, and English language trilingual, structured abstracts to summarize classic and contemporary works.ConclusionThis database provides helpful information for public health professionals on the social determinants of health and expands access to LASM.